Colonel Everett Peabody is remembered by some historians as the man who saved the Union army at Shiloh. Peabody despite orders from General Benjamin Prentiss, commander of the 6th Division, to not bring on battle ordered a heavy reconnaissance party to scout the area of a suspected Confederate attack. After contact was made with the enemy, he ordered his 1st Brigade into line of battle. He received 5 wounds with the last one being fatal.
However, there are members who disagree that Peabody is a hero and Prentiss has been casted as the goat. In all fairness, I am listing 4 CWT threads below whic present views from both sides (4)9
Peabody's Monument is near the Southern boundary of the Park. You will notice the Star on the monument as he died where his headquarters/camp was located and the only mortuary
monument with one.
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Close of the brass plaque. I apologize for the quality of the photo but I am an enthusiast not a photographer
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(4)
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/shiloh-shame.191600/#post-2493154
Benjamin Mayberry Prentiss Sr. :us34stars: Born: November 23, 1819 Birthplace: Belleville, Virginia (West Virginia) Father: Henry Leonidas Prentiss 1788 – 1849 Mother: Rebecca Mayberry 1797 – 1850 1st Wife: Margaret Ann Sowdosky 1823 – 1860 (Buried: Woodland Cemetery, Quincy, Illinois)...
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Andrew Hickenlooper’s reminiscences about Shiloh and General Prentiss show his admiration for Prentiss and he was there. The fight for Hickenlooper and Prentiss started around 6 a. m. and lasted for sure ten hours and maybe a little longer before Prentiss released Hickenlooper to save the last...
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came across this from local newspaper, Honestly of western battles have studied Shiloh the least as none of my family fought there. Was curious what you all thought of story, Prentiss and claims of revisionism http://www.whig.com/article/20160710/ARTICLE/307109929#
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This thread was referenced recently but the link to an article about Brigadier General Benjamin Mayberry Prentiss is no longer active. The article was printed in the July 10, 2016, issue of the Quincy
Herald-Whig; Prentiss's hometown at the time of the civil war. The article was written for the Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County and is available on their website.
https://www.hsqac.org/gen-prentiss-quincy-s-slandered-hero-of-shiloh075c40e0
The original article was edited without the author's review and there were a couple mistakes and omissions made in the editing.
For those interested here is the original article as written:
Major General Benjamin Mayberry Prentiss
Quincy's Slandered "Hero of Shiloh"
Brigadier General Benjamin Mayberry Prentiss of Quincy, Illinois commanded the 6th Division of the Army of the Tennessee led by Major General Ulysses S. Grant at the battle of Shiloh on April 6, 1862.
Prentiss's division consisted of two brigades totaling approximately 5400 men. The first brigade was commanded by Colonel Everett Peabody and the second brigade by Colonel Madison Miller.
On the morning of April 6, the Confederate army was poised to launch a surprise attack on the Union forces. Prentiss's new division was camped closest to the enemy.
On April 4 and 5 Confederate cavalry harassed Union pickets resulting in alarms cascading through the Union camps. Prentiss responded by adding additional pickets and sending out patrols to reconnoiter to the front. The patrols were looking for cavalry and the Union commanders had no suspicion the entire Rebel army was ready to strike.
The camp of Colonel Everett Peabody was nearest to the Rebel battle line so the patrols that went out were from his brigade. Prentiss ordered Colonel Moore to lead three companies from the 21st Missouri on a patrol that left camp around 4 P.M. and returned around 7 P.M. Evidence of Rebel cavalry was found.
Colonel Peabody, unbeknownst to Prentiss, ordered Major James Powell to take out a patrol at 3 A.M and advance past the pickets and reconnoiter. Powell found the Rebel skirmish line in Fraley field at 4:55 AM and the battle of Shiloh was on. Powell's patrol gave at least two hours of early warning for the Union army and prevented a total surprise. The result was that the Union divisions were able to form battle lines in front of their camps and slow the Rebel attack.
As Powell's patrol retreated Colonel Moore was ordered by Peabody to reinforce the patrol with five companies of the 21st Missouri. Moore sent word to Prentiss to forward the remaining five companies of the 21st Missouri because the Rebels were out there, and he would "lick them."
