The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the American Civil War fought on April 6–7, 1862. The fighting took place in southwestern Tennessee, which was part of the war's Western Theater. The battlefield is located between a small, undistinguished church named Shiloh and Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River. Two Union armies combined to defeat the Confederate Army of Mississippi. Major General Ulysses S. Grant was the Union commander, while General Albert Sidney Johnston was the Confederate commander until his battlefield death, when he was replaced by his second-in-command, General P. G. T. Beauregard.
The Confederate army hoped to defeat Grant's Army of the Tennessee before it could be reinforced and resupplied. Although it made considerable gains with a surprise attack during the first day of the battle, Johnston was mortally wounded and Grant's army was not eliminated. Overnight, Grant's Army of the Tennessee was reinforced by one of its divisions stationed farther north, and was also joined by portions of the Army of the Ohio, under the command of Major General Don Carlos Buell. The Union forces conducted an unexpected counterattack in the morning, which reversed the Confederate gains of the previous day. The exhausted Confederate army withdrew further south, and a modest Union pursuit started and ended on the next day.
Though victorious, the Union army had more casualties than the Confederates. After the surprise and lengthy Union casualty list became known, Grant was heavily criticized; in fact, decisions made by both the Federal and Confederate high command were afterward questioned by individuals on and off the battlefield. The battle was the costliest engagement of the Civil War up to that point, and its nearly 24,000 casualties made it one of the bloodiest battles in the entire war.
During February 1862, a Union army led by Ulysses S. Grant won two battles that were the most significant Union victories, at that time, of the American Civil War.[1] The battles were the Battle of Fort Henry and the Battle of Fort Donelson, and they occurred in Tennessee on the Tennessee River and the Cumberland River, respectively. Those rivers were vital to the Confederacy as transportation routes, and they also connected the city of Nashville, an ironworks, and major agricultural areas. Nashville was a converging point for railroads, a major producer of gunpowder, and a major supply depot.[2] The Union army increased its firepower in those battles by receiving assistance from U.S. Navy gunboats.[3] The steam-powered gunboats were flat-bottomed, armored, and carried up to 13 artillery pieces.[2] Grant was rewarded for his success by a promotion to major general, making him senior to all generals in the Western Theater (between the Appalachian Mountains and Mississippi River) with the exception of Major General Henry Halleck.[4]
Continuing their push into Confederate territory, Union troops arrived at the Tennessee River town of Savannah, Tennessee, on March 11.[5] By mid-March, a large number of Union troops were camped there and at landings further south, and additional Union troops under the command of Don Carlos Buell were moving from Nashville to join the force on the river.[6] Union leadership realized that its troops were too spread out, so it was decided to concentrate troops at Pittsburg Landing.[7] Pittsburg Landing is nine miles (14 km) upriver (south) of Savannah, and it had a road that led to Corinth, Mississippi.[8] About three miles (4.8 km) inland from the landing was a log church named Shiloh (a Hebrew word meaning "place of peace"), and it is from this church that the battle gets its name.[8][9] The battle has also been called the Battle of Pittsburg Landing.[10][Note 1] The area that would become the Shiloh battlefield was somewhat shaped like a triangle, with the sides formed by various creeks and the Tennessee River. The land was mostly wooded, with scattered cotton fields, peach orchards, and a few small structures.[12]
The Confederate Army's February 6 loss at Fort Henry caused it to abandon Kentucky and parts of Tennessee.[13] The last Confederate troops in Nashville moved south on February 23.[14] General Albert Sidney Johnston, Confederate commander of the Western Theater, made the controversial decision to abandon the region. Although Confederate politicians were unhappy with Johnston's performance and the abandonment, the consolidation of troops further south was a wise choice, because the Union forces on the Tennessee River could cut off Confederate retreats from posts in Kentucky and major portions of Tennessee.[15] Confederate leadership decided to consolidate forces in Corinth, Mississippi, which is just south of the Tennessee–Mississippi border.[16] The town of Corinth had strategic value because it was at the intersection of two railroads, including one that was part of the rail network used to move Confederate supplies and troops between Tennessee and Virginia.[15][17] By the end of March, over 40,000 Confederate troops were concentrated at Corinth.[16]
The Union plan was to combine Grant's and Buell's armies and continue its southward offensive.[18] If the combined armies could move south and capture Corinth, they would have a good starting point for the capture of Memphis, Vicksburg, and large portions of Confederate territory.[6] While most of Grant's army camped near the river at Pittsburg Landing in early April, one division was five miles (8.0 km) downstream (north) at Crump's Landing, and army headquarters remained further north in Savannah.[9] Buell's army was moving south from Nashville to Savannah, and no advancement beyond the Pittsburg Landing-Shiloh area was allowed until the two armies combined.[15][Note 2] On April 4, Confederate cavalry was seen by a Union patrol near Shiloh, but Union leadership was not concerned.[20]
Confederate leaders realized they could soon be outnumbered. They had 42,000 men at Corinth, and 15,000 more on the way, while the not–yet–combined Union force could be as large as 75,000 men.[18][Note 3] Instead of waiting to be attacked by a larger force, they decided to surprise the Union Army on April 4 before the second Union Army arrived from Nashville. Inexperience and bad weather caused their 20-mile (32 km) march north to be "a nightmare of confusion and delays", and the Confederate Army was not deployed into position until the afternoon of April 5.[22] The army spent the night of April 5 on the south side of the Union campsites. The plan was to attack the Union left, pushing it northwest against the swampy land adjacent to Snake and Owl creeks. Confederate troops along the Tennessee River would prevent Union reinforcements and resupply.[23]
The two Union armies in the Battle of Shiloh were part of the Department of the Mississippi, which was commanded by Major General Henry Halleck.[24] Although Halleck hoped to lead the two armies in an eventual attack on Corinth, he was not present at Shiloh.[18] The combined armies present for the battle totaled to 66,812 men.[25][Note 4] They had 119 artillery pieces available for the battle.[28] The majority of the Union soldiers were armed with either a .69 caliber model 1841 rifled musket or a .69 caliber model 1842 smoothbore musket, although a few regiments had more modern weapons such as the .58 caliber Springfield Model 1855.[28] A few regiments, or sometimes a few companies within a regiment, had British Enfield or Austrian Lorenz rifles.[29] The armies and their divisions were organized as follows:
The Army of the Tennessee had the most Union men present at the battle, and it was commanded by Major General Ulysses S. Grant.[15][30] In February 1862, a smaller version of Grant's army, with the assistance of gunboats under the command of Flag-Officer Andrew H. Foote, had been the victor in the Battle of Fort Henry and the Battle of Fort Donelson.[1][Note 5] For the Battle of Shiloh, Grant's army had 48,894 men in six divisions.[25] Two new divisions (4th and 5th) were added to Grant's three in early March.[35] A 6th Division was created from reinforcement units at the beginning of April.[36] The divisions (and gunboats) were as follows: