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The four years of conflict that made up the US Civil War were characterised by industrialization,
poor leadership and enormous bloodshed. While the tremendous casualty rates of battles such
as Antietam and Gettysburg dominate popular history, other lesser known battles were fought,
each with their own tactical and strategic importance, and all with loss of life. The
Battle of Shiloh, fought on April 6 and 7 of 1862 proved to be a pivotal one in the
Western Theater of the war and set the stage for the eventual downfall of the Confederacy.
By the beginning of April, 1862 the US Civil War had been underway for almost exactly one
year. The campaigning in the Western Theater of the war had begun in earnest in September
of 1961 with the securing of Kentucky by Union forces led Major-General Ulysses S Grant’s
Army of the Tennessee. The Union now directly threatened the economic heart of the Confederacy
by stationing troops along the Mississippi River, the economic artery of the South. In
response to this and to protect Nashville, the Confederacy established Fort Donelson
and Fort Henry Cumberland Gap, situated on the Cumberland River, along the Tennessee-Kentucky
border. At the start of 1862, the 27,000-man strong
Army of the Tennessee began operations against Forts Henry and Donelson, with the strategic
goal of dislodging Confederate forces and allowing further operations into Western Tennessee
and into the economic heartland of the Confederacy. General Grant had his Army in position by
early February and a combined naval and ground assault was performed against the poorly defended
forts, with their surrender occurring on February 6th and February 16th respectively. This was
a significant blow to the Confederacy with the loss of approximately 15,000 troops. Furthermore,
by February 25 General Buell’s Army of the Ohio had captured Nashville Tennessee, 117
kilometers to the east of Grant’s Army of the Mississippi
Through March, General Grant, under the orders of Major General Henry Halleck moved approximately
44,000 men deep into Tennessee via the Tennessee River setting up a principle encampment at
Pittsburg Landing. Plans were also made for approximately 16,000 men of General Buell’s
Army of the Ohio, recently reorganized under Major General Halleck, to march from Nashville
to link up with General Grant before combat operations would begin. Many troops from both
Union armies were combat veterans, relatively well armed and supported by artillery in the
field. While Major General Halleck was organizing
Union forces in Tennessee, the newly created Confederate Army of Mississippi was being
gathered around Corinth, Mississippi, 32 kilometers south of Pittsburg Landing under General Albert
Sidney Johnston. Johnston had a reputation as an experienced combat officer and was considered
among the Confederacy’s top Generals. Of the 55,000 CSA troops at Corinth, 40,000 of
them began marching north on April 3 towards the encamped Union army. Knowing that
the Union forces had not setup fortifications or entrenchments, Johnston's plan called for
his troops to strike the Union army and drive them to the west, away from the Tennessee
River, and away from the support provided by Union gunboats. To the west of Pittsburg
Landing lay a swampy stretch of land that would make it easy to destroy the Union army.
However, Johnston’s march to the north was severely delayed by heavy rain causing units
to get stuck in the mud. His army was not in position to attack until the very early
morning of the 6th of April by which time his troops were tired and hungry due to poor
rationing. Surprisingly, the Union forces were still not aware of the CSA army preparing
to attack. General Grant, in a bid to avoid contacting the enemy and starting a major
battle, had not posted advance scouts or patrols. By chance in the early morning of April 6,
a night-time patrol-in-force encountered advancing Confederate troops under the command of CSA
General Bragg and began exchanging fire. The sound of gunfire alerted the Union army that
an engagement was underway and they began to form battlelines before the Confederate
forces could reach them. By 6am skirmishes were turning into more sustained contact and
by 9am Union soldiers at Pittsburg Landing were either in the line, or moving towards
it Union forces were deployed with the Tennessee
River holding the eastern flank and stretched westward, with the western flank anchored
by General Sherman around Shiloh Church. As General Johnston had decided to personally
lead his Confederates into battle, strategic command of the Confederate army fell to his
second in command, General Beauregard. Beauregard deviated from the plan of General Johnston
to push the Union forces westward and instead opted to direct his army to attack in waves,
to attempt to push the Union forces to the east, into the river.
As the morning progressed, due to poor command advancing Confederate troops became intermingled
with troops from other units. However, the intensity and relentlessness of the attack
forced the Union forces to fall back in attempts to form new defensive lines. General Sherman
and General McClernand’s troops retreated behind Shiloh Church.
