About this episode:
It was April of 1862, and the war was just about to enter its second year. The beginning of that year had been a bleak one for the Confederacy. In February, Fort Henry, Roanoke Island, North Carolina, and Fort Donelson all fell. Now there were invasion routes into "The Old North State," the interior of Tennessee, and the very heartland of the Confederacy. In the first week of March, Missouri was for all practical purposes lost to the confederacy thanks to Union victory at Pea Ridge. In the east, more cause for southern concern. The ironclad USS Monitor had revolutionized Naval warfare, and neutralized the Confederacy's CSS Virginia, and George B. McClellan finally stirred from his slows to land 121,000 men on the Virginia peninsula with its sights on Richmond. Though there had been all these military events, there were still some, North and South, who believed that particularly if the southern capital fell, the conflict would soon end. In fact a year earlier, A.W. Venable of Granville County, North Carolina declared that he would wipe of every drop of blood shed in the war with "this handkerchief of mine." Naive words. In his most vivid and terrible nightmares, he never dreamed of two days like April 6th and 7th, 1862. Neither had an entire nation. Two horrific days that churned and burned near a river landing and a little Methodist church built for the Prince Of Peace. Two bloody days that served as a national wake up call; a call that announced the sobering reality of how terrible civil war would truly be. This is the story of those two days. This is the story of the Battle of Shiloh.
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Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode:
1st day of the Battle of Shiloh: Confederate Offensive.
Second day of the Battle of Shiloh: Union Offensive.
Get The Guide:
Want to learn more about the Civil War? A great place to start is Fred's guide, The Civil War: A History of the War between the States from Workman Publishing. The guide is in its 9th printing.
*Title Image by L. Prang & Company
Producer: Dan Irving
073 - The Confederacy's Last First Lady: Varina Howell Davis
072 - The Dawning Of A New Age: The Fight Between The USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia
071 - Edwin McMasters Stanton: Lincoln's "Unloved" Secretary Of War
070 - Combatting The Invisible Enemy: Medicine During The Civil War
069 - Fredericksburg Revisited
068 - The Confederacy’s Last Salvo - The Career of the CSS Shenandoah
067 - Return to the ”Daughter of the Stars” - The Valley Campaign of 1864
066 - Waging War: Strategy, Tactics, Arms and Technology in the American Civil War
065 - The Soldier’s Friend: Clara Barton
064 - Taking Down The Citadel: The Siege of Vicksburg
063 - Then And Now: The Lost Cause
062 - ”...Hell Can’t Beat That Terrible Scene”: Spotsylvania Court House
061 - Duty, Honor, Countries: The West Point Class of 1846
060 - Desperate Times, Desperate Battle: The Battle Of Bentonville
059 - Connecting The Coasts: The Building Of The Transcontinental Railroad
058 - Breaking The Chains: The Passage Of The 13th Amendment
057 - Jefferson Davis: First and Final Confederate President
056 - Abraham Lincoln: Commander-In-Chief
055 - Bound To Duty: The Post-War Life Of Robert E. Lee
054 - ”The River of Death”: The Battle Of Chickamauga
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