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4 A Case Study in Civil War Memory: Benjamin M. Prentiss as the Hero of Shiloh Chaos and confusion were everywhere. The neatly aligned ranks of the Federal army at Shiloh had given way to a mass of straggling, running soldiers intent on escaping. To the defenders of the Union position known as the Hornet ’s Nest, the only hope for survival lay in running the gauntlet of crossfire in a place that would soon become known to history as “Hell’s Hollow.” Although these soldiers had defended their position in the Hornet’s Nest nearly all day, they now learned the awful truth that the units on their flanks had not stayed in line. Their flanks were turned, and the enemy was in their rear, trying to shut off all hope for retreat. Making the situation worse, one of the two Federal generals in the Hornet’s Nest was down. Brigadier General W. H. L. Wallace had been shot through the head about 5:00 p.m. and was presumed dead. That left only one other general officer to try to make some sense of the chaos. Brigadier General Benjamin M. Prentiss soon realized that the trap had shut. Just minutes after Wallace’s wounding, he raised a white flag and surrendered the twenty-two hundred men with him. A shout went up from the conquering Confederates, prompting Prentiss to bellow, “Yell, boys, you have a right to shout for you have captured the bravest brigade in the U.S. Army.” With those words, Prentiss became a prisoner, but more important, he began his trek toward becoming the “Hero of Shiloh.”1 Historians ask questions. On the surface, the needed question in this case is whether Prentiss was actually the hero of Shiloh and, if not, why he is so often labeled as such. On a larger level, however, the story of Prentiss at Shiloh is a perfect topic for a case study in which to examine historical memory in general. There often is a vast difference between what actually happened and what the public has come to believe happened. In terms of Prentiss at Shiloh, what actually happened and what historians have generally said happened is very different, causing some confusion among the general public, which commonly accepts the story of Prentiss being a hero is spite of the actual events. 68 A Case Study in Civil War Memory Historians of course are extremely important in the process, and the general public most often gets the story from them. As various schools of thought are reexamined and revised, the historiographical façade that develops becomes very important in understanding both the actual event and how it has been perceived. Civil War history offers many occasions to revise the deeply held beliefs of scholars and the public alike, and no better example can be used than Prentiss at Shiloh. This essay will thus examine Prentiss’s role at Shiloh, looking not just at his actions and his perceived heroics but also at the episode as a historical memory exercise. Examining Prentiss at Shiloh in terms of what actually happened, what historians have said happened, and what the general public has come to believe happened will hopefully shed new light not only on Prentiss at Shiloh but also on the rewards of using memory in studying the Civil War as a whole.2 Benjamin Prentiss’s direct ancestors came to America on the Mayflower. He was born in Virginia in 1819, but as a teenager he moved with his parents to Missouri, from which he moved to Quincy, Illinois. There, he first became involved with the militia, serving in the Mormon episode that expelled Brigham Young and his followers out of Illinois. He also fought in the Mexican War as a captain of an Illinois infantry company. When the Civil War broke out, Prentiss was appointed colonel of the 10th Illinois Infantry and then, along with Ulysses S. Grant and others, was appointed a brigadier general. He and Grant bickered over rank, but the two nevertheless worked together when they again found themselves together in the Army of the Tennessee . This time, there was no question of rank, however. Grant was commander of the Army of the Tennessee while Prentiss led its Sixth Division.3 Prentiss was still in the process of organizing his division when the Confederates surprised Grant’s army at Shiloh on April 6, 1862. He fought hard but still lost the vast majority of his entirely...

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