THE BATTLE OF SHILOH
April 6th-7th, 1862

The battle fought between Shiloh Church and the Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River was initiated by Confederate Generals Johnston and Beauregard in an attempt to catch the Union Armies divided. Ulysses S. Grant, Halleck's second in command, was camped on the Tennessee with 40,000 men in six divisions. He was awaiting the arrival of Buell's Corps with a further 20,000 men. The Confederate forces also numbered 40,000 and were divided into four corps together with Forest's cavalry brigade. As Grant's flanks were protected there was no alternative but a frontal attack. Johnston and Beauregard relied on surprise to tip the balance in their favour.
Setting out from Corinth on 3rd April, Johnston planned to attack on 4th but the inexperience of his marchers and the difficult wooded terrain meant that his troops were not in position until the evening of the 5th. By this stage, Beauregard wanted to call the whole thing off, convinced that surprise had been lost. He was wrong, but he should have been right. The men blundered along with all sorts of noise and inefficiency. Grant, however, was convinced that his enemy would not leave Corinth and ignored all indications to the contrary.
When the attack came on the morning of the 6th, therefore, Grant's army was still cooking its breakfast. Prentiss and Sherman were nearest to the point of attack and both abandoned their coffee rapidly. Nevertheless they managed to form a rough line and McClernand came up to fill the gap between them. Although many of the troops were green, most of them held to their guns, giving way only under heavy pressure. Prentiss was making a stand in the natural shallow trench of a sunken road, soon to become known as the "Hornets' Nest". As the day wore on he held his positionagainst twelve assaults and two hours of point-blank cannonade from 62 guns. Finally, outflanked and surrounded
he surrendered at 5.30 pm, his entire division killed, wounded or captured.
His stand had given Grant what he needed, which was time. Lew Wallace's division was camped some five miles away and Nelson's division of Buell's Corps was somewhere across the river and he sent out urgent messages hurrying them on. In the event neither arrived in time to fight that day but Grant managed to hold a line about one and a half miles back from his starting position. The Confederate attack became disjointed as units became mixed in the rough, wooded terrain. Matters were not helped much by the death of Albert Sidney Johnston who bled to death from a severed femoral artery.
Beauregard had received a false report that Buell was moving towards Decatur so he made no effort to withdraw overnight. Although he did not realise it, his position was hopeless. Grant had more than 20,000 fresh troops and outnumbered his opponent significantly. The Union attack initially took the Confederate troops by surprise and they gave ground but Beauregard was able to make an orderly withdrawal . Casualties on both sides were high: 13,047 Union and 10,694 Confederate, almost one quarter of the troops involved, figures which shocked both sides. There were cries for Grant's dismissal but the pragmatic Lincoln refused. "I can't spare this man" he said "He fights." Each side claimed some sort of victory but the strategic advantage was definitely with the Union for the South was never again strong enough to re-take Western Tennessee.