Prentiss complied and rode into Peabody's camp as Peabody was forming the 25th Missouri to also go to the aid of the patrol. Orders were to avoid a general engagement and when Prentiss saw that two regiments were heading to the front amidst heavy firing, he accosted Peabody with the charge that he would hold Peabody responsible for bringing on an engagement.
William Sherman's division was struck about an hour after Prentiss's. Requests for aid were sent to the divisions of John McClernand, Stephan Hurlbut and William Wallace. Prentiss defended his two camps until around 9 AM when a retreat was ordered. Prentiss's division disintegrated. Prentiss was able to rally around 500 men to stand with him in the Hornets' Nest where they were joined with 575 men of the 23rd Missouri. Colonel Peabody and Major Powell were counted among the slain.
With the assistance of the 12th, 14th and 8th Iowa regiments of William Wallace's division and the 31st and 44th Indiana regiments of Hurlbut's division, Prentiss held the Hornet's Nest for seven hours against repeated Rebel assaults. Then, as the Union flanks fell back, Prentiss and William Wallace tried to hold the center and fought on for another hour with a "final stand". William Wallace was mortally wounded and Prentiss was captured along with 2200 Sunken Road defenders.
The first published reports of the battle falsely maligned Prentiss and the men captured with him as having surrendered in the morning rather than in the evening. This injustice was repeated in many histories written after the war and was stuck in the public's memory for nearly twenty years during which time Prentiss remained silent because he knew what he had done, and his critics were not worthy of a response.
The tide turned with the publication of Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston's biography written by his son in 1879. Johnston had led the Confederate army and died in the battle.
The book christened the area where William Wallace and Prentiss held the line as the Hornets' Nest and heralded them with "there is little doubt that their manful resistance, which cost one his life and the other his liberty, so checked the Southern troops as to gain time, and prevent the capture of Grant's army."
Over the next twenty years Prentiss spoke of the battle and the role he and his men played in it. Shiloh National Military Park was founded in 1895 and the story of the Hornets' Nest became lore and Prentiss died in 1901 with the sobriquet of the "Hero of Shiloh."
But it is déjà vu time for Prentiss. Shiloh revisionist historians claim that Prentiss exaggerated his role at Shiloh and stole glory from William Wallace and Everett Peabody to use as his own. They claim that Prentiss took credit for sending out the army-saving 3 A. M. patrol when it was Peabody who did it. They claim that it was William Wallace who defended the Hornets' Nest and that Prentiss was inconsequential but talked himself up to being the "Hero of Shiloh" at the expense of Peabody and Wallace.
These claims do not stand up to scrutiny, but they have taken root in some circles to the point that recently published Shiloh works by revisionists contain statements against Prentiss that are not true. These historians openly mock Prentiss and describe him as a "false hero" equivalent to false Vietnam war veterans who steal valor by wearing medals they did not earn. He is accused of lying about his role at Shiloh in order to line his pockets and we are told that his honor should be questioned.
Shiloh revisionism commenced in the early 1970s and continues unabated to this day. But now it is time to challenge them to defend their works and prove their allegations against Prentiss because so far they offer only opinions, falsehoods and limited actual facts. Competent research shows that the truth lies with Prentiss.
Sources
Cunningham, O. Edward.
Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862. Edited by Gary D. Joiner and Timothy B. Smith. New York, New York: Savas Beatie LLC, 2007.
Daniel, Larry J.
Shiloh – The Battle That Changed the Civil War. New York, New York: First Touchstone Edition, 1998.
Johnston, Colonel William Preston.
The Life of General Albert Sidney Johnston. New York, New York: Da Capo Press, 1997. Originally published 1879.
McDonough, James Lee.
Shiloh – in Hell before Night. Knoxville, Tennessee: The University of Tennessee Press, 1977.
Orville, Victor J.
Beadle's American Battles, Pittsburg Landing, (Shiloh) and the Investment of Corinth. New York, New York: Beadle and Company, 1862.
Smith, Timothy B.
