On February 22nd, 1862, Confederate President
Jefferson Davis was officially inaugurated in Richmond, Virginia - his previous
swearing-in having only been provisional. George Washington’s Birthday
was a chilly day in Richmond, and by midafternoon a steady rain fell over the
city. The dismal weather provided an appropriate backdrop for the gloom that prevailed in the
Southern capital. News from General Albert Sidney Johnston’s Western Department No. 2, an area
stretching from the Appalachians to the Ozarks, proved most disturbing. Rumors of a great
military disaster at Fort Donelson, seventy miles northwest of Nashville, Tennessee, added
to the gloom. While not mentioning any specifics, President Davis concedes in his inaugural address
that “the tide for the moment is against us.” A series of Southern setbacks in the West
had begun a month earlier. On January 19th, 1862, Major General George B. Crittenden’s
District of East Tennessee had been routed at the Battle of Mill Springs in Eastern Kentucky.
This defeat exposed Johnston’s right flank. East Tennessee, a pro-Union region, was vulnerable
to invasion by way of the Cumberland Gap. During the first week of February, a joint Federal
army-navy expedition, commanded by a relatively- obscure yet rising officer, Brigadier General
Ulysses S. Grant and his naval counterpart, Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote, entered northern
Tennessee and on February 6th, attacked Fort Henry on the Tennessee River. The Confederate fort fell
after a two-hour bombardment. The Tennessee River, a vital transportation artery, now lay open to
Federal invasion all the way to Florence, Alabama. Hysteria seized many Southern
citizens as Union gunboats raided upriver into northern Mississippi and Alabama. By February 12th, Fort Donelson, located twelve
miles east of Fort Henry on the Cumberland River, had been invested by the Northern army. After
a series of incredible blunders by Confederate generals John B. Floyd and Gideon J. Pillow,
the garrison surrendered on the sixteenth. More than just a defeat for the Confederacy,
the fall of Fort Donelson was a catastrophe. About one-third of Johnston’s forces
east of the Mississippi River, almost 13,000 men, had been captured. The vital
Confederate heartland of Middle Tennessee and northern Alabama had been pierced. Nashville
soon fell, and the Mississippi River stronghold of Columbus, Kentucky, had to be abandoned.
In southeastern Missouri, the Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River, Island Number
Ten, was under siege by Major General John Pope’s Federal army, and it was only a matter of time
before this fortification fell to the Yankees, allowing the Federals to establish a
foothold on the Mississippi itself. To make matters even worse, inbound Confederate
reinforcements from Major General Earl Van Dorn’s Army of the West, moving to link up with
Johnston’s army after moving through Arkansas and capturing St. Louis, Missouri, had been
decisively defeated by a numerically-inferior Union army led by Brigadier General Samuel R.
Curtis at the Battle of Pea Ridge in early March. All across Middle and West Tennessee, General
Johnston’s forces were reeling south in disorder. Born and raised in Kentucky and an 1826 graduate
of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Albert Sidney Johnston had become one
of the country’s most dedicated soldiers. Possessing a commanding presence
and a magnetic personality, Johnston demonstrated high moral
character and great dignity. A close friend of Confederate President Jefferson
Davis, Johnston was considered by Davis to be the finest officer in the Confederate States
Army during this early stage of the war. Now gravely concerned about the Tennessee
River route of Union invasion into the Southern heartland, President Jefferson Davis belatedly
attempts to repair the damage dealt to the Western Theater. Under his orders, the Confederate War
Department orders 5,000 Southern troops under Brigadier General Daniel Ruggles from New Orleans
and a 10,000-man corps from Major General Braxton Bragg’s Department of Alabama and West Florida to
join Johnston in the north. Besides more troops and equipment, President Davis also sends Johnston
another field commander - General P. G. T. Beauregard, the popular hero of the South for his
prominent role in both the Battle of Fort Sumter and Battle of Manassas.
Unfortunately for Johnston, Beauregard arrives in the Western Theater just as
Johnston’s Kentucky defensive line is collapsing. Alarmed by the unorganized and weak state
of Confederate armed forces in the West, General Johnston’s talented new second-in-command
is pessimistic about the worsening situation, and even considers returning to Virginia.
Still critically ill, having had throat surgery before leaving Richmond, Beauregard
would be plagued for several months in 1862 by a chronic bronchial infection and high fever,
which greatly impairs his military effectiveness. One serious problem was brought
about by the fall of Fort Henry; the wide Tennessee River now separated
Johnston’s immediate field army into two wings. Beauregard is ordered by Johnston to take
command of Major General Leonidas Polk’s corps, stationed in western Kentucky and
Tennessee, while Johnston himself retreats southward through Middle Tennessee
with Major General William J. Hardee’s corps, along with Major General George Crittenden’s
shattered division from East Tennessee. With Federal forces poised to ascend the
Tennessee River and carry the war southward into North Alabama and Mississippi, both
Johnston and Beauregard see the critical need to concentrate their divided forces and defend
the important Memphis & Charleston Railroad. A vital array of commerce, the railroad was the
only all-weather east-west road in the South that linked the Mississippi River to the Atlantic
seaboard on the East Coast. The location selected by the Confederates to collect and organize
their converging force is the strategic railroad junction of Corinth, a small town of about 1,200
inhabitants located in northeast Mississippi. There, the north-south Mobile & Ohio Railroad,
linking Kentucky with the Gulf of Mexico, crosses the Memphis & Charleston’s east-west axis.
Using the steam-powered technology of the modern industrial age, the Confederates transport
thousands of soldiers and tons of equipment, both on land and water, from every corner
of the western Confederacy to Corinth. By the end of March, about 45,000 men, present for
duty, have been amassed in northern Mississippi and southwest Tennessee. The arriving Confederate
forces are reorganized into a new and somewhat unwieldy four-corps structure called the Army of
Mississippi. Major General Polk commands the First Corps; Major General Bragg commands the Second
Corps; Major General Hardee leads the Third Corps; and Brigadier General John C. Breckenridge is
given command of Crittenden’s former division, now rebranded as the Reserve Corps.
The Southern army at Corinth bears a hodgepodge appearance. Major General Bragg, the
strict disciplinarian, contemptuously refers to it as a "mob." There are soldiers from all across the
Confederacy in its ranks: Louisianans, Alabamians, Texans, Mississippians, and Tennesseeans
all band together to form this rag-tag army. A young Louisiana soldier notes the varied dress
of the different commands - some wear uniforms, some half uniforms, some no uniforms at all,
wearing the civilian dress they brought from home. In addition, several different kinds of
battle flags are carried among the four corps. The most serious problem in Johnston's western army,
however, is the lack of proper firearms. Perhaps less than 10,000 modern rifled muskets are in use.
General Johnston had arranged for the shipment of several thousand British Enfields, which had
reached Southern ports through the Federal naval blockade, but mostly a motley collection
of old smoothbores, flintlocks, squirrel rifles, and shotguns can be found among the army. Morale,
nonetheless, is generally high in the Southern army. Upon these untested men now rests the hope
of restoring Confederate fortunes in the West. The news of the string of victories in the Western
Theater electrifies the North. The New York Tribune prints an extra: “Freedom! Fort Donelson
Taken!” A gun salute is fired on Bunker Hill in Boston, business stops on the Chicago Merchant’s
Exchange and the “Star Spangled Banner” is sung. In Washington, the news is greeted with wild
cheering in both houses of Congress. Many believe that the war will be over by the end
of the year - perhaps by the Fourth of July. Taking credit for the Union success
is forty-seven-year-old Major General Henry Wager Halleck, commander of
the Department of the Missouri. Aloof and stern, he seeks complete autonomy for
himself. Although intense pressure from the White House had been necessary to get Halleck to move,
the St. Louis commander had seen the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers as the true point of
penetration in the middle South. With the twin victories of Forts Henry and Donelson
under his belt, he boldly requests a merged western department, with himself at the head.
