The Battle of Shiloh: Overview

The American Civil War began on April 9, 1861, with the Battle of Fort Sumter, between the Northern United States of America and the Southern Confederate States of America. It was never too clear until the Battle of Shiloh, won by the Union, as to who had the upper hand, in the war between the states. The Battle of Shiloh could easily be termed the turning point for the Union. It was at Shiloh – the place of peace, that history witnessed one of the bloodiest battles of the American Civil war.

It was also one of the most controversial battles, with General Ulysses Grant taking the hit for inadequate planning, which resulted in a carnage, that killed over 10,000 soldiers on either side. The Battle of Shiloh, otherwise called the Battle of Pittsburgh Landing, took place on April 6th and 7th, 1862, at Hardin County, Tennessee. Commander Ulysses S Grant and Don Carlos Buell led the Union, while Albert Sidney Johnston and P G T Beauregard led the Confederates.

The death of Johnston, in the course of the battle, is said to be a major factor behind the Union victory. The Union had the Army of West Tennessee and Ohio with nearly 65,000 soldiers, while the Confederates were backed by the Army of the Mississippi with around 45,000 soldiers. After the bloody and brutal battle, the Union realized that the war was not going to be easy. The essay will walk down the historical lane and trace the events which shaped the Battle of Shiloh. The commanders

Abraham Lincon once said, “I cannot spare the man. He fights. ” That about sums up Commander Ulysses S Grants character. He was the son of a hard-working frontier family. Grant fought his first battle, an indecisive action against the Confederates at Belmont, Missouri, in November 1861. Three months later, he captured Fort Donelson and Fort Henry. Grant was made a national figure almost overnight, and he was nicknamed “Unconditional Surrender” Grant. He brought the same enthusiasm to the Battle of Shiloh, but did not fare so well there.

The high number of casualties was deemed unnecessary and Grant’s decision-making powers were questioned. However he managed to defend himself and went on to become the 18th president of the USA (MSN Encarta, 2006). Everybody thought Albert Johnston the best soldier in the country; that was before the war. He had a gaudy career in the army after West Point (1826). After some peacetime soldiering he quit to care for his dying wife, then moved to Texas to start over.

When Texas decided on independence he enlisted as a soldier and in a year he was commanding the whole Texan forces. He was the second most senior officer in the Confederate forces. His immediate appointment was to secure and organize the western theater. He took the initiative against the Union forces that had stopped to reorganize and resupply. Johnston led from the front but was shot in the process. It was his concern for the other wounded soldiers and a disregard for his own wounds, which caused him to bleed to death (ehistory, 2007).

The weapons and methods Neither side fought the Battle of Shiloh with its soldiers armed with the most modern weapons available. In one of the few times during the American Civil War, the Union did not enjoy an advantage of superior infantry weapons. There was no formal artillery command and control function for either side. The infantry commanders controlled their own artillery or left its employment up to the battery officers. This made massing artillery fires difficult.

Massed fires of more than 25 cannon only occurred three times during the battle. Two of the massed artillery firings proved decisive: Ruggles’ bombardment at the Hornet’s Nest and Grant’s last line at Pittsburg Landing. The artillery officers for each side were inexperienced and attempted to use antiquated Napoleonic tactics. The commmaders were aware that half their soldiers were ‘green,’ that their weapons were obsolete and that there was hardly any planning involved.

The battle hinged on the element of surprise. Both the commanders felt they had a good chance of winning and if Grant’s army was not fortified overnight, the results of the battle could have been different (Gudmens, 1960). The doctrine used by this particular battle and that of the marine corps today is similar. Both use speed, surprise, and concentrated force to achieve maximum impact with minimal expenditure of resources. (Santamaria, 2003) The battle report

The foundation for the Battle of Shiloh was laid in February 1862, when a Union army-navy offensive succeeded in capturing Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, located respectively on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, near the Tennessee-Kentucky border. The fall of the two forts initiated a series of Union triumphs that left the Confederacy struggling for life. The Confederate defensive line across southern Kentucky immediately collapsed, and the southern forces retreated from northern Tennessee to Alabama and Mississippi.

The capture of Fort Henry opened the Tennessee River to Federal penetration to the Alabama and Mississippi state lines. Forces under Major General Ulysses S Grant advanced south to Pittsburg Landing, located on the west bank of the Tennessee River, about twenty miles north of Corinth, Mississippi. That put Union forces dangerously close to the Confederacy’s most important east-west railroad, the Memphis and Charleston line, which made a junction at Corinth with the north-south Mobile and Ohio.

