Fort Donelson and Shiloh 95

Victory for the Confederates was no longerto be expected, save through some extraordinaryblunder of their antagonists. The entire expe-rience of our Civil War shows that in fightingquality American soldiers from all parts of thecountry are so evenly matched that, under similarconditions, even a slight superiority in numbersensures victory. A parity of conditions does notexist when the assailing party rushes against en-trenchments and is shot down faster than it canadvance; nor can it be said to exist when the com-manders are so unequally matched as, for example,at Chancellorsville, where Lee’s 60,000 men de-feated Hooker’s 120,000, because at every point ofcontact between the two armies during the battle,Lee’s superior intelligence opposed superior num-bers to those of Hooker. On the second day ofShiloh, where the conditions were nearly equal,there was nothing to interfere with the rule thatvictory takes sides with the heaviest battalions.The Union soldiers were also less fatigued. Beau-regard was hardly entitled on Monday morning toexpect victory, but a battle was preferable to animmediate retreat upon Corinth, harassed by anaggressive foe.

The contest opened soon after daybreak withNelson’s advance against Hardee along the Ham-burg road. By seven o’clock Lew Wallace ’s divi-