Halleck’s wish is granted on March 11th, when he is appointed to command
over the entire Western Theater. “Old Brains” immediately directs Major General Don
Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio to rendezvous with an expedition under Major General Charles F. Smith
at the small river town of Savannah, Tennessee, 110 miles southwest of Nashville. Rather than
use the river, Buell decides to march his troops overland, believing he can move in less time and
clean out pockets of resistance as he advances. Buell underestimates his task. The
Army of the Ohio, comprised of five divisions with 37,000 troops, snakes out
of Nashville on the night of March 15th. At Columbia, the Federals find the turnpike bridge
over the Duck River in flames. Recent rains have swollen the river to two hundred yards across.
New bridges are not completed until March 30th, and by then the river is fordable. As a result,
Major General Buell’s march, which on paper could have been made in nine days, requires twenty-two.
Major General Smith's expedition, meanwhile, penetrates deep into enemy territory, reaching
Savannah. A town of about 600 mostly loyal Unionist inhabitants who had voted two to
one against secession, Savannah consists of one small street "lined with dilapidated
weatherworn, wooden buildings," according to one Federal soldier. From this base, two raids
are conducted on Confederate communications. Throughout the month, Major General
Ulysses S. Grant’s Army of the Tennessee begins to concentrate its six divisions around
Savannah. Grant sets up the majority of his army’s camps on the west bank of the Tennessee River at
a riverboat landing known as Pittsburg Landing. On March 17th, Grant makes his headquarters at
the large white brick home of William H. Cherry, sitting atop the Savannah
bluff overlooking the river. Despite its vulnerability, Pittsburg Landing does
offer some advantages. The rolling plateau back from the landing provides ample campground
for a large army. Three major watersheds, Snake Creek to the north, Owl Creek to
the west, and Lick Creek to the south, all tributaries of the Tennessee River, are now
out of their banks. Backwatered by the rising river, these flooded bottomlands protect the
Federal flanks. The terrain, almost a wilderness in places, is composed of steep banked ravines,
which can be easily defended, Several farms with small fields and orchards dot the countryside.
About two miles southwest from the landing, on the Corinth-Pittsburg Road, sits a one-room
log Methodist church called Shiloh Meeting House. Grant's troop disbursement on the
forested plateau is highly questionable. Holding the advance are two untested divisions
- Major General William Tecumseh Sherman's Fifth Division on the right astride
the Corinth and Hamburg-Purdy Roads, and Brigadier General Benjamin M. Prentiss’
Sixth Division on the left across the Eastern Corinth road. The three combat-tested veteran
divisions, the First Division of Major General John A. McClernand, the Fourth Division of
Brigadier General Stephen A. Hurlbut, and the Second Division of Brigadier General William H. L.
Wallace, camp in the rear, closer to the landing. The collective Federal force from the Army
of the Tennessee numbers just over 48,000 men encamped at Pittsburg Landing. Lew Wallace's
division, erecting camps inland from Crump's Landing along the Purdy Road westward for five
miles to Adamsville, totals 7,500 effectives. Morale remains high - almost
too high. One Federal concludes, "I think the rebellion is getting nearly played
out, and I expect we will be home soon.” A steady trickle of Rebel deserters come into camp, all
telling stories of a demoralized Southern army. The troops' overconfidence is shared at army
headquarters. Grant boasts to his wife, "I want to whip these rebels once more in a big fight.”
On April 5th, a day before the battle would begin, Grant sends a message to General Halleck
stating, "I have scarcely the faintest idea of an attack being made upon us, but will
be prepared should such a thing take place." General Albert Sidney Johnston had worked
frantically to mold his growing army, but on the night of April 2nd, time ran out.
Major General Benjamin F. Cheatham, commanding the Second Division of Major General Leonidas Polk’s
First Corps, which was positioned twenty-five miles north of Corinth at Bethel Station and
Purdy, Tennessee, reports that Lew Wallace's division is moving west in force - perhaps to
make another raid on the Mobile & Ohio Railroad. In truth, Wallace is only overreacting to an
earlier reconnaissance by Cheatham's cavalry. Coupled with this intelligence comes
troubling news that Buell's army is at last beyond the Duck River.
Beauregard advises Johnston: "Now is the moment to advance and
strike the enemy at Pittsburg Landing." General Johnston directs Beauregard to formulate
the attack order. The resulting directive has often been called a formula for disaster.
The Louisiana general plans for an attack in successive waves, with each corps being in a
parallel line behind the other. It is Johnston's stated objective to maneuver his Confederate Army
of Mississippi so as to turn Grant's left, cutting Federal retreat to the river, and then drive the
enemy back into the flooded Owl Creek bottoms. To accomplish such a maneuver, however,
more combat strength will be required on the Confederate right. Beauregard's plan instead
places equal strength across the entire front. As it is, Johnston approves and
accepts Beauregard's complex plan. Beauregard's rigid marching timetable also quickly
falls apart. Not all the troops are concentrated at Corinth, and the Confederate plans require a
coordinated movement by thousands of men scattered across a thirty-mile-wide area to converge by
various country roads to the selected point of concentration, an important intersection on
the Ridge Road fourteen miles north of Corinth. That point, known by a nearby
local farmhouse called "Michie's", lay eight miles southwest of Pittsburg
Landing. The movement of an inexperienced army twenty miles in a single day simply
proves impossible. For complicated reasons, Major General William J. Hardee's
Third Corps, spearheading the march, holds up the advance until 3:00 PM on April 3rd.
Horrid roads, poor guides, and green troops cause further chaos. By Friday morning, April 4th - as a
spring storm sends rain falling in torrents - both Hardee's and Bragg's corps are twelve hours behind
schedule. In fact, Breckinridge's Reserve Corps, stationed at Burnsville, Mississippi, does not
move northward until the afternoon of the fourth. A grim General Johnston reschedules the attack
for Saturday morning, April 5th, but that night the heavy rain continues to fall. More maddening
delays occur on the fifth, as the rain continues until early afternoon. All of Hardee's men are
deployed by midmorning, but Bragg's Second Corps is still not ready by noon. Somehow, the
general has lost an entire division. Johnston uncharacteristically explodes and goes in search
of the missing troops. He finds them on the road, miles in the rear, blocked by a confusing
traffic snarl involving Polk's wagons and artillery at the Michie's intersection. It
is 4:00 PM before the clogged intersection is cleared and Bragg's missing division can tramp
four miles eastward to its final attack positions. For a second time since leaving
Corinth, the attack has to be postponed. That night, Johnston's army stands poised with
General Hardee's forward line of battle positioned a mile south of the front-line Federal
camps. Despite warnings to keep silent, many of the men have carelessly discharged
their wet weapons to see if they will fire. On the afternoon of April 5th, Johnston,
Beauregard, and Bragg, with their staffs, ride along the line, receiving rousing cheers
from the men, despite efforts to silence them. In a meeting of Confederate generals that
evening, Beauregard openly expresses his concern. The enemy has surely been alerted to their
presence, he argues, since several skirmishes have been fought between the Confederate advance
and Federal pickets. He warns that the element of surprise had been lost. Also, the men are
exhausted from their three-day march and some had used up all their rations. In Beauregard's
opinion, the army should retire to Corinth. Bragg concurs in the assessment. Johnston,
perhaps sensing his great hour is at hand, reasons that the Federals could have no greater
front between the two creeks than his army. "I would fight them if they were a million,"
he resolutely declares to his commanders. The attack will begin at dawn as planned. And
so, in the early hours of April 6th, 1862, the Battle of Shiloh, or Battle of
Pittsburg Landing, is poised to begin. In the early morning hours of April 6th, 1862,
Union Colonel Everett Peabody, commanding the 1st Brigade of Brigadier General Benjamin M. Prentiss’
Sixth Division, organizes a patrol of three companies from the 21st Missouri and two companies
from the 12th Michigan, under overall command of Major James Edwin Powell. Unlike many officers
in the Federal camp around Pittsburg Landing, Colonel Peabody, with his 1st Brigade positioned
in the forward lines of the entire army camp, suspects that the Confederates are up to
something, and had expressed his concerns to General Prentiss, who dismissed them. Acting
totally on his own authority, Colonel Peabody orders Major Powell - an experienced Old Army
officer - to march down the Seay Field road and seek out the enemy. Quietly, the
Federals file off into the darkness. As Major Powell’s patrol nears the
Corinth-Pittsburg Road, three-quarters of a mile southwest of camp, they are suddenly
fired upon by Confederate cavalry vedettes. Not realizing the danger ahead, the Major
hurriedly forms his 250 men into a skirmish line and advances into J. J. Fralye’s field.
Ahead, shrouded under the cover of darkness, is Brigadier General Sterling A. M. Wood’s
3rd Brigade of Major General William J. Hardee’s Third Corps. At long last, the Federals
have discovered the advancing Confederate army. Major Aaron B. Hardcastle's 3rd
Mississippi Infantry Battalion, armed with 280 muskets, have been thrown forward
as skirmishers for General Wood’s brigade. At about 4:50 AM, as the shadowy forms of Powell's
skirmishers close to within two hundred yards, Major Hardcastle’s Missisippians open fire with
a deadly musket volley from the treeline. The Battle of Shiloh, or Battle of Pittsburg Landing,
had begun. For the next hour, as sunlight begins to streak the sky, both sides of skirmishers
doggedly trade blows, each refusing to give way. From his brigade headquarters, Colonel Peabody
hears the faint musket shots to the southwest. A messenger arrives from Major Powell, indicating
that his patrol is being driven back. Moments later, the firing off in the distance doubles
in its intensity. The colonel jumps to his feet and immediately orders the long roll sounded
throughout the camp. General Prentiss soon gallops into camp and angrily accuses Colonel Peabody
of bringing on a general engagement with the enemy - a violation of Major General Halleck’s
standing order. Peabody, mounted on a horse, snaply salutes and is heard to say, "If I
brought on the fight, I am to lead the van." From his headquarters at Cherry Mansion on the
opposite side of the Tennessee River in Savannah, Major General Ulysses S. Grant and his
field staff are preparing to eat breakfast when they hear the opening shots of the battle
across the river. With their breakfast brought to a halt, Grant looks to his staff and
says, “Gentlemen, the ball is in motion.” Colonel Peabody advances his troops about
a quarter-mile south in line of battle and halts on a slightly inclined wooded
ridge on a branch of Shiloh Creek. There, Peabody’s men listen intently to the dim of musket
fire drawing closer from the south. Stumbling ahead in the semi-darkness is General Hardee’s
assault line, some 9,000 Confederate soldiers. Meanwhile, Colonel Madison Miller, leading
Prentiss’ 2nd Brigade, hurriedly forms his brigade on Peabody’s left, taking position on
the south edge of Peter Spain’s field at 7:30. Captain Andrew Hickenlooper’s 5th Ohio Battery
unlimbers in the northwest corner of Spain Field, east of the Eastern Corinth Road. Also
anchoring Miller's right is Captain Emil Munch’s 1st Minnesota Battery,
placed astride the country road. At about 7:30 AM, Peabody’s troops, standing
in line, suddenly see the enemy emerge from the woods ahead. Confronting the Federals
is the right wing of Wood's brigade, along with Colonel Robert G. Shaver's
1st Brigade of mostly Arkansas troops. The opening Federal volleys cause the Southerners
to stagger to a halt, and some units, such as the 55th Tennessee, even run pell-mell to the rear
shouting, "Retreat!, Retreat!" However, within one hour, Peabody's line has been overlapped,
and his men fall back to their encampments. Although suffering four wounds, Peabody remains
on the field, attempting to rally the troops. He suddenly throws up his arms, reels back, and falls
dead from his horse - a fatal bullet had struck him in the head, killing the colonel instantly.
At about 8:00 AM, Miller’s 2nd Brigade is attacked by Brigadier General Adley H. Gladden’s 1st
Brigade of Jones M. Withers’ 2nd Division in Bragg’s Second Corps. The Southerners
advance under a galling storm of musketry and artillery fire, and soon, hundreds of men
recoil across the entire Southern line. General Gladden is carried off the field mortally wounded.
Despite horrible losses, the Confederates launch a second assault at 8:30, with Gladden’s men
reinforced by Brigadier General James Chalmers’ 2nd Brigade of Missisippians and Tennesseans. The
Southern advance collides with Miller’s front. An intense fire consumes the Federal line,
and within minutes of this renewed attack, 59 of Prentiss’ artillery horses
are shot down in their traces. Hickenlooper loses two guns, but Captain Munch,
although wounded, gets all of his pieces away. The badly scattered Federal ranks from Peabody’s
brigade stream back through their tents, firing from behind trees and bales of hay. Ambulances
race to the rear as frantic soldiers jump on, fighting off their comrades. Surgeon Samuel
Eels of the 12th Michigan is tending the wounded when Confederates suddenly burst into
the hospital tent and level their guns at him. By 8:45 AM, Peabody’s 1st Brigade has been rolled
up, and his camps were in enemy possession. Panic strikes many of the young Federals from
Miller’s brigade as they flee through their camps. The victorious Confederates,
under the supervision of Johnston, Hardee, and Bragg, sweep forward.
By 9:00 AM, Prentiss’ two brigades, a total of 5,400 effectives, have been
swept away, and the Confederates appear on the verge of a great victory in the
wooded thickets of western Tennessee. At 7:00 AM, Major General William Tecumseh
Sherman, commanding the Fifth Division of Grant’s army, rides into Rhea Field with his staff.
As he looks south through his binoculars at a body of enemy troops in the distance, he remarks
that there might be a sharp skirmish. An officer then abruptly calls his attention to the right.
Sherman views a line of Confederate skirmishers emerging from the woods lining the creek to the
west. Throwing up his hand, Sherman exclaims: "My God, we are attacked!" Shots ring out and
the general's orderly falls dead from his horse, and a bullet strikes Sherman’s raised hand.
Sherman instructs Colonel Jesse J. Appler of the 53rd Ohio, deployed in skirmish
line after hearing the earlier shots, to hold his ground, and then gallops off
to mobilize the rest of his 5th Division. Advancing through the swampy thickets choking
the valley of Shiloh Branch are the troops of thirty-four-year-old Irish-born Patrick R.
Cleburne. His regiments become separated as they struggle forward through the boggy morass.
