Aiden Dietz
3/16/15
Social Studies
Rom 1
Civil War Project
Battle of Shiloh
The Battle of Shiloh was fought on April 6–7, 1862, in southwestern tennessee. General Albert Sidney Johnston led the confederate forces hoping to defeat general Ulysses S. Grant, leader of the union, before grants army could be reinforced by Don Carlos Buell’s Army of Ohio, which was marching from Nashville. In the six months from the Battle of Shiloh, union troops had been working their way up the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. Kentucky was in Union hands, and the U.S. Army controlled much of Tennessee, including the capitol at Nashville. General Ulysses S. Grant had major victories at forts Henry and Donelson in February, forcing Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston to gather the scattered Rebel forces at Corinth in northern Mississippi. Grant brought his army, 42,000 strong, to team up with General Don Carlos Buell and his 20,000 troops. Grant’s objective was Corinth, a vital area that if captured would give the Union total control of the region. Twenty miles away, Johnston lurked at Corinth with 45,000 soldiers.
Johnston sent a surprise attack on Grant’s camps around Shiloh Church. The overpowering Confederate offensive drove the unprepared Federal forces from their camps and threatened to overwhelm Ulysses S. Grant’s entire command. Some Federals made determined stands and by afternoon, they had established a battle line at the sunken road, known as the Hornet's Nest. Repeated Rebel attacks failed to carry the Hornet's Nest, but massed artillery helped to turn the tide as Confederates surrounded the Union troops and captured, killed, or wounded most and drove the Federal forces back to the heights above Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River. Johnston rode forward to direct the Confederate attack and was struck in the leg by a bullet, severing an artery and causing him to quickly bleed to death. He was replaced by Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard who was the commander of the Army of Mississippi. As darkness fell, Beauregard stopped the fighting and pulled his weary soldiers back from the landing, where they were being shelled by two gunboats. He thought Grant’s army was beaten and Buell’s army was miles away.