![]() ![]() But by one of the war’s many ironies, Wallace’s personal defeat at this time benefited the Union, for his removal from the field caused him to be the one general on hand to save Cincinnati from an unexpected Confederate offensive drive. Then he went home on leave of absence, only to find himself rusticated because of his role at Shiloh. After Shiloh, Wallace proceeded to capture Memphis. Though Wallace’s division was the first in the field the next morning, and though Grant’s orders had been confusing, Grant blamed Wallace for incompetence in taking the wrong route and for ‘dilatoriness’ in obeying orders. Wallace had to countermarch and then begin again on another route, so that by the time his troops arrived after sixteen miles of forced marching, the first day’s fight was over. Wallace, following Grant’s hasty and unclear command, marched his 6,500 troops from Crump’s landing, five miles upriver, to where the right of the Union army should have been, only to receive a second message from Grant informing him belatedly that the Union forces had retreated several miles and that he was heading into the main body of the enemy. Though Grant had been nine miles north of the field when the battle began and did not arrive until midmorning, he blamed Wallace for the first day’s near defeat. But the Union suffered 13,000 casualties, and public opinion demanded a scapegoat. ![]() At Shiloh, the union army was surprised and almost driven into the Tennessee River on the first day of combat reinforcements arriving, Grant took the offensive the second day and drove the Confederates from the field. Shortly thereafter, he became a major general, the youngest in the army and the third highest ranking commander in the Western Theater.īut a month later, in April 1862, his brilliantly begun military career almost foundered. At the Battle of Fort Donelson, the first major Union victory, Wallace played a decisive role in stopping a Confederate sortie, and he received the commander’s surrender. Three months later, he was promoted from colonel of volunteers to brigadier general. Lew Wallace's American Civil War Career Closeĭuring the first months of the war, when the Union suffered almost continual setbacks, Wallace received adulatory publicity for leading his Indiana Zouaves on a 45-mile dash through the mountains to Romney, Virginia, where he surprised a much superior Confederate force, drove them off, and captured their equipment and supplies. ![]()
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