Cleburne himself is unceremoniously thrown from his horse into the mud. Clearing the ravine, two
of his regiments on the right of the brigade line, the 6th Mississippi and 23rd Tennessee
Infantry, advance eastward unsupported against the 53rd Ohio's position.
The two Confederate regiments meet a hail of bullets from Appler's regiment and the rest of
Colonel Jesse Hildebrand’s 3rd Brigade posted in line to the north. Also, severe blasts of Union
artillery fire from Captain Allen C. Waterhouse's Battery E, 1st Illinois Light Artillery, deployed
in front of its camp on a knoll along the northern end of Rhea Field, and Captain Samuel Barrett's
Battery B, 1st Illinois Light Artillery, located four hundred yards northwest at Shiloh Church,
tear huge holes in the Confederate formations. When under the murderous Federal crossfire, the
23rd Tennessee breaks and flees, and the men of the 6th Mississippi attempt two additional
solo assaults. By the time the smoke clears, some 300 of the regiment's 425 men lay dead and
wounded in Rhea Field, a staggering 70.5 percent. At the very moment when Appler's troops are
winning the brief, murderous engagement, the colonel suddenly cries out: "Retreat, and save
yourselves!" The Buckeyes flee north in disorder, with Appler in the lead. Falling back
across East Branch ravine of Shiloh Creek, Appler reforms part of the 53rd Ohio behind
the 3rd Brigade of Colonel Julius Raith, part of Major General McClernand’s First Division,
which had been ordered forward to reinforce Sherman’s division. Appler's men continue to
combat the Confederates for about another hour, when the shaken colonel again loses his nerve
and orders another retreat. Fleeing northward, most of the 53rd Ohio flees toward the landing.
Despite being reinforced by Raith's brigade, by 9:30 AM, as more Confederate brigades are
thrown into the fray, Jesse Hildebrand's brigade begins to fall apart. The defense of Sherman's
left now rests on two artillerists from Chicago - Captain Barrett and Captain Waterhouse.
Astride the Corinth Road near the church, Barrett's battery holds firm as its
infantry support on the left fades, while Waterhouse continues to defend the northern
end of Rhea Field southeast of the church. Initially, Colonel Ralph Buckland's 4th Brigade,
occupying Sherman's center, had held both the numerical and terrain advantage in the fight
against the left segment of Cleburne's brigade. Even so, when Cleburne's Confederates explode
from a creek bottom, Buckland's line is hit with such a force that for a short time, his
men waver. The Federals hold firm, however, driving Cleburne's disorganized regiments
back into the woods bordering Shiloh Creek. At 8:30, elements of the second Confederate
battle line, part of the Second Corps commanded by the martinet Major General Braxton Bragg,
slam against Sherman's position. Already the Southern lines are beginning to intermingle and
command line of authority is rapidly disappearing. Brigadier General Patton Anderson's
brigade of Bragg's corps assaults Waterhouse's battery but is subjected to a
terrible enfilade fire from Barrett's guns. At 9:00, Colonel Robert M. Russell's and
Brigadier General Bushrod Johnson's brigades, of Polk's First Corps, join in the chaotic fray
below Shiloh Church. About to be overwhelmed, Waterhouse's cannoneers hastily withdraw their
guns, but not before three pieces are captured. After the collapse of Prentiss's division,
General Johnston directs five Confederate brigades to advance north and west behind Peabody's
captured camp. This mass movement turns Sherman's left flank, helps break up Hildebrand's
brigade, and forces Sherman to abandon his camps. The Union general orders Buckland and Colonel
John A. McDowell, whose brigade anchors Sherman's right to Owl Creek, to retire their commands upon
McClernand's First Division. General McClernand has deployed his division in line of battle along
the Hamburg-Purdy road, a quarter-mile behind Sherman's initial front. Suffering from a nasty
hand wound, for nearly three hours Sherman has put up a stubborn defense at Shiloh Church - a Hebrew
name ironically translating as “Place of Peace.” By late morning, the initial Confederate drive
is beginning to lose momentum. Many Southern soldiers have stopped to plunder captured Federal
camps. When General Johnston discovers an officer looting in Prentiss's camps, he chides him:
"None of that, sir. We are not here for plunder." Observing that he had shamed the man in front
of his men, the general softens his tone and, picking up a tin cup, quips: "Let
this be my share of the spoils today." Serious tactical problems have also developed for
the Confederates. Since the capture of Prentiss's camp, the initial sweeping right flank movement
has degenerated into a series of massive frontal assaults. Hundreds of men have been killed and
wounded in the opening assaults on Prentiss and Sherman, and attrition is already a serious
Confederate problem. The organization of several brigades have been broken; Patrick Cleburne's
and Bushrod Johnson's brigades are shattered in furious disorganized frontal attacks against
the Union right defending the main Corinth road. Before noon, Brigadier General John
C. Breckinridge's troops, along with Brigadier General John K. Jackson's brigade,
slam head-on into Brigadier General Stephen A. Hurlbut's division and John McArthur's brigade
at the Bell farm. This leaves only Chalmers's Mississippi and Tennessee brigade, along with
Colonel James Clanton's 1st Alabama Cavalry, to attempt a sweep around the Federal left flank,
deployed on a commanding ridge north of the confluence of Locust Grove Branch and Lick Creek.
Commanding the isolated Federal brigade is a 46-year old former Chicago lawyer, Colonel
David Stuart. Assigned to Sherman’s division, Stuart’s 2nd Brigade of three regiments had been
posted by General Sherman to guard the Hamburg road ford over Lick Creek. The 55th Illinois
Infantry, the extreme left of Grant's army, had pitched their tents in Larkin
Bell's peach orchard. To Stuart's right, Hurlbut's division deploys slightly northwest at
Sarah Bell's farm, several hundred yards away. At about 11:00 AM, Stuart’s infantry, unsupported
by artillery, receive the full brunt of Chalmers’ and Jackson’s attacks. As a result of the
initial Confederate artillery bombardment, Stuart loses all contact with one of his
regiments, which has retreated several hundred yards northwest to a new defensive position behind
the camp. Heavily outnumbered, Stuart is forced to retire his remaining men several hundred yards to
a prominent wooded ridge located east of his camp. There, under the cover of the trees,
he pieces together a stable defense, with his two shorthanded regiments. For two
hours, this small force of 1,200 men stubbornly contest Chalmers' further advance north.
Finally, having suffered heavy casualties and with their ammunition exhausted, Stuart
orders his hard-pressed soldiers from the line. Moving northwest through several deep ravines,
Stuart's men retreat to the River Road behind Hurlbut's and McArthur's men, who now assume
full responsibility for holding the Union left. Reaching the road, Stuart marches his
survivors to the landing, where he obtains ammunition for their depleted cartridge boxes.
Each side produces many heroes that bloody day at Shiloh. Colonel David Stuart, fighting a prewar
reputation as a scoundrel, would be one of them. The rugged terrain across the battlefield,
combined with pockets of stiff Federal resistance, continue to stall the Confederate advance.
Since the Confederate corps had become badly intermingled, the corps commanders were forced
to divide the wide three-mile front into four sections - Hardee holds the left; Polk, the left
center; and Bragg the right center. Behind them, Beauregard continues to monitor the battle
from his field headquarters on the Corinth road south of Shiloh Church. Meanwhile, Breckinridge
has moved to the right of the line where Sidney Johnston provides overall leadership.
