Sep 30, 2021 - Sale 2580

Sale 2580 - Lot 93

Price Realized: $ 2,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
ILLUSTRATED WITH A MANUSCRIPT MAP (CIVIL WAR.) Horace N. Fisher. Postwar letter analyzing tactics at the Battle of Shiloh, with related articles. Autograph Letter Signed to Frank E. Peabody. 20 pages plus cover letter and attached full-page manuscript map on 6 sheets, 9 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches, bound in upper corner with ribbon; cover letter partly split from map and slightly worn, otherwise minimal wear. Boston, 1897 and 1903
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Additional Details

The April 1862 Battle of Shiloh (or Pittsburgh Landing) in southwestern Tennessee began with Confederate plans for a surprise attack at dawn. Union Colonel Everett Peabody became suspicious and sent out a pre-dawn 250-man reconnaissance patrol which engaged with advance Confederate troops at 5:15 a.m. This gained a few critical minutes for Union troops to brace for the assault. Horace Newton Fisher (1836-1916) of Massachusetts was a Union staff officer at the battle, and was eager to correct the historical record on the details of the battle.

Colonel Peabody, whose reconnaissance played such a key role, died in the battle that day. His nephew Frank Everett Peabody (1856-1918) of Boston had possession of the colonel's papers and corresponded with Newton about the battle. This extremely detailed letter analyzes Peabody's role in the battle, incorporating these new primary sources, and concludes that "had it not been for Col. Peabody's soldierly development of the enemy's line," the Confederates would have "found Prentisss' camp & sentinels asleep & powerless to have resisted for even ten minutes, in which case the entire Federal camps would have been captured long before noon on Sunday." Newton's manuscript map shows the Confederate attack at 6 a.m., with farm fields, division commanders on both sides, roads, creeks, and headquarters all clearly depicted.

Accompanying this letter are 4 typescripts on the battle authored by Fisher. Most notable is "In Regard to when the Battle of Shiloh Commenced" in 13 pages with extensive revisions in Fisher's own hand, noting that "this personal reminiscence is given by request of Mr. Frank E. Peabody of Boston, by dictation to his stenographer," 16 May 1903. The corrected typescript incorporating these revisions is also included. This essay was copyrighted by Fisher's son in 1954. Also included is a 12-page typescript, "Gen. Beauregard at Shiloh," dated 6 April 1903 (possibly unpublished) and a 9-page typescript, "Gen. Lew Wallace's Attack on Grant's Memory on the Shiloh Battlefield," 8 April 1903 (also possibly unpublished, with related news clippings attached).