Touched by the Finger of Fate: Altering History at the Battle of Shiloh, Part I
It has been said that the outcome of large events can often hinge on the smallest of factors. If so, then it could be that at the battle of Shiloh, the course of something as large as the American Civil War was altered by something as small as a cloth tourniquet and a metal scabbard.
This is the story of two soldiers at Shiloh, one Union, one Confederate. Several bullets were fired at both of these men during that battle. Two of those bullets found their mark. One of them ended a life. A few inches one way or the other in either case, and the results of life and death - and perhaps the course of the war itself - may have been changed.
There is no way to be sure when dealing with such speculation, but perhaps you will agree that the death of Albert Sidney Johnston at Shiloh and the brush with death of Ulysses S. Grant - on the very same day and in the very same battle - is worth a little speculation. So join me as I speculate a little...
The Tourniquet
At the time he had assumed command of the Confederate forces in the West in the late summer of 1861, many people looked upon fifty-eight year old Albert Sidney Johnston as the greatest commander on either side. Among that number was Johnston's long time friend Jefferson Davis, whose current job description was that of President of the Confederate States of America.
Davis had enormous confidence in Johnston - a man with a good deal of military experience since his graduation from West Point in 1826 - and assigned him command of all Confederate forces west of the Appalachian Mountains.
It was an incredibly huge amount of territory to defend - more by far than anyone else had been charged with - but Johnston set about to do what he could. He established a makeshift defensive line stretching for several hundred miles mainly through Kentucky, from the Mississippi River clear to the Appalachians. Though formidable on paper, the line in reality was dangerously thin.
It was also most vulnerable to attack at two points - Fort Henry on the Tennessee River and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River. The two forts were located a mere twelve miles apart in northern Tennessee, just below the Kentucky border. And it was here that the Union commanders chose to attack.
The combined army/navy assault on the two forts proved disastrous for Johnston. The unfinished and lightly guarded Fort Henry went first, on February 6th, after a short naval bombardment. Ten days later, after a failed bombardment, a sharp land battle, and a short siege, Fort Donelson also fell, along with some 12,000 to 15,000 defenders.
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