Between 11:00 and 11:30, in close quarter, hand-to-hand fighting, the massive assault by
the Confederate left overruns the Union right, inflicting horrendous Federal casualties,
and capturing seventeen cannon along with most of McClernand's camp. The Union line
retreats 1,500 yards north into Jones Field, where Generals Sherman and McClernand work
frantically to reform their shattered ranks. Rallying their ravaged forces in Jones field,
McClernand and Sherman manage to secure much needed fresh soldiers. Sherman locates McDowell's
missing brigade in Sowell Field to the west and quickly advances his Illinois-Iowa-Ohio brigade
south against the Confederate left. On Sherman's left, General McClernand's battered division,
now reinforced by two Iowa regiments sent forward from the landing by Grant, also advances.
At noon, a united counter-charge by the Union right rolls across the rugged terrain moving
south toward Woolf Field, where the Federals capture the guns of Cobb's Kentucky Battery.
Caught off-guard, the Confederates are pressed back to the Hamburg-Purdy Road. Alarmed by this
new threat, Beauregard locates Colonel Robert Trabue's brigade, the only fresh brigade left in
the army, and advances it against the Union right to stem further advance. Meanwhile, along with
Hardee and Polk, Beauregard works to reorganize the disorganized and commingled forces on the
Confederate left to regain the initiative from the determined Federals. For nearly two hours,
the tide of battle rolls back and forth, first one side gaining ground, then losing it back to
the enemy. Thousands fall on both sides. However, by 2:30 PM, the Federals have once again
been pressed back north into Jones Field. In answer to Prentiss's early morning
pleas for assistance, at 8:30 AM, Brigadier General William H. L. Wallace advanced
two of his brigades from their camps located west of the landing to the edge of Duncan's Farm
on the Eastern Corinth Road. There, Wallace's advance brigade under Colonel James Tuttle strikes
the remnants of Prentiss's shattered division one and one-half miles southwest of the
landing. Realizing that Prentiss's division has been defeated, Wallace's men quickly
form a defensive line to block further Southern advance up the Eastern Corinth Road.
Some 3,700 of Wallace's 5,800 available troops are placed along an old wagon road that connects
the Corinth Road with the Hamburg-Savannah Road. In between Wallace's left, south of the Eastern
Corinth Road, and the right of Hurlbut's line located slightly southeast at Sarah Bell's Field,
about 500 men from the remnants of Prentiss's broken division, join 575 members of the 23rd
Missouri who had marched inland from the landing, taking position after 10:00 o’clock. In all,
Wallace, Prentiss, and Hurlbut deploy about 5,700 Federal infantry along a small
half-mile section of the Union front. Supporting the Federal infantry massed along the
"Sunken Road," as the old wagon road would become known in the decades following the battle,
were six batteries of artillery totaling twenty-five guns. Fronting four hundred yards
of the northern half of the Union position, which faces west-southwest, is Joseph Duncan's
large field. The southern half of this center section of the Union front runs through a dense
thicket south of the field. At midmorning, Grant had personally inspected the position and ordered
his division commanders to hold at all hazards. As the Union center stiffens, Major General
Benjamin F. Cheatham personally leads Colonel William H. Stephens’ brigade into position near
the junction of the Hamburg-Purdy and Eastern Corinth roads, 450 yards southwest of the Federal
center. Following an hour-long artillery duel, the Southerners are ordered to advance into
the dense underbrush at the double quick. They make it to within one hundred paces
of the Union line before being driven back by a galling fire. Repulsed with heavy
casualties, Cheatham retires the brigade and moves to join Breckinridge in the attacks
on Hurlbut's front in Sarah Bell's field. As Cheatham extracts Stephens' cut-up command,
several intermingled Confederate commands, about 3,500 men under General Cleburne and Brigadier
General Alexander P. Stewart and Brigadier General Thomas C. Hindman, attempt a second assault on the
Federal center. As the Confederates start forward, Colonel Robert Shaver discovers that his 2,000
men have run out of ammunition. Unable to proceed further, Shaver retires his brigade before the
Southern line has advanced to within 250 yards of the Union front. Weakened by Shaver's
rapid withdrawal, the remaining attacking Confederates are easily beaten off by the
heavy volume of Union musketry and cannon fire. At noon, Major General Braxton Bragg
arrives opposite the Federal center and assumes command of Confederates facing the
thicket. Despite the two previous failures, Bragg continues to launch piecemeal Confederate
attacks by ordering Colonel Randall Lee Gibson's brigade of Louisiana and Arkansas troops into
the Federal meat-grinder. Gibson's brigade, like those Confederate units who had earlier
attacked the Union center, stumbles forward through a near impenetrable thicket lining the
Eastern Corinth Road south of Duncan Field. Impressed by the sound of the enemy bullets and
shrapnel cutting through the dense underbrush, which seems to whizz and buzz like a swarm of
hornets, Gibson's survivors dub the thicket the "Hornets' Nest." The Federals reserve
their fire until the Confederates are within about twenty yards of them. They
would then simultaneously open fire, mowing down Southern troops with
deadly precision in each volley. His brigade repulsed by the murderous Federal
fire, Randall Gibson desperately appeals to General Bragg for artillery support, but
the general only orders another assault. When Colonel Henry Wakins Allen of the 4th
Louisiana Infantry Regiment questions the order, Bragg snaps, "Colonel Allen, I want no
faltering now." The wounded Louisiana colonel, shot in the mouth, a bullet having passed
through both cheeks, waves his sword in one hand and, supporting the regimental colors
in his other, shouts: "Here boys, is as good a place as any on this battlefield to meet death."
And meet death they do. In two short hours, the brigade is badly damaged in three, perhaps four,
futile assaults into the well-defended thicket. About 2:30 PM, Gibson withdraws his survivors to
a position of support in the rear. Never accepting his role in ordering near suicidal frontal attacks
against superior enemy forces occupying a position of great natural strength, Bragg later writes
to his wife that Gibson was "an arrant coward." With Gibson's brigade knocked out
of action, Colonel Shaver's brigade, with three regiments - about 1,500 men present
and resupplied with fresh ammunition - is called forward from Prentiss's captured camp to attack
the Federal center again. Surging into the thicket, Lieutenant Colonel John M. Dean of the
7th Arkansas leads the men of his regiment to within twenty paces of the enemy line occupying
the old wagon road before falling under a hail of bullets. Finding his dead body, an Iowa captain
respectfully places a handkerchief over his face. At about 3:30 PM, Patton Anderson's brigade
redeploys from where it had been fighting for six hours on the Confederate left to a position
opposite the Union center and proceeds to bash itself against the stubborn Hornets' Nest.
In moving through the underbrush, Anderson meets a portion of the 13th Louisiana Infantry of
Gibson's brigade retiring from the dense thicket. Anderson reported later, "Its officer informed
me that I could not get through the brush.” He nonetheless pushes his men on through a fierce
fire until forced back. Anderson later stated, "The thicket was so dense that it was impossible
for a company officer to be seen at platoon distance.” Anderson’s men, like several thousand
Southern soldiers before them, are repulsed by the Federal firestorm. From the Federal perspective,
the fighting is equally vicious. The 9th Illinois Infantry suffers the highest casualties of
any Illinois regiment at the Battle of Shiloh, losing 366 of their men in the brutal battle
in the Hornets’ Nest. The 8th Iowa Infantry clashes in bloody hand-to-hand bayonet combat with
Louisiana troops during the thick of the fighting, and many of the regiment’s men are captured.
