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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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