If the Union army, designated the Army of the Tennessee, captured Corinth, not only would the Federals control the railroad, but Memphis would likely fall and open several hundred miles of the Mississippi River to Union forces. By late March, Major General Henry W Halleck ordered Buell and his Army of the Ohio to join Grant for an offensive against Corinth. Meanwhile, the Confederates concentrated their forces at Corinth in order to stop the Union advance before Buell could reinforce Grant.

Their effort culminated in the battle of Shiloh, named for the Shiloh Methodist Church, located near the Union encampment (McDonough, 2002). After the fall of Forts – Henry and Donelson, Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston, was forced to fall back, giving up Kentucky and much of West and Middle Tennessee. He chose Corinth, Mississippi, a major transportation center, as the staging area for an offensive against Major General Ulysses S Grant and his Army of the Tennessee, before the Army of the Ohio, under Major General Don Carlos Buell, could join it.

The Confederate retrenchment was a surprise, although a pleasant one, to the Union forces, and it took Grant, with about 40,000 men, some time to mount a southern offensive, along the Tennessee River, toward Pittsburg Landing. Grant received orders to await Buell’s Army of the Ohio at Pittsburg Landing. Grant did not choose to fortify his position; rather, he set about drilling his men many of whom were raw recruits. Johnston originally planned to attack Grant on April 4, but delays postponed it until the 6th.

Johnston had been mortally wounded earlier and his second-in-command, General P G T Beauregard, took over (Battle of Shiloh, 2006). The Confederates, after being forced back from their first line, established a second along the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, where they concentrated their armies. It was their intention to attack Grant before he was joined by Buell. The Confederates, after making a very brilliant attack, were compelled to retreat.

The Memphis and Charleston Railroad was severed by Sherman and by Mitchell, the campaign closing successfully on the national part by the capture of Corinth (Draper, 1868, p 281). On the 8th, Grant sent Brigadier General William T Sherman, with two brigades, and Brigadier General Thomas J Wood, with his division, in pursuit of Beauregard. They ran into the Rebel rearguard, commanded by Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest, at Fallen Timbers. Forrest’s aggressive tactics, although eventually contained, influenced the Union troops to return to Pittsburg Landing.

Grant’s mastery of the Confederate forces continued; he had beaten them once again. (Battle of Shiloh, 2006). Conclusion Measured in physical devastation and human lives, the American Civil War was the costliest war for the Americans. When the war ended, 620,000 men (in a nation of 35 million people) had been killed and at least that many more had been wounded. The North lost a total of 364,000, almost one of five Union soldiers and the South lost 258,000, nearly one of four Confederate soldiers (History Channel, 2007).

In a way, the brutal and bloody Battle of Shiloh set the tone for the battles that followed. Though the union won the war, there were too many casualties from either side for it to be a clear victory. Both sides paid heavily in both human life and expenses. The losses reverberated for a long time in the consciousness of the people of America. Reference Civil War, American. (2007). The History Channel website. Retrieved 12:57, Jan 25, 2007, from http://www. history. com/encyclopedia. do? articleId=205794.

Draper, John William (1868). History of the American Civil War. Volume: 2. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers. Gudmens, Jeffery J (1960). Staff Ride Handbook for the Battle of Shiloh. Combat Studies Institute PressFort Leavenworth, Kansas, Retrieved February 1, 2007, from http://www-cgsc. army. mil/carl/download/csipubs/gudmens. pdf McDonough, James L (2002). Battle of Shiloh. In Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture [Web]. Tennessee : University of Tennessee Press. Retrieved 01, 21, 2006, from http://tennesseeencyclopedia. net/imagegallery. php? EntryID=S034

Santamaria, Jason A, Martino, Vincent, & Clemons, Eric K (2003). The Marine Corp Way. Mcgraw-Hill Companies. Ohio State University, (2007). Albert S Johnston. Retrieved Febraury 1, 2007, from eHistory Web site: http://ehistory. osu. edu/uscw/features/people/bio. cfm? PID=45 Ulysses S Grant. (2006). In MSN Encarta [Web]. MSN. Retrieved February, 1, 2007, from http://encarta. msn. com/encnet/refpages/RefArticle. aspx? refid=761555289 US Department of the Interior, National Park Service. (2006, 04, 13). Battle of Shiloh. Retrieved January 20, 2007, from Web site: http://www. cr. nps. gov/hps/abpp/battles/tn003. htm