Death is everywhere in the Hornets’ Nest. Acting more like a unit commander than an army
head, General Johnston becomes obsessed with the fighting around the Sarah Bell peach orchard, to
the southeast of the Hornets' Nest. Two brigades of Breckinridge's corps, those of Colonel Winfield
S. Statham and Brigadier General John S. Bowen, are ordered across the Hamburg-Purdy Road
to attack Hurlbut's division holding Sarah Bell's old cotton field and peach orchard
and McArthur's brigade of W. H. L. Wallace's division deployed east of the River Road.
In vain do Breckinridge's troops attempt to break the Federal left center. Johnston places himself
in harm's way while advancing into the Sarah Bell Field. His uniform has been ripped by minie balls
in several places and the heel of a boot cut away. Unknown to either himself, or his staff, the
Confederate leader has been mortally wounded. A bullet had entered Johnston's right leg
behind the knee, cutting an artery. Although he is bleeding to death, the wound is masked
by Johnston's high hoot. At about 2:00 PM, Tennessee Governor Isham G. Harris, who is
present at the battle in Johnston’s staff, sees General Johnston reel in his saddle.
Harris asks, “General, are you wounded?” Johnston replies, “Yes, and I fear seriously.”
Assisted by Captain Lee Wickham, Harris guides the general's horse south to a nearby ravine.
Placing the unconscious Johnston on the ground, the aides frantically tear open the general's
shirt in search of a wound but find nothing. A simple tourniquet might have saved his life, but
it is not to be. The general never speaks a word, but continues to breathe for about a half
hour. By 2:30 PM, it is apparent that General Albert Sidney Johnston is dead.
About 3:00 PM, Governor Harris reports to General Beauregard near Shiloh Church and
informs him of Johnston's death. The fighting would continue under the Louisiana general's
direction. Confederate forces on the left flank now experience a series of ammunition shortages.
At the same time, Sherman's and McClernand's battered divisions are withdrawing across the
wide and deep valley of Tilghman Branch ravine. There they form a new front to protect the
River Road and the important Snake Creek bridge, where Lew Wallace's division is still
expected to cross onto the battlefield. After obtaining the much needed resupplies of
ammunition for batteries and infantry commands, the majority of the Southern left flank units,
which had until now grappled with Grant's right flank, redeploy and advance southeast toward
the right flank of the Union Hornets' Nest line. Confederate forces on the Southern
right flank make slower progress, hindered by steep, overgrown ravines and
continued stubborn resistance by Hurlbut's men. By midafternoon, Brigadier General Daniel Ruggles,
commanding the First Division in Bragg's corps, senses the futility of further attacks on
the heavily defended Hornets' Nest sector. He thus instructs staff officers
to collect artillery in an attempt to hammer the position into submission.
Likewise, Beauregard begins to shift forces, including several batteries of
artillery, from the left to the center, in response to reports of heavy concentrations of
Union forces blocking the Southern advance there. In addition, individual Confederate battery
commanders, without instructions by superiors, personally redeploy their field batteries to
engage the stubborn Federal defense holding the Union center. The result of this hour and a half
of shifting and deploying cannon is that by 4:30 PM, all or parts of eleven Southern batteries
have been assembled opposite the Hornets' Nest. Tradition, including General Ruggles himself, has
placed the number at sixty-two, but fifty-three is probably a more accurate number of cannon employed
at any one time in the resulting bombardment. For the next thirty to forty-five minutes,
the massed Confederate grand battery, nicknamed “Ruggles’ Battery”, hammers the Hornet’s
Nest with the largest and most intense field artillery concentration yet experienced
on any North American battlefield. Raining down shot and shell in their
heavily-concentrated bombardment, Ruggles’ Battery succeeds in driving off the remaining Federal
batteries supporting the Union Hornets' Nest line. Although a significant portion of the Federal left
under General Hurlbut makes a stubborn temporary stand at Wicker Field, by 4:00 P.M. Grant's left
is making a rapid fighting withdrawal toward Pittsburg Landing. This move exposes Prentiss's
left flank in the Hornets' Nest, forcing him to refuse his left, which now faces to the southeast,
and engage the Confederates swarming up the River Road. A similar retirement occurs on William
H. L. Wallace's right by McClernand's division, leaving the Union forces holding
the Federal center isolated. General Wallace is stunned to learn of the breakup
of Colonel Sweeny's brigade on his right. Many of Sweeny's men have retreated with McClernand's
troops. Sweeny's breakup permits the Confederates moving on the left to turn the right flank of
Wallace's line and penetrate into the Federal rear. At 5:00 PM, both Wallace and Prentiss
dispatch orders for their men to withdraw. But already, thousands of Southerners are
advancing rapidly around both Wallace's and Prentiss's exposed flanks to threaten
a complete envelopment of the Union center. In the ensuing confusion, some Union troops
manage to shoot their way out and escape toward the landing through a narrow outlet along the
Corinth Road, but others never receive orders. At about 5:30 PM, after six hours of heavy
fighting, the Hornets Nest defense finally collapses. Most of the Federal units are
surrendered individually by their field officers. William H. L. Wallace has been mortally
wounded and left for dead on the field. Meanwhile, General Prentiss surrenders in a heavily wooded
area dubbed "Hell's Hollow." In all, Confederates capture some 2,250 men. As the triumphant
Southerners send up a loud cheer, a still defiant Benjamin Prentiss says, "Yell, boys, you have
a right to shout for you have this day captured the bravest brigade in the United States Army."
As white flags of surrender are raised throughout the smoke-filled forest, some Federal units
attempting to escape still continue to fight. The situation is both confusing and deadly for several
minutes. Other Union soldiers who had surrendered defiantly smash their muskets against trees so
that the weapons would not fall into enemy hands. Colonel William T. Shaw, commanding the 14th Iowa
Infantry, is nearly knocked insensible by a low branch as he attempts to escape. When he regains
his wits, he looks up to see a major of the 9th Mississippi standing over him saying, "I think you
will have to surrender." Meanwhile, a couple of Confederate cavalrymen snatch the flag of the 12th
Iowa and drag it unceremoniously through the mud. The courageous stand made by Wallace's and
Prentiss's men has gained the surviving Federal forces precious time. Since 4:00 PM, the
Hornets' Nest has occupied the full attention of the majority of Confederate forces still
effectively engaged on the field. Now, with darkness casting a shadow over the field, the hour
is getting late for Beauregard's Confederates. Throughout the evening of April 6th, Major General
Ulysses S. Grant begins consolidating a final line of defense along Pittsburg Landing. The
rugged terrain and defensive positions of Pittsburg Landing allow for a suitable
defense by Grant’s tired and exhausted army. Heavy and sporadic fighting continues throughout
the evening, until at about 6:00 - 6:30 PM, with darkness settling over the battlefield,
General Beauregard orders the Confederate attack to a halt. He is determined to
continue the fight the next day and smash what’s left of the Union Army of the Tennessee.
