County of marker: McNairy County
Location of marker: Main St. (US-64), Baptist St., & Old Stage Rd., veterans memorial in traffic triangle, Adamsville
Marker erected by: Tennessee Civil War Trails
Date erected: 2012
Marker Text:
ADAMSVILLE IN THE CIVIL WAR
The Road to Shiloh
After the February 1862 Union victories at Forts Henry and Donelson, Gen. Don Carlos Buell’s army occupied
Nashville while Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s army penetrated to Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River. Buell
and Grant planned to attack the rail center of Corinth, Mississippi, but on April 6, Confederate Gen. Albert Sidney
Johnston struck first. The Battle of Shiloh was a near Confederate victory the first day, although Johnston was
killed. On the second day, Grant’s counterattack succeeded, and the Confederates retreated to Corinth. Shiloh was
the war’s bloodiest battle to date, with almost 24,000 killed, wounded or missing.
By early in March 1862, after Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant moved his army to southern Tennessee, three units of Federal troops under Gen. Lewis “Lew” Wallace were stationed at Adamsville, Stoney Lonesome, and Crump’s Landing. Wallace gained a reputation for fairness even among local Confederate supporters as he purchased fodder and supplies for his forces.
On April 1, Lt. Charles H. Murray, 5th Ohio Cavalry, reported to Wallace that a skirmish near Adamsville went badly for the Federals when his small detachment suffered “a rapid and severe fire from (Confederate) double-barreled shot-guns. This our men returned with spirit, nor did a man flinch until they had emptied their carbines and pistols.” Murray complained that the Confederates had outgunned them: “Every engagement of our cavalry with theirs, under our present poorly-armed condition, must prove disastrous. Our men are brave. They ask for good arms; they deserve them. They say, ‘Give us good weapons and we will fight to the death.” Five days later, when the bloodbath at Shiloh began, Murray’s men had their chance to fight to the death.
The troops here took part in Wallace’s frustrated attempts to reach the Shiloh battlefield on April 6. His orders were confusing and the roads were difficult. Wallace’s command did not arrive until 7 p.m., and his alleged “dilatoriness” was one of the war’s early controversies. However, his 11,000 men helped turn the tide in favor of the Union on April 7
Sidebar:
In 1864, at the Battle of Monocacy, Maryland, Gen. Lew Wallace stalled the advance of Confederate Gen. Jubal A. Early on Washington, D.C., buying time to strengthen the capital’s defenses. After the war, Wallace was governor of the New Mexico Territory, temporarily pardoned Billy the Kid, and wrote the famous novel Ben Hur.