Our November 2022 meeting is at Balch Library.
Speaker: Greg Mertz
Location: Thomas Balch Library, 208 West Market Street, Leesburg, Virginia
Meeting time: 6:30 p.m., November 8, 2022
Topic: “A Consequence of Inexperience and Ineptness: Atypical Incidents at Shiloh”
In the fall of 2020 Greg Mertz presented a virtual program on the battle of Shiloh examining a dozen decisions that impacted the outcome and our understanding of the battle. He will be “returning” in person this fall for another program on Shiloh, this time focusing on the nature of the fighting.
The ranks of the armies that fought early in the Civil War were naturally full of inexperienced soldiers who often inflicted relatively light casualties upon each other. The April 6-7, 1862 battle of Shiloh was a battle with a significant number of green troops serving under officers still learning their roles, but it was also a battle with a shockingly large number of killed and wounded that eclipsed the losses of any previous battles in American history. Shiloh was the first battle in our past in which both armies suffered in excess of 10,000 casualties.
Only 17% of the Confederate army is estimated to have ever fired a shot in battle before engaged at Shiloh. In the Union army, 3½ of the 9 divisions on the field had been in a battle prior to Shiloh. The most experienced officers, including numerous West Point graduates, were placed in ranks much higher and in command of units much larger than they were accustomed to in the peacetime army. From the most recently recruited enlisted man to the top generals, soldiers at every level faced challenges that they had never faced before. They were being tested in a battle that would result in more casualties than Americans suffered in all other battles of all other wars prior to the battle of Shiloh.
Most of the soldiers did amazingly well as they adapted to the severe conditions they were forced to endure at Shiloh. But many units also performed poorly and many officers made egregious mistakes. This program will examine some of the unusual things that occurred in the battle of Shiloh, largely attributed to the inexperience of both soldiers and officers.
Greg Mertz grew up near St. Louis, Missouri, where annual visits by his Boy Scout troop to the Shiloh National Military Park resulted in his fascination with the Civil War and his love of parks. His long-time interest in Shiloh culminated in 2019 when he authored the book Attack at Daylight and Whip Them: The Battle of Shiloh, April 6-7, 1862 in the Emerging Civil War series.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in Recreation and Park Administration at the University of Missouri, he worked for four years at Gettysburg National Military Park and the Eisenhower National Historic Site. While at Gettysburg, he also earned a master’s in Public Administration from Shippensburg University.
Greg then transferred to Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park where he worked for 36 years — 27 of them as the Supervisory Historian, managing the park’s visitor services.
Greg retired in 2021 and now conducts battlefield tours for Fredericksburg tours and serves on the boards of the Rappahannock Valley Civil War Round Table, Brandy Station Foundation and Friends of Wilderness Battlefield.
Loudoun County Civil War Roundtable 