018: “Lick'em tomorrow.."

November 16^th found us at anchor rafted up to Sol Maria and within sight of Willie Dawes!   We had the rather luxurious start time of 7:30 a.m.    I was particularly excited because we were only a few miles from the Shiloh National Battlefield.   I had been talking about visiting Shiloh for months.  It was an absolute “come hell or highwater” necessity for me.

 Tied up to Sol Maria:

 

A shot taken by Sol Maria of us leaving the anchorage (now my FB Profile picture):

 

 

The plan was to anchor on the river just off Pittsburg Landing (site of the Union Army’s disembarkation from their river boats) and dinghy ashore.   Sol Maria and KatMat both anchored after two attempts, but our two attempts were met with the anchor dragging.   We decided not to try a third attempt but rather get to the Grand Harbor Marina which had a free courtesy car that could take us to the Battlefield.   We could also do a bit of grocery shopping.

I called the lockmaster at the next lock about ten n/w away and he said it would be opening very soon and if we hurried, he would hold it open for us.  Now as relayed before, we can fire up the RPM’s and do ten n/m pretty quickly but just then Willie Dawes came into sight (having left the anchorage later than us), and they can only do about eight n/mph (we can do twice that).   Not wanting to leave them behind again, we opted to bypass that lock opening and take the next one.

 We did see a pair of bald eagles on the way:

 

We arrived at Grand Harbor Marina after clearing the lock, and after fueling up and pumping out, we got the courtesy car and headed to the Shiloh Battlefield.

Shiloh was a strategic victory for the North and was a major event in the Civil War because it solidified control of Tennessee for the Union and laid the stage for Grant’s campaign to take Vicksburg and cut the Confederacy in half  It also forged the Grant/Sherman alliance that led the North to victory.   We saw an excellent movie about the battle in the visitor’s center and walked the grounds and did a driving tour.  I am not ashamed to say that I was deeply moved walking those hallowed grounds.  

Where the Union Army embarked;

 View over the River:

 

 

Union Cemetery:

 

 

The spot where Grant had his headquarters:

 

IMHO the spot above marks the location of one of the seminal moments in the Civil War and perhaps one of the most important conversations of the War.  The first day of the battle had not gone well for the Union Army, they were surprised by the Confederate attack and gave up ground.  But they held and where not destroyed as the Confederates had hoped.  The Confederates did think that they had “whipped ‘em” and would mop them up the next day.  That night this conversation, on that spot above, occurred:  Sherman found Grant resting under a tree around midnight, and said: "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" Grant replied: "Yes. Lick'em tomorrow, though.”

That conversation forged the Grant/Sherman alliance and showed why, IMHO, Grant is the greatest general of the modern age*:

1)     1) He never panicked (unlike McClellan who could have ended the war at Antietam after the Union Army broke the Confederate center and his subordinate commanders begged him to exploit the breakthrough by sending in his reserves, which he refused to do.)

2)     2) Grant never recognized defeat, he kept at it.  Other Union generals had a history of taking a beating and then retreating.  Grant knew that the Union’s greater manpower, logistical support, and industrial might would win the day in the end, if only the Union never gave up the initiative.

3)     3) He and Sherman had a greater strategic sense of the war than anyone else and saw it as a continental war, not an East or West theater war.  Sherman also saw that the distinction between the military and "the civilian" was not so clear cut when the civilians were supplying support for the military.    

And guess what?  The Union Army of the Ohio landed early in the morning of the next day, and rather than getting “mopped up” the Union counter attacked and “licked em.”

We really would have liked to stay another day and visit the town of Corinth, MS, to visit that historic town, and another battlefield, but the rest of our small flotilla (Katmat, Sol Maria, Willie Dawes and Fika) were ready to move south onto the Tenn-Tom Waterway.

Dave

 PS:  How visionary was Grant?   Check this out:

 

*Sorry General Lee fans, Lee wasn’t even in the top four in the Civil War:  Grant, Sherman, Thomas, Jackson, then Lee.