WI: General Wallace chooses better at Shiloh

Prince Charon

Due to a misunderstood, or poorly written, order by General Grant at the Battle of Shiloh, Union General Lew Wallace and his division found themselves behind the Confederate troops, a near-perfect position to attack from. Unfortunately, Wallace then got a message from General Grant, asking why he wasn't at Pittsburg Landing, with the rest of the army. Wallace could have attacked right then, and been a hero, but instead chose to take his division back around, marching for several hours, trying to meet the Union Army at Pittsburg Landing, finally arriving around 7pm, after 13 hours of marching, when the battle was nearly over for the day. To say that 'Grant was not pleased' probably understates the case, massively.

So, suppose that second messenger didn't find Wallace in time, or that Wallace decided that going all the way around like was a terribly bad idea. Either way, Wallace attacks the advancing Confederates from the rear, likely achieving a fair bit of surprise.

So, does this end the battle sooner?

Does it reduce the overall Union casualties?

What effect does it have on the rest of the war?
 

Workable Goblin

I should say this ends Shiloh with the Northern forces doing much better, especially proportionally speaking. The Confederates will not be expecting an attack at that time, and it will certainly do a lot to relieve the pressure on Grant's front, which may allow him to organize and counter-attack rapidly. It probably becomes legendary in historical and alt-historical scenarios in a hundred years, too.
 

The Outhouse Prophet

Prince Charon said:
Due to a misunderstood, or poorly written, order by General Grant at the Battle of Shiloh, Union General Lew Wallace and his division found themselves behind the Confederate troops, a near-perfect position to attack from. Unfortunately, Wallace then got a message from General Grant, asking why he wasn't at Pittsburg Landing, with the rest of the army. Wallace could have attacked right then, and been a hero, but instead chose to take his division back around, marching for several hours, trying to meet the Union Army at Pittsburg Landing, finally arriving around 7pm, after 13 hours of marching, when the battle was nearly over for the day. To say that 'Grant was not pleased' probably understates the case, massively.

So, suppose that second messenger didn't find Wallace in time, or that Wallace decided that going all the way around like was a terribly bad idea. Either way, Wallace attacks the advancing Confederates from the rear, likely achieving a fair bit of surprise.

So, does this end the battle sooner?

Does it reduce the overall Union casualties?

What effect does it have on the rest of the war?
Click to expand...

The battle ends sooner, a bit more decisively as a Union victory than it actually was. The Confederate retreat would have been accelerated.

In terms of the "big picture" of the war, not much would have changed. It was a Union victory in reality and would have been so if Wallace had attacked from the initial point his division had marched to.

But it would not have destroyed the Confederate army; Civil War armies were very hard to destroy owing to how difficult it was to keep an attacking force moving forward in pursuit in a coherent fashion.

So the Confederates would have retreated just as they did in actuality.

The war would have taken pretty much the same course it did, with the exception that Wallace would not have worn goat's horns for the muddled staff work of Grant's officers. So he (Wallace) may have gone on to have a distinguished career in the army, and possibly not written Ben-Hur.
 

tallwingedgoat

I think if Wallace had attacked the Confederate line would panic. Their route of retreat taken the next day would be blocked by Wallace. This would trap them between the Tennessee River and Owl Creek, a counter attack by Grant would probably rout the enemy.
 
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