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A View of the Battle of Shiloh
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A View of the Battle of Shiloh
The development of the Battle of Shiloh started near
the mouth of the Tennessee River in Fort Henry and Fort Donaldson. The Federals
were able to capture these two forts, which gave the Union Armies a passageway
into the Tennessee Valley. These two victories were very important in tipping
the scales toward the North's advantage. General U.S. Grant was able to move his
forces up the Tennessee River. These events cause General Albert Sidney Johnston to
withdraw his troops farther into the South, which left Kentucky and Middle
Tennessee without an army to defend it. The major results of the withdrawal was
the capture of Nashville and the positioning of troops that would lead to the
Battle of Shiloh.
There were several reasons why the Battle of Shiloh
was fought. First, Johnston had just been forced to evacuate Nashville
in the face of a superior army. He had moved southward toward Corinth to
protect an important railroad center for the Confederacy. Johnston's
strategy was to strike first, before the Federal army overwhelmed his own and
lay seige to Corinth. Another reason for Shiloh was that Johnston was an
opportunist. His army, buoyed by reinforcements, now outnumbered Grant's,
and the southern commander wished to strike while he had the advantage. Fearing
that his window of opportunity would be lost if he delayed, Johnston went
on the offensive in an effort to smash Grant's army before Buell could arrive
to reinforce him. Another reason for Johnston's strike at Shiloh was the
fact Grant was totally unprepared. With his back to the Tennessee River, Grant had
failed to dig in around his perimeter, even though there had been several small
skirmishes with Confederate patrols days before the battle, leaving his
troops wide open for a surpise attack.
Armies Involved:
Confederate Commander - Albert S. Johnston
Deaths at Shiloh
Union - 13,000
Division of Iowa and Illinois commanded by General Benjamin Prentiss
Division of Ohio commanded by General Don Carlos Buell
Army of Mississippi commanded by General Albert S. Johnston
Confederate - 10,500
On the morning of April 6th, 1862 Johnston attacked Grant's forces. His army swept through the Union camp catching some soldiers still asleep. In fact, if it had not been for the heroic stand of General Benjamin Prentiss at the Sunken Road, Grant's army would have been smashed to pieces on the banks of the Tennessee River.
The general who was to save Grant's army on the 7th, showed up on the 6th to a scene of complete and utter chaos. The battle might not have ever been in doubt, or might have been a Union rout, had Buell's forces arrived a day earlier, having been delayed by the rebuilding of the Duck River Bridge. After Buell arrived at Grant's headquarters in Savannah, well ahead of his troops, cannon fire and musket fire could be heard from Pittsburgh Landing to the south. So he steamed up the Tennessee River to Pittsburgh Landing to survey the situation. As he came up the river, approaching the Landing, straggling troops could be seen cowering on the bank, first in small groups, but gradually increasing in number to almost full regiments. Buell stated that at the Landing there were between 4,000 and 5,000 confused and disorganized troops. They had been beaten back by the Confederates, and none seemed to know where their regiment was. Upon conferencing with General Grant, Buell sent steamers back to bring up Crittenden's division, which had arrived in the morning, and then went ashore with Grant. These fresh troops under Buell helped turn the momentum of battle toward the Union. Buell, in his official battle report, seemed to use the terrain as an excuse for the Union army having been caught so off guard. The woods were not so dense as to make troop movement impossible, but dense enough to screen enemy troop movements from observation. Buell went on to say that the Union armies' lack of knowledge of the road system also left them ill prepare, and completely unknowledgeable of possible enemy troop movements or strategies. Under Buell's command, there were 2,167 total casualties:
After the Battle of Shiloh, Union forces were too
exhausted to pursue that day. The next morning, after the end of the battle, the
fields looked terrible. The dead and wounded lay everywhere,
and burial of the dead soon began. The dead were buried mostly in shallow
places, being stacked at least five high for the most part. The dead horses
were put in large piles and ignited with kerosene. That same day Grant sent
W. T. Sherman after the retreating rebels. Ten miles down the road they ran into the
Confederate rear guard, and it was a disaster. Nathan Bedford Forrest clobbered
them, ending all thought of a pursuit at that time. The Federal army proceeded
their pursuit cautiously toward Corinth, after being knocked back by Forrest.
Beauregard and other Confederates had moved on to Corinth.
Confederate morale was high here at Corinth, considering they had more weapons
now because they had captured them from the Union Army. However, the Southern
army suffered badly from disease. Large numbers of the soldiers had gotten
pneumonia marching from Shiloh. They also suffered greatly from hunger. As
the news of the capture of New Orleans reached Confederate camps at Corinth,
Southern morale started to sink.
Also, after the battle, Grant was replaced by General Henry W. Halleck. Halleck decided not
to move his Union Army from Pittsburgh Landing until his army was at maximum
strength. On April 29th, 1862 however, he gave the order for the Union forces
to move on and advance toward Corinth after the Confederate Army. Even with
massive numbers of men now under the Union advance, the army was still terribly slow.
It would end up taking them around four weeks to reach the outskirts of Corinth,
but the Union army would not have any army conflicts or significant skirmishes
until they reached Corinth.
Yoseloff, Thomas
Cooling, B.Franklin
Shadows of the Storm:The Images of WAR 1861-1865 Doubleday
Jones, Robert H. Fields of Conflict
Cunningham, Edward O. Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862.
Campaigns of the Civil War Volume 4
A.S.Barnes and Co. Inc. (London) 1963
Fort Henry and Donelson: Key to the Confederate Heartland
Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press (1987)
Photographic History of the Civil War New York Review of Reviews Co.(1911)
and Co. Garden City , New York (1981)
Krieger Publishing: Malabar, Florida. (1998)
Louisiana State University (1966)