During the night of April 6th - 7th, a torrential downpour of rain soaks the tired, exhausted,
and bloodied soldiers of the North and South. The flashes of lightning briefly illuminate the
battlefield of mangled and mutilated corpses, and the sounds of moaning from the wounded
and dying sprawled across the battleground leaves a bone-chilling scene that none present
on the battlefield that night would ever forget. Throughout the night, the gunboats USS Lexington
and Tyler continue to bombard the Confederate lines, ensuring that the Southerners get no sleep
during the rainstorm. Meanwhile, nearly 20,000 men from Major General Don Carlos Buell’s Army
of the Ohio - having arrived at Savannah that evening - are ferried across the Tennessee River
in boatloads, reinforcing Grant’s battered and exhausted Army of the Tennessee with an entire
army of fresh and battle-ready troops. Grant begins preparations for an all-out counterattack
with both his and Buell’s armies the next morning. When General Sherman finds General Grant under
a tree at his field headquarters that night, smoking a cigar and looking
down at the rain-soaked ground, Sherman remarks, “Well Grant, we’ve
had the Devil’s own day, haven’t we?” Grant looks up from the ground and replies
simply, “Yes, lick ‘em tomorrow though. Before dawn on April 7th, 1862, the combined
armies of Major Generals Ulysses S. Grant and Don Carlos Buell begin to edge slowly forward from
Pittsburg Landing in a massive counterattack. Major General Lew Wallace’s Third Division of
the Army of the Tennessee, on Grant’s extreme right flank and overlooking the broad valley of
Tilghman Branch, leads off the combat with an artillery duel with Captain William H. Ketchum’s
Alabama Battery - part of Ruggles’ First Division in Bragg’s Second Corps - posted in a portion
of McClernand’s camp in north Jones Field across the ravine. Positioned to Lew Wallace’s left
are the remnants of Sherman’s Fifth Division, then McClernand’s First, along with the
remainder of W. H. L. Wallace’s Second Division - now under Colonel James Tuttle
- and Stephen Hurlbut’s Fourth Division stretching the line eastward toward the landing.
Deployed forward of Grant’s left are Buell’s troops from the Army of the Ohio - the Fourth
Division of Brigadier General William “Bull” Nelson on the left, Brigadier General Thomas
L. Crittenden’s Fifth Division in the center, and Brigadier General Alexander M.
McCook’s Second Division on the right. First moving Bull Nelson’s troops across Dill
Branch, Major General Buell finishes his initial battle deployments by advancing Crittenden and
McCook inland on the Corinth Road. With his left flank anchored on the river, Buell’s front extends
westward for over a mile, where his right flank forms astride the Hamburg- Savannah and Corinth
road junction, one mile southwest of Pittsburg Landing. In all, Grant has over 45,000 men in
line, nearly half of them are in fresh units. The Confederates are so badly intermingled
that little corps, division, or even in some cases brigade organization and cohesion exists.
It takes two hours for aides first to locate, and then mobilize, General Polk and his command,
which had unfortunately retired the previous night to a point well south of the rest of the army,
four miles inland from the river. Therefore, as Beauregard hastily sets about locating
and then deploying his scattered troops, only General Breckinridge would
manage to form all three brigades of his corps side by side in line of battle.
Meanwhile, Generals Hardee, Bragg, and Polk each again lead groups of commingled commands on
different sectors of the broad three-mile front. By 10:00 AM, General Beauregard has
established a stable front, which runs across the field from southeast to northwest,
about a mile and a half inland from the river. Hardee, with his forces formed along the
Hamburg-Purdy Road, directs operations on the right, where he meets Buell's advance on the
River Road. On Hardee's left comes Breckinridge, where the Southern front angles northward from the
Eastern Corinth and Hamburg-Purdy road junction. Breckinridge's corps holds the Confederate
center along the old Hornets' Nest front. Further north, Bragg assumes
command of the far left flank, anchoring the Southern front on
the bluffs overlooking Owl Creek. Once General Polk returns to the field from the
rear, he assumes command of the left center, between Breckinridge and Bragg. On this front,
Beauregard manages to deploy about 28,000 men. The sheer power of the Federal thrust jolts the
unsuspecting Southerners. A member of the Crescent Louisiana Regiment of New Orleans later noted,
"They appeared to me like ants in their nest, for the more we fired upon them,
the more they swarmed about; one would have said that they sprouted from
the ground like mushrooms," For the first time, Mississippi Private A. H. Mecklin recorded in
his diary, "I began to have doubts as to the issues of this contest. I knew that the enemy were
reinforced and stoutly." Observed Private Thomas C. Robertson of the 4th Louisiana: "At daybreak
our pickets came rushing in under a murderous fire and the first thing we knew we were almost
surrounded by six or seven regiments of Yankees." Bull Nelson's division leads the advance on the
Federal left south along the Hamburg-Savannah Road. No serious opposition is encountered until
his troops arrive at the Widow Wicker's Field after 8:00 AM. Suddenly, Colonel William
B. Hazen's 19th Brigade is fired on by General Chalmers's troops, who have moved
up from their bivouac in Colonel Stuart's captured camps. Chalmers, joined by
several other Southern detachments, blocks Nelson's further advance along the road.
Heavy skirmishing continues for the next hour and a half as both sides await reinforcements.
Crittenden's and McCook's divisions, which move southwest and west into the Hornets' Nest thicket,
astride the Eastern Corinth and Corinth roads, follow Nelson's advance. By 10:00 AM, troops
from both divisions are heavily engaged. Lew Wallace's division on the right had opened the
day's fighting by sparring with Colonel Preston Pond's brigade in Jones Field. Pond is soon
ordered to move his men to the opposite flank in the fight against Buell. This movement allows
Wallace to advance his division across Tilghman Branch into the north end of Jones Field. In
front of Wallace, S. A. M. Woods's and Randall Gibson's Confederate brigades are hurriedly
thrown forward to contest further Union advance south through Jones Field. As on the Federal
left, the Union advance here stalls as Wallace is forced to wait out Grant's promised support
from Sherman and McClernand on his left. Those troops had not yet advanced over Tilghman Branch.
About 9:00 to 9:30, General Ruggles brashly orders both Wood and Gibson to counterattack
Wallace's division. The Rebels are driven back by the fire of Morgan L. Smith's and John M.
Thayer's brigades, along with the five guns of Thurber's Battery I, 1st Missouri Light Artillery,
which supports Wallace's hold on Jones Field. Buell, meanwhile, begins to make headway
on the left. After 10:00 AM, his divisions advance to the Sarah Bell peach orchard, the
sight of such heavy fighting the previous day. Here they encounter a reinforced Confederate line
under Hardee along the Hamburg Purdy Road. Colonel Sanders L. Bruce's 22nd Brigade of Nelson's
division attacks south across the Sarah Bell Field, but is driven back by musketry and a heavy
right flank enfilade crossfire from Hodgson's 5th Company, Washington (Louisiana) Artillery, and
McClung's Tennessee Battery, both positioned to the west in Daniel Davis's wheat field.
General Hardee orders a counterattack, which is spearheaded by Bowen's brigade in Breckinridge's
corps, now commanded by Colonel John S. Martin. However, they in turn are swept
back to the Hamburg-Purdy Road by the advance of Colonel Hazen's brigade. Hazen's
Indiana and Ohio troops, joined by Colonel William Sooy Smith's 14th Brigade of Crittenden's
division on their right, surges southwest into Davis's wheat field, where they overrun
part of Captain Hodgson's Washington Artillery. The Crescent Louisiana Regiment, along
with the 19th Louisiana, rushes forward to assist the hard-pressed cannoneers. In
a frantic melee of hand-to-hand fighting, the Louisianans retake the battery. With heavy
Confederate pressure on both flanks, Nelson's entire division is forced to retire to Wicker
Field and regroup. Breckinridge's men have held firm on Hardee's left, therefore Crittenden, like
Nelson, is forced to retire Smith's brigade back into the Hornets' Nest thicket, where he busies
himself reforming his lines within the thicket. As midday approaches, the fighting along the
Confederate right seesaws back and forth. Before noon, General Crittenden again attacks
Breckinridge's front. As his left presses down the Eastern Corinth Road, Crittenden's right,
along with McCook's division to their right, advances west across Duncan Field. This drive
captures Southern cannon and breaks the back of Breckinridge's resistance at Duncan
Field. Having lost a large number of men, Breckinridge's corps retires from
the fighting toward the southwest. From noon until 2:00 PM, the Northerners gain
the upper hand astride the Eastern Corinth Road, where Crittenden, reinforced by detachments from
Grant's army, advances south to the junction with the Hamburg-Purdy Road. Meanwhile, General
McCook presses west along the Corinth Road toward Water Oaks Pond and Woolf Field. On
Buell's left, Nelson has also been reinforced with small detachments from Grant's army. Once
again, Nelson's division enters Sarah Bell's Field and attacks south toward the junction of
the Hamburg-Savannah and Hamburg-Purdy roads. By 2:00 PM, Nelson's men have pushed
Hardee's front southward into Prentiss's camp and seized the Hamburg-Purdy Road.
