6th April 1862, General Johnston withdrew his Confederate forces into Tennessee to reorganize. In March, General Halleck ordered General Grant to advance his Union Army along the Tennessee River.
Pittsburg Landing
General Grant occupied Pittsburg Landing, not expecting a Confederate attack. Halleck ordered Grant to seize the Memphis & Charleston Railroad linking the lower Mississippi Valley to cities on the Confederacy's east coast.
General Johnston assisted by his second-in-command, General Beauregard, concentrated 55,000 men around Corinth an important rail junction. On April 3rd, Johnston launched an offensive, advancing upon Pittsburg Landing with 44,000 men he intended to drive the Union Army west into the swamps of Owl Creek.
Day 1, Shiloh
At dawn, April 6, a Union patrol discovered Johnston's army deployed for battle along the Corinth road, a mile beyond the forward Union camps. Johnston achieved total surprise and by mid-morning, the Confederates captured the Union camp. Strong resistance on the Union right engaged Johnston's brigades in a bloody action at Shiloh Church. Johnston's army attacked the Union right, which duly retreated. Casualties were immense.
Johnston's Confederates were caught in the dense oak thicket of the "hornet's nest" while Grant's left flank withstood assaults for seven hours before retreating in the late afternoon. The Confederates drove Grant towards the river, instead of away from it, the river ran pink with blood. Union survivors defended Pittsburg Landing and resisted the last Confederate charge at dusk. General Johnston was killed. General Sherman and Grant were appalled at the loss of life.
At dusk General Buell's Union Army of the Ohio reached Pittsburg Landing with a reserve division from Grant's army, led by Major General Lewis Wallace, providing 22,500 reinforcements for the Union forces.
Day 2, Shiloh
On April 7, Grant counterattacked. General Beauregard rallied 30,000 of his Confederates in a stubborn defence, halting the Union advance. By mid afternoon, Union troops advanced, forcing the exhausted Confederates back to Shiloh Church, Beauregard retreated during the night withdrawing into their fortified stronghold at Corinth. Union troops reclaimed Grant's camps and camped among the dead.
A close run thing
General Johnston's concentration at Corinth, and surprise attack on Grant at Pittsburg Landing, almost changed the course of the war. The aftermath left the invading Union forces prepared to capture the Corinth rail junction. Shiloh's shocking butcher’s bill of 23,746 men killed, wounded, or missing ensured the war would not end quickly.
Neither the Union nor the Confederate Army claimed victory.
Sources
"The Battle of Shiloh (Pittsburg Landing)" civilwarhome.com Accessed Jan 2011
The American Civil War, John Keegan, 2009
Michael Manning - ' The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity' W.B.Yeats
