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After Shiloh the South would never smile again. Known originally as

the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, The Battle of Shiloh was the bloodiest

battle fought in North America up to that time. Pittsburg Landing was an area

from where the Yankees planned to attack the Confederates who had moved

from Fort Donelson to Corinth, Mississippi. The North was commanded by

General Ulysses S. Grant and the South by General Albert Sydney Johnston.

The Union army was taken by surprise the first day when the Confederate

Army unexpectedly attacked, but after Union reinforcements arrived the

fighting virtually ended in a tie. Lasting for two days, April 6 and 7 of 1862,

casualties for both sides exceeded 20,000. The Battle of Shiloh was a

message to both the North and South that the Civil War was for real.

General Grant was anxious to maintain the momentum of his victory at

Fort Donelson. His army had moved up to a port on the Tennessee River

called Pittsburg Landing in preparation for an attack on Corinth, Mississippi,

where the Confederate troops were located. General Halleck, Western U.S.

Army commander, had ordered Grant to stay put and wait for

reinforcements. Grant had given command of the Pittsburg Landing

encampment to General William T. Sherman while he waited at his camp in

Savannah, Tennessee.

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At Corinth, Confederate Generals Albert Sydney Johnston and P.G.T.

Beauregard worked feverishly to ready the 40,000 plus troops there for an

attack on the Union Army at Pittsburg Landing before U.S. Army General

Buell and reinforcements could arrive from Nashville. The officers appointed

as corps commanders for the South were Major General John Breckinridge,

Major General William J. Hardee, Major General Braxton Bragg, and Major

General Leonidas Polk. The South headed for Pittsburg Landing on April 4,

1862 but because of several delays the attack was postponed until April 6.

The Battle of Shiloh began early the morning of April 6. Johnston’s

men burst out of the woods so early that Union soldiers came out of their

tents to fight. The Confederate army drove the Yankees back eight miles that

day. One area that was especially troublesome for the South was nicknamed

the Hornet’s Nest and was commanded by Union General Prentiss. The area

was a sunken road that Federal troops rallied behind and mowed down wave

after wave of Rebel attackers until General Prentiss finally surrendered. The

Hornet’s Nest got its name from Southern soldiers who reported that the

sound of bullets and mini-balls flying through the air sounded like hornets.

Prentiss fought, as he states, until "half-past five P.M., when finding that

further resistance must result in the slaughter of every man in the command, I

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had to yeild the fight. The enemy succeeded in capturing myself and two

thousand two hundred rank and file, many of them being wounded" (The

Rebellion Record, 1865 p 258).

Prentiss was captured along with 2200 Union troops. In an interview

with General Beauregard after being captured, General Prentiss stated

concerning the Union Army at Pittsburg "I am afraid that all of our men will

be taken" (New Orleans, Times-Picayune, 1862). When a bystander asked

him about General Buell he stated "Buell is not coming here, and if any forces

are on the way they must be very small. I know nothing of them" (New

Orleans, Times-Picayune, 1862).

Both sides had suffered devastating losses and injuries. That evening

soldiers from both armies wash their wounds in a small lake....

Primary Sources

Crist, Lynda Lasswell 1995. The Papers of Jefferson Davis.

Louisiana State University Press. Volume VIII.

Moore, Frank 1865. The Rebellion Record.

Arno Press. Volume XXII.

H.P. Special Correspondant, "The Battle of Shiloh." April 11, 1862.

New Orleans The Times-Picayune. Volume XXVI Number 65.

Secondary Sources

McDonough, J.L. 1934. Shiloh-In Hell Before Night. 3d ed.

Tennessee Press / Knoxville

Mitchell, Joseph B. 1955. Decisive Battles of the Civil War. 42-55.

Putnam Press

Nevin, David 1983. The Road to Shiloh.

Time-Life