Battle of Shiloh

5:00 pm

Prentiss and Wallace start to retreat from the hornets nest but Wallace is shot in the head an died. Over 2,000 men were captured.

Don Carlos Buell

Don Carlos buells's army of 30,000 men arrive from Nashville.

Spring of 1862.

9000 Confederates planned a surprise attack on the union army near Fraley field.

Around 7.30

Around 7:30 grant hears distant gun shots and heads out for Pittsburg landing. He orders Bull Nelson's division army to start moving down the river but Nelson wasn't able to until early afternoon. Grant then orders Lew Wallace's 7,500 man division to reinforce his lines but errors and delays caused what was supposed to be a 2 hour march into 70. Neither will arrive before nightfall.

Battle strategies back then

Back then rivers and rails were the key to move men and supplies fast, and Corinth is a crucial southern rail road. It's the only line that connects the Atlantic and the Mississippi. By mid March Grants army was in position to capture it.

Battle results

Battle of Shiloh ended with a United States (Union) victory over Confederate forces in Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee. The Union army had around 66,000 soldiers versus the Confederates 45,000. By the end of the two days of fighting the Union had suffered 13,000 casualties including 1,700 dead. The Confederates had suffered 10,000 casualties and 1,700 dead.

April 6th mid morning

By 10:30 am the confederates start to overwhelm grant. They were pushed to joans field, a mile and a half from Pittsburgh landing. Johnston succeeds in bending grants line but in the wrong direction. This gives the union the opportunity to make their line shorter but stronger. Sherman and mclaren has regroup and launch a ferocious counter attack while the confederates eat.

April 7th grants counter attack

By 6:00am grant has 40,000 men ready. The confederates however have only 28,000. Despite how how tired and disorganized they are Beauregard eventually manages a solid defense. He's forced back 2 hours later. The union just outnumbered them too much. He pulls back and retreats. Grant waits until the next day to pursue.

Mid morning

By mid morning the battle of Shiloh has become very chaotic. Rebels were forced out of their camps and had no food.

12:00

By noon they over power the confederates. Johnston leg goes numb from battle injuries and bleeds to death by 2:45. He is the highest ranking officer to be killed during the civil war.

The fight continues

Grant arrived but his other men still hadn't. He continued to fight outnumbered.

April 6t, grants last line

Grants army fell back 2 miles and suffered awful casualties. Locke effort is made to reform, theyre all exhausted. Beauregard believes grants reinforcements are not coming and sends a dispatch to richmond clamoring a complete victory. Lew Wallace's division FINALLY arrived on the scene about dusk. But these reinforcements had been spotted. No confederates took any action. Grant vows to "whip them at day light"

March

In March the union army embarked using 174 steam boats to bring almost 40,000 men toward their target- Corinth Mississippi.

April 2nd

Johnston figures out that his opponents are divided and takes this opportunity to attack. PGT Beauregard plans a really complex attack. However rainy weather turned the roads into mush and made them too slippery, delaying the attacks. Beauregard urges retreat but Johnston has other plans and urges to attack at daylight.

The hornets nest

Some of the Union lines managed to hold, however. One famous line that held was in a sunken road that became known as the Hornet's Nest. Here a few Union soldiers held back the Confederates while reinforcements from General Buell's army began to arrive. It took a day of fierce fighting, but by the evening of April 6th, the Union soldiers had reestablished lines of defense. The Confederates had won the day, but not the battle.

Intro

The Battle of Shiloh was fought between the Union and the Confederacy during the Civil War. It was fought over two days from April 6 to April 7 in 1862. It took place in southwestern Tennessee and it was the first major battle to take place in the western theater of war.

February 1862

The union army and navy (under General Ulysses Grant and flag officer Andrew Foot) worked together and captured Forts Henry and Donelson. Combined with other losses this caused Confederate General commander Alberto Johnston to move southwest, handing over Kentucky and a lot of Tennessee which included an important industrial supply center of Nashville.

The battle continues

The unions lines are soon stretched thin. Benjamin prentiss forms his 6 division, including 12 guns on the eastern current roads . This worked for a little bit around 8:45 confederate attacks force Benjamin to fall back.

Confederate attack, April 6th

William Hardy's brigades advance on the camps of General Sherman's division. Around 7am general sherman still is unconvinced that this is a general attack until rebel skirmishes from clay burns bridge shoot him. The soldiers get caught in a crossfire. This was right by a church, called Shiloh. Which ironically meant peace.