Rethinking Shiloh – Myth and Memory. Knoxville, Tennessee: The University of Tennessee Press, 2013.
———. "Shiloh's False Hero."
Civil War Times, vol. 47, no. 6, December 5, 2008, 28-35.
———.
The Untold Story of Shiloh – The Battle and the Battlefield. Knoxville, Tennessee: The University of Tennessee Press, 2006.
———.
This Great Battlefield of Shiloh – History, Memory, and the Establishment of a Civil War National Military Park. Knoxville, Tennessee: The University of Tennessee Press, 2004.
Sword, Wiley.
Shiloh: Bloody April. Dayton, Ohio: Morningside, corrected edition 2001.
Woodworth, Steven.
Shiloh – Confederate High Tide in the Heartland. Santa Barbara, California: Praeger, 2013.
Along the same subject line here is a link to an interview of the author published by the Blue and Gray Education Society on September 28, 2020.
https://blueandgrayeducation.org/2020/09/shattering-the-revisionist-myths-of-shiloh/
Finally, keeping with subject line of pointing out statements about Prentiss that do not survive scrutiny here is an article that was submitted to the Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County for their consideration.
American Battlefield Trust Declared Quincy's Major General Benjamin Mayberry Prentiss the "Villain of Shiloh"
Major General Benjamin Mayberry Prentiss lived in Quincy from 1841 to 1881. He then moved to Bethany, Missouri and resided there until his death on February 8, 1901, at age 81.
The Quincy Daily Whig noted upon his passing that Prentiss had earned the sobriquet "Hero of Shiloh" for his actions during the battle in defense of the Hornets' Nest and commanding the last group of Union soldiers fighting the Confederates in a "Last Stand" before being surrounded and forced to surrender.
The American Battlefield Trust recently filmed a series of videos at the Shiloh National Military Park. One video was filmed at the mortuary monument for Colonel Everett Peabody in the camp of the 25th Missouri Infantry. Peabody commanded a brigade in Prentiss's Sixth Division and early on the morning of April 6, 1862, he ordered out a reconnaissance patrol under command of Major James Powell. This patrol discovered and engaged the advance pickets of the Confederate army in Fraley Field approximately one and a half miles in front of Peabody's camp. Thus started the battle of Shiloh and Peabody's diligence gave the Union army warning that the enemy was massed in their front. This allowed Union troops time to form battle lines and prevented a total tactical surprise which could have been a death knell for Grant's army. For sending out Powell's patrol Peabody is recognized as a hero of Shiloh. Unfortunately, both Peabody and Powell were killed and could not report on their actions that day.
Even though the Trust's historians filmed on Shiloh's hallowed ground they disrespected the battlefield by heaping scorn on General Prentiss to the point of falsely labeling Prentiss a liar and a villain. Fortunately, the reasons for the injustice to Prentiss are stated in the video and available for scrutiny. For the last fifty years Prentiss has been the target of Shiloh revisionist falsehoods as evidenced in the video.
In the short space of a couple minutes the Trust managed to squeeze in five assertions that have no basis in fact. No evidence is provided to support the alleged transgressions by Prentiss. Viewers are expected to just take the accusations at face value, but facts are stubborn things.
1) The Trust claimed that the report made by Major Powell in the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion (ORs) published in the early 1880's proved Prentiss was a liar. But Major Powell was killed during the battle and there is no report by him in the ORs.
2) The Trust claimed that Prentiss made no mention of Peabody in his after-action report which was published in the ORs. A simple reading of Prentiss's account shows that he did indeed refer to Peabody in the report.
3) The Trust claimed that Prentiss took the credit from Peabody for sending out the important early morning patrol of Major Powell. This is one of the revisionist's most contemptible charges against Prentiss and they provide no evidence to support the claim. They cite no report, letter, speech, diary, or any other document where Prentiss ever mentioned Major Powell's patrol.
