Was Grant drunk at Shiloh?

Did Union officers report that Grant was drunk during the Battle of Shiloh?

Some hostile officers circulated the allegation, but direct testimony from Grant's staff rejects it and notes that the accusers were not with him during the battle.

Colonel William Rowley, who served closely with Grant from Fort Donelson onward, called the allegation an unmitigated slander and denied seeing him intoxicated. His testimony challenges accusations circulated by officers who were not near Grant during the battle and by rivals such as Halleck. Grant's earlier drinking problem does not establish that he was intoxicated while commanding at Shiloh. Unsafe drinking water and the absence of modern support for dependency form part of the proposed explanation for nineteenth-century drinking. Assessing the allegation therefore requires attention to the witnesses' proximity to Grant and to the command rivalries surrounding him.