This time. Nelson's men are here to stay. Since midmorning, fierce fighting has raged on
the Union right, where Confederate forces under Bragg and Polk fight unsuccessfully to halt the
advance of Sherman, McClernand, and Hurlbut across Tilghman Branch. By 11:00 AM, the Southern
left was retiring south from Jones Field under the mounting pressure from Grant's
army. From his headquarters at Shiloh Church, Beauregard works frantically to form
a new line north of Water Oaks Pond. Beginning at noon, some of the heaviest
fighting of the day occurs in this sector. With Hardee starting to give way on the
right, most of the Southern resistance is located west of the Eastern Corinth Road, in a
line extending west along the Hamburg-Purdy Road to Owl Creek. Just after noon, Brigadier
General Lovell Rousseau's brigade, joined by the brigades of Colonels Edward Kirk
and William Gibson, all from McCook's division, attack westward through Woolf Field
astride the Corinth Road. Meanwhile, further west, Lew Wallace and Sherman continue
to apply pressure on the Southern left flank. As the Federals sweep forward through the
center of McClernand's recaptured camps, Beauregard commits his remaining reserve
- Preston Pond's brigade. Pond arrives at Shiloh Church with only two regiments, but several
other disorganized detachments are pieced together to form a conglomerate attack force. Colonel
Robert Russell stated that the assault was led by "General Beauregard, who bore the colors in front
of the line under the fire of the enemy." Several times during the day, Beauregard exposes himself
to great harm by leading units into battle. Scolded by his aides, who argue that he
is unnecessarily endangering himself, the army commander bluntly fires back, "The order
must now be 'follow,' not 'go!'" Unfortunately, Colonel Jacob Thompson of General Beauregard’s
staff noted, "the fire and animation had left our troops.” Many Southern soldiers are disconsolate
and refuse to respond to further pleadings by their officers. Beauregard observes this change
in morale, and as the bitter contest wears on, he increasingly attempts to
rally his soldiers in person. A last-ditch Confederate counterattack proves
momentarily successful. Southerners surge back across Water Oaks Pond and enter the southern
portion of McClernand's camp, forcing McCook's men to give ground. Riding up to Colonel James
Veatch's brigade of General Hurlbut's division, which stands in support of McCook, General Grant
personally orders Veatch forward to stabilize the faltering Union front. Moving steadily forward,
Veatch's men advance across Review Field past McCook's left and strike the Confederate right
flank. Caught within the Federal vise, Colonel Russell remembered that despite the "courage"
displayed by Beauregard, "human endurance could stand no longer against such odds, and our forces
were compelled to fall back to the . . . church." It was now evident to a troubled Beauregard that
the Federals had received heavy reinforcements, and his exhausted Confederates would be unable
to prevail. Colonel Thomas Jordan inquires of the general: "Would it not be judicious to get away
with what we have?" The Louisiana general replies: "I intend to withdraw in a few moments." About
3:00 PM, on the ridge across the valley of Shiloh Branch, south of Shiloh Church, a Confederate rear
guard of some 5,000 men from Breckinridge's corps, mixed detachments, and about a dozen guns
is formed. This line holds the Federals at bay on the Corinth Road until 5:00 PM, while
the Southerners conduct an orderly withdrawal. At 5:00 PM on April 7th, 1862, the bloody
two-day Battle of Shiloh - or Battle of Pittsburg Landing - finally comes to its end with the
retreat of the final Confederate regiments from the battlefield. Grant and Buell have successfully
recaptured all ground lost the previous day, thus concluding the bloody engagement in a
decisive victory for the Union. The Battle of Shiloh is a major turning point in this
early phase of the American Civil War - the body count proves to both North and South
just what the cost of total war will be, and also demonstrates the changes in tactics and
strategy with the advent of industrial warfare. Another smaller skirmish erupts the following
day, April 8th, between elements of Major General Sherman’s Fifth Division, conducting
a reconnaissance in force, against Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest’s cavalry detachment at
Fallen Timbers. Grant had sent Sherman south down the Corinth Road to confirm whether the
Army of Mississippi was in fact retreating, or rallying for another day of fighting. Six
miles south of Pittsburg Landing, Sherman’s men are defeated in a brief, sharp skirmish
with Forrest’s charging cavalrymen. However, this clash is but a rearguard action by Forrest,
protecting the retreat of the Army of Mississippi back towards Corinth.
The “Butcher’s Bill” at Shiloh sends shockwaves
through the divided nation. The casualties are staggering - the Union has lost 13,047 men,
including 1,754 killed, 8,408 wounded, and 2,885 captured or missing. The Confederates
have lost 10,699 men, including 1,728 killed, 8,012 wounded, and 959 captured or missing. It
is the bloodiest battle of both the Civil War and American history up to this point - in fact,
more casualties have been sustained at Shiloh than the total losses of the Revolutionary War,
War of 1812, and Mexican-American War combined. In the North, newspapers and the press are
quick to focus the blame of the battle on Major General Ulysses S. Grant, the man who,
just two months prior, had been praised as a hero for his victories at Forts Henry and
Donelson. Many credit General Buell with taking control of the broken Union forces and
leading them to victory on April 7th. Calls for General Grant’s removal from command overwhelm
the White House. In response, President Lincoln replies with one of his famous quotes regarding
Grant: “I can’t spare this man; he fights.” In the South, the Battle of Shiloh proves to
be a devastating loss and a complete disaster for Confederate fortunes in the Western Theater.
The Army of Mississippi retreats back to Corinth, Mississippi, where in the coming weeks, it will
be besieged by the combined armies of Grant, Buell, and Pope, under overall command of General
Halleck. General Albert Sidney Johnston’s death at Shiloh will prove in hindsight to be another great
loss to the Confederate war effort in the West; believed at the time to be the South’s greatest
general, his loss will deprive the Confederates of a competent and capable commanding general
to lead the Western Theater’s armies. Indeed, Johnston may have well been the closest thing to a
Robert E. Lee in the West, and his loss will pave the way for further Confederate disasters in the
Western Theater, in both campaigns and leadership. The Battle of Shiloh is a watermark
moment in the early Civil War. Although the Battle of Manassas awakened the
American people to the realities of a long war, the Battle of Shiloh truly opened their eyes
to the horrors of modern industrial war. Many believed before the Battle of Shiloh that
the beginning of the end was at hand. However, the Battle of Shiloh would prove to be just the
end of the beginning of a long and terrible war.