By midmorning, on the eastern edge of the line of battle, flanked by General Hurlbut
and the Tennessee River to the east and Sherman and McClernand to the northwest, troops commanded
by Generals Prentiss and Wallace found themselves established in field next to a road. The position
along the so-called Sunken Road became a focal point for the Confederate assault through
the day, sustaining anywhere from 8 to 14 seperate charges. The fire coming into the
Union positions was so intense, that survivors described the sound of the minie-balls in
the air like the buzzing of angry hornets, earning the name Hornets Nest. The point in
the line held by General Prentiss, owing to the disorganized withdrawal of troops on either
side, came under particularly heavy fire, including concentrated fire from 50 cannons,
massed under CSA General Ruggles. This pressure was kept on The Hornets Nest
for seven hours. General Johnston was wounded while personally leading his troops in the
area. He ignored the wound and bled to death as the afternoon progressed, becoming the
highest ranking general to die in combat during the US Civil War. Command fell to General
Beauregard, who was at the rear and unable to assess the battle. Beauregard opted to
continue to assault the Hornets Nest instead of bypassing it and attacking the rest of
the Union forces, leaving the Nest surrounded, to be mopped up later.
The Hornets Nest did eventually fall and while a tactical victory on the battlefield for
the Confederates, the time and manpower expended by the Confederate army gave Grant’s men
time to fall back and establish new defensive positions outside of Pittsburg Landing. These
positions were anchored by the Tennnessee River to the east, were well set up and supported
by 50 cannons, as well as the gunboats on the river. Beauregard’s attacks on the Hornets
nest had resulted in the Union forces being entrenched along the river instead of driven
westward into the swampy ground. General Grant, was at Savannah, Tennessee,
when the fighting began, approximately 16 kilometers away from the battlefield. He was
recovering from a fall from a horse and upon hearing the artillery, began giving orders
including that General Nelson move his troops from Savannah, down the east side of the river,
to reserve positions opposite Pittsburgh Landing. Grant then proceeded himself downriver to
Crumps Landing to direct General Wallace to move his troops to the western side of the
battlefield, in support of General Sherman around Shiloh Church. General Wallace due
to confusion and lack of clarity in the orders given him, was slowly bringing his troops
down the instead of the River Road. If he had not been found and redirected by mid-afternoon,
his troops would been behind the Confederate troops, who had advanced past Shiloh Church
by that time. He was forced to reverse march his troops to maintain order and then move
to the River Road where his troops could march down to join the Union lines. His troops would
not reach the battlefield until 7pm that evening, as the fighting for the day concluded. In
addition to the arrival of these troops, the 15,000 of General Buells Army of the Ohio
began to arrive during the night of the 6th. As night fell, leadership on both sides felt
confident in their respective positions. General Beauregard remaining at Shiloh Church and
ignoring intelligence reports that indicated Union reinforcements had arrived, felt that
he merely had a mopping up operation left on his hands. Confederate troops were now
occupying and setup in Prentiss’s and Sherman’s camps from the previous days but their time
and focus was spent on finding food and shelter instead of resupplying ammunition and establishing
defensive positions. A thunderstorm swept through the area during late evening, making
for a miserable night for all troops. By the morning, approximately 20,000 Confederates
were heavily outnumbered by a reinforced Union army numbering approximately 45,000 men. As
early as 5:30am Union forces began to advance, led by Wallace’s fresh troops, setup on
the western edge of the line. The Confederate army was at this point more a mass of troops
rather than a cohesive force with unit organization all but non-existent. It took until mid-morning
for the CSA line to stabilize although they remained under heavy pressure and continued
to fall back as the day progressed. By late morning, the area of the Hornets Nest
had been recaptured, only to become the renewed focus of counterattacks from CSA troops led
by General Breckinridge. Despite local success, continued attacks by Union troops forced the
line back and the Hornets Nest was firmly recaptured with the line extending parallel
to the Hamburg-Purdy Road, in the area between the Hornet's Nest and Shiloh Church.
Beauregard assessed his situation and in the face of more than 10,000 casualties came to
the conclusion that he could no longer achieve victory. By late in the afternoon, he began
an ordered withdrawal southwards, back towards Corinth. They were pursued by a small number
of Union troops, led by General Wallace but little support was provided from the rest
of the army, now exhausted after two days of fighting and the pursuit forces fell back
northwards into their own lines. Confederate casualties of 10,699 men and Union
casualties of 13,047 men made the two day battle the bloodiest battle in American history
to that point. Hope of quick, decisive victory for either side faded as the bloody war of
attrition set in. Union forces had not only prevailed on the
field of battle but continued to hold the strategic initiative in the Western Theater
of the war. Overall, the Union victory at Shiloh allowed them to continue further operations
in Tennessee and Mississippi leading to the fall of both Memphis and later of Vicksburg,
giving the Union control of the Mississippi River and splitting the Confederacy in half.
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