The revisionists have fostered the erroneous impression that Peabody never received any credit for his actions until the first full-length books on Shiloh came out in the 1970s. But the April 12, 1862, issue of the
Chicago Evening Journal mentioned Peabody's diligence. There was a newspaperman in Peabody's camp whose account was published in the
Philadelphia Inquirer on April 18, 1862. Historian John Gilmary Shea included a lengthy article about Peabody and his heroics in
The American Nation published before the end of 1862. In 1867 war correspondent William Swinton published
The Twelve Decisive Battles of the War which highlighted Peabody's contribution in saving Grant's army.
But history was not kind to Peabody. His contributions were lost for almost forty years. Not until the early 1900s did Peabody's role see light again. But in the interim Shiloh accounts erroneously credited Prentiss for Powell's patrol because Powell moved out from Prentiss's division. Prentiss played no role in the historians' inaccurate versions and never took credit for ordering out Powell's early morning patrol.
4) The Trust claimed Prentiss wrote the history and left Peabody out. This is not true. Upon release from Southern prisons Prentiss gave a speech in Chicago on October 21, 1862, before heading home to Quincy. Prentiss knew of the malicious statements made against him and his men that they had been totally surprised in their camps and surrendered early in the battle. Prentiss vehemently refuted the accusations and noted they had fought all day and did not surrender until 5:30 p. m. Prentiss proclaimed he and his officers believed they had saved the army by delaying an attack against Grant's last line. With disgust towards the critics Prentiss declared he did not care what they thought. He knew what he and his men had done.
After the Chicago speech Prentiss made no public utterance about Shiloh for almost twenty years. He certainly was not writing the history of the battle. He despised the ignorant critics and ignored them as unworthy of a response. Finally, a letter appeared in the
Globe-Democrat on April 15, 1881, which maligned Prentiss's men as being "captured before they could be organized for successful resistance." This prompted Prentiss to finally break his silence and he wrote a rebuttal which was published on April 18, 1881.
The revisionists concocted a narrative that Prentiss actively influenced the telling of the battle of Shiloh in the years after the fight. But by the time Prentiss broke his self-imposed silence of twenty years two key publications had been published which referred to the early morning patrol and the fighting in the Hornets' Nest.
The Life of General Albert Sidney Johnston, written by his son William Preston Johnston, was published in 1879 with accounts from Confederate soldiers. Manning Force published
From Fort Henry to Corinth in 1881. Both these books give a history of the battle of Shiloh and are referred to as sources in later works about the fight. The fact that these books left Peabody out had nothing to do with Prentiss.
5) The Trust claimed that Prentiss was not only a villain regarding Peabody but was an even larger villain because he also took credit due Brigadier General William Hervey Lamme Wallace for his own. Prentiss and Wallace fought side by side in the Hornets' Nest. These two generals had fought in the same Illinois regiment in the Mexican War and were friends. Wallace was mortally wounded late in the day. When Prentiss spoke of Shiloh, he would mention the gallant Wallace and recount his bravery. In
Rethinking Shiloh Dr. Timothy Smith wrote "Prentiss gave Wallace full credit for his actions." Prentiss never took credit from Wallace for himself.
In the video, the American Battlefield Trust made five assertions to convince viewers that Major General Benjamin Mayberry Prentiss was a liar and should be known as the villain of Shiloh. Not one of the assertions is true.
As stated before, facts are stubborn things.
Sources
Chicago Evening Journal, April 12, 1862.
Chicago Tribune, October 22, 1862.
Force, M. F.
Campaigns of the Civil War: From Fort Henry to Corinth. 1881. Reprint, Edson, NJ: Castle Books, 2002.
Globe-Democrat, April 15 and 18, 1881.
Johnston, Colonel William Preston.
The Life of General Albert Sidney Johnston. 1879. Reprint, New York: Da Capo Press' 1997.
Myth, Memory and Trivia at Shiloh. Video, accessed 4/28/24.
Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series 1, Vol. 10, Pt. 1: 279
The Philadelphia Inquirer, April 18, 1862.
The Quincy Daily Whig, February 9, 1901
Shea, John Gilmary,
The American Nation. New York. 1862.
Smith, Timothy B.
Rethinking Shiloh. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2013.
Swinton, William.
The Twelve Decisive Battles of the War. New York, 1867.
A link to the offending video is in the source list.
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