What Civil War myth would you like to correct most?

kepi

First Sergeant
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Feb 20, 2015
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United States of America
In my short time as a member here, I have looked over quite a few past posts and found several conversations and exchanges relating to myths about the Civil War or facts people just have wrong. This got me to thinking about which myth or incorrect bit of information people here may find the most troublesome, so here is my question for the group:

What Civil War myth, legend, or generally incorrect information would you like to dispel most in American popular culture? (YOU MAY ONLY PICK ONE)

Let us PLEASE be nice to each other, as I have seen this topic can get out of hand.
Thank You.
 
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Anyone care to discuss the myth that there was a shoe warehouse at Gettysburg that the CSA was trying to get?

That thing has been stuck with a fork long ago. There was no shoe warehouse in Gettysburg. Yes, the Confederates looked for shoes in Gettysburg, but that was about a week before the battle on their way to York and Wrightsville, and it was Early not Heth that did that. Allegedly Heth made this up as an excuse for starting the conflict and it stuck.
 
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It was Shiloh. General T.S. Sherman wrote about the encounter in his memoirs. Forrest had charged what he thought was a picket line and ran in to a brigade size force. Sherman was up front with said brigade and said it caused himself to run *** over tea kettle in the mud, and that if Forrest's pistols weren't empty, it would have ended his career right then. Forrest then got shot in the hip, at nearly point blank range, yet still managed to escape.

http://www.civilwar.org/battlefield...rs-then.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/

Years later, at the Annual Meeting of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee held at Cincinnati, Ohio, April 6-7, 1881, Sherman read a paper he had prepared on the Battle of Shiloh. In this account, he remembered as they approached the ridge, Forrest’s cavalry came down, with a yell, firing away with their pistols, riding over the skirmish line, over the supports, and right among him and his staff. For you see, Sherman was out with the skirmishers and remembered, “Fortunately, I had sent my adjutant, Hammond, back to the brigade to come forward into line quickly. My Aide-de-Camp, McCoy, was knocked down, horse and rider, into the mud, but I, and the rest of my staff ingloriously fled [italics mine], pell mell, through the mud, closely followed by Forrest and his men, with pistols already emptied. We sought safety behind the brigade in the act of forming 'forward into line,' and Forrest and his followers were in turn 'surprised' by a fire of the brigade which emptied many a saddle, and gave Forrest himself a painful wound, but he escaped to the woods on the south of the road."

Sherman adds in the 1881 paper read before his comrades, "I have seen Forrest since the war; have talked with him about this very matter, and he explained that he was left behind by Breckenridge [sic. Breckinridge] to protect this hospital camp, and if possible to check the pursuit by our forces which was naturally expected after the close of the battle of Shiloh. I am sure that had he not emptied his pistols as he passed the skirmish line, my career would have ended right there [italics mine]."
 
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I don't think that's a myth and I don't think it was at Shiloh but feel free to correct me as I'm running on memory here and it is getting more and more untrustworthy.
More properly, it was at Fallen Timbers while Forrest was covering the retreat from Shiloh. The jury on the "snatching up" part is still out.
 
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