General Benjamin Prentiss’ Capture at the Battle of Shiloh

Originally published April 2022 · p. 21

Shiloh Battle Field. / Gen'l Prentiss is standing on the spot where he was captured at 5.30 P.M., April 6, 1862. Union veterans identified as Col. J.S. Cavender, Capt. A.T. Andreas, Col. T. Lyle Dickey, Gen'l J.M. Tuttle, Maj. Geo. Mason, Gen'l B.M. Prentiss, Capt. Doolittle, and Col. Cuthbert Laing. Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs (Library of Congress).

General Benjamin Prentiss’ Capture at the Battle of Shiloh Early in the morning, an officer under his command, Colonel Everett Peabody, sent out a 250man patrol which made contact with the advancing Confederate army, providing the Union army with critical early warning of the impending attack. Prentiss was initially outraged with Peabody for sending out a patrol without his authorization, but soon realized he was facing an on oncoming attack by an entire Confederate army and rushed to prepare his men for defense. His division was the first one attacked at the Battle of Shiloh and suffered greatly during the opening hours of that battle. Brigadier General Prentiss reformed his command with reinforcements under the command General W.H.L. Wallace and put up a spirited fight in the “Hornet’s Nest.” Prentiss took full command of the position after Wallace was fatally wounded and eventually surrendered the Hornet’s Nest along with 2,200 other Union soldiers. He surrendered his sword to Lt. Colonel Francis Marion Walker of the 19th Tennessee Infantry. After the battle he was considered a hero, having held off the Confederate States Army long enough to allow General Grant to organize a counterattack and win the battle. Grant later played down Prentiss’s role in the victory, possibly because of

CivilWarNews.com mutual dislike between the two generals. However, Grant said in his memoirs “Prentiss’ command was gone as a division, many of its members having been killed, wounded or captured; but it had rendered valiant services before its final dispersal, and had contributed a good share to the defense of Shiloh.” Prentiss’s own after-action report did not mention the aid of Wallace’s troops, and barely made any mention of Peabody, who was also killed in action during the battle.

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Daniel, Larry J. Shiloh: The Battle That Changed the Civil War. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997. Grant, Ulysses (1885). Personal Memoirs. “Battle of Shiloh: Shattering Myths.” https://www. battlefields.org/learn/articles/ battle-shiloh-shattering-myths