Battle of Shiloh

Battle of Shiloh

Introduction

The Battle of Shiloh was an extraordinary event in the civil war timeline and would be a great deal as to when the war was fought at its hardest. The sources that have been researched and collected will help one better understand this battle and many other facts that have yet to be discovered. The Battle of Shiloh is not the most well known battle during the Civil war, but it gives the reader an idea on how gruesome the fighting was during this time. This battle is viewed as a turning point for the Union and the continuing losses for the Confederate army as they try to gain back territory. Officers of each side had separate plans, where the Union needed to take the Memphis and Charleston Railroads, and the Confederates just wanted to stop the Union troops from advancing further south(Meyer,2008).

The Union was commanded by Ulysses S. Grant and Don Carlos Buell. Grants six divisions of troops were led by Major General John A. McClernand and Lew Wallace, Brigadier General W.H.L. Wallace, Stephen A. Hurlbut, William T. Sherman, and Benjamin M. Prentiss. The whole point into going to Shiloh was to meet up with the other commander Don Carlos Buell and his men, then going to overtake the Memphis and Charleston Railroads (Marciniak, 2007).

Discussion

Buell's army was led by Brigadier General Alexander M. McCook, William "Bull" Nelson, Thomas L. Crittenden, and Thomas J. Wood. These men led over 17,000 troops toward Shiloh and had every intention to kill as many confederate troops as possible in order to take their objective. The Confederates States of America was commanded by Albert Sidney Johnston and Pierre Gustave Toutant (P.G.T.) Beauregard. Johnston assembled and commanded the Army of Mississippi; their objective was to stop the north from pushing back the Confederates into Mississippi and gaining control over the Memphis and Charleston Railroads (Meyer,2008).

Johnston was anxious to attack the Union forces, he was ready to go on April 4th, but Johnston was hesitant because he thought he had lost the element of surprise. On the morning of April 6, Johnston's force surprised Grant in an attack that slowly pushed the Union troops back from the high ground they occupied towards the Tennessee River. Fighting was fierce. The Union forces were not ready; they had no guards to stand watch over the camp so they had no early warning. Johnston was successful on his surprise attack. The night before, Grant had telegraphed a message to Halleck (Higher ranking officer) that he suspected of a surprise attack but did not know from where. (Marciniak, 2007)

The surprise attack was successful and pushed the Union forces back towards the Tennessee River. As the Confederate forces advanced, Union Brigadier General Benjamin M. Prentiss led and commanded the retreating Union forces to a sunken road, otherwise called the Hornets Nest. The Confederates tried and tried to overtake this Nest but failed numerous times; until the Union surrendered. The Confederates killed, wounded, or captured Union troops that gave ...