In Februrary 1862, General Ulysses Simpson Grant seized Confederate Forts Henry and Donelson, bagging around 20,000 Confederate prisoners; along with this he opened Nashville to capture and free Union movement up(south) the Tennessee River. With this victory, Grant became a hero throughout the North. Yet he would soon see his star fall.
The Federal command was eager to move up the Tennessee. Already Union ships had advanced up the Tennessee River as far as Alabama, causing whatever destruction possible. Grant sought to land somewhere on the Tennessee River from where he could advance on the vital railroad crossroads of Corinth. After searching the Tennessee River for suitable landing points, a small trading post called Pittsburg Landing was chosen. Grant decided to make his headquarters at the Cherry Mansion, in Savannah, Tn, about nine miles upriver from Pittsburg Landing. Meanwhile, Sherman, a friend of Grant's, would take direct command of Union forces at the landing.
As morning dawned on April 6, 1862, a Federal reconnaissance force was suprised by wave after wave of Confederate troops. Many a Federal soldier was awakened to the scene of masses of Confederate soldiers assaulting their camps. The underfed Southerners stopped to eat the Union soldiers' breakfast, slowing down the Confederate advance. The irregularly-shaped Union defense line cracked under the weight of the suprise Confederate attack. Fighting swirled around soon-to-be-famous landmarks, such as the Peach Orchard, Sunken Road, and Shiloh Church. As A.S. Johnston directed Confederate attacks around the Peach Orchard, he received a mortla wound to the back of his knee. Within an hour of the wound being discovered, he died.
The untimely death of General Johnston left a void in the Confederate command. There was dispute over who should take command, until Pierre Beauregard was chosen as Johnston's successor. As the Union right and left collapsed, their center, anchored around the Peach Orchard and Sunken Road, stood firm. With the collapse of the Union left, Pittsburg Landing--the Confederate objective--was left open to easy occupation by Confederate forces. But General Beauregard had earlier ordered all units to advance towards the "sound of battle", in accordance with his Napoleonic training. So, as the Union flanks collpased, Confederate forces free to seize Pittsburg Landing diverted to the Peach Orchard and Sunken Road, the only area of significant Federal resistance left. As regiment after regiment of Southerners gravitated towards the the Union center, a scratch Federal line was being constructed near Pittsburg Landing.
From his headquarters at Cherry Mansion, the rumble of battle could be heard by Grant. He boarded his headquarters ship and made his way to Pittsburg Landing. The scene which awaited him was mass confusion. Thousands of Union soldiers huddled under the protection of the landing. Immediately Grant set to work patching together a solid defensive line, while the Confederates concentrated on eliminating the Federals' Sunken Road line. Grant ordered General Prentiss, in command at the Sunken Road, to hold off the Southerners as long as possible, so as to give Grant time to prepare his last line of defense.
Meanwhile, back at the Sunken Road, Confederate forces were moving in for the kill. Soon the Union flanks were turned, and their last escape routes cut off. Several regiments were lucky enough to slip through the Southern vice grip, but the majority of them, well over 2,000 men, were surrendered by Prentiss and marched to Corinth. But those men had bought Grant the time he needed.
There was paralysis in the Confederate command after the seizure of the Sunken Road line. It was now nearing dusk and the Confederate troops were fearfully disorganized after their day's success. Also, it appeared that Grant, given time, had scraped together a formidable defensive line, interspersed with many cannons, including several large rifled siege guns. With these factors in mind, the Confederate commanders decided to curtail their assaults until morning. That chance would never come. All that night the Federal gunboats Lexington and Tyler shelled Southern camps, causing little real damage, except robbing Confederate soldiers of much-needed sleep.
On the next day--April 6, 1862--the heavily re-enforced Union force launched their counterattack. Severe fighting ensued, with a stubborn Confederate defense making the outcome uncertain. Around the already bloodied Peach Orchard and Sunken Road, more fighting swirled. The action seesawed back and forth, with both sides giving and regaining ground. But the fresh Federal troops had a great advantage over the tired Confederates. The ragged Confederate Army of the Mississippi bitterly made it's way back to Corinth.
The Federals made very little attempt at a pursuit, with the exception of Sherman's beat-up division. Posted to defend a small field hospital was Forrest and around 50 of his cavalrymen. He watched as Sherman's division made their cautious advance. Forrest characteristically decided to charge. He mounted and urged his men forward as he charged full force into the Union line. But he didn't know that none of his men had followed him in his seemingly suicidal attack. Forrest slashed his way through the Federals, taking a close-range shot to his thigh. In the heat of the action, Forrest pulled an unsuspecting Union soldier onto his horse to act as a shield from the thickly-flying Northern bullets. When safely out of range, Forrest swiftly dropped the poor soldier to the ground and escaped alive. This delaying action would become known as Fallen Timbers. It also ended Sherman's pursuit of the Confederates.
Back in Corinth, every building was filled with Confederate wounded. A.S. Johnston's body was held in a nearby house before being sent southward for burial. For the Confederates the Battle of Shiloh had been a battle of lost chances. For the Union it had been a battle of almost disastrous proportions. Burial of the bodies was now the responsibility of the Federals. Union and Confederate soldiers alike were buried in mass graves. Later the Federal dead were reinturred at the National Cemetery, but the Confederates would remain in their burial trenches. Local families flocked to the battlefield to seek the body of a lost loved one.
Grant was heavily criticized for allowing his army to be suprised by the Confederate army. The Nothern press was relentless in their attacks on Grant's ability to command a large force. His command was soon grabbed from him, and given to Don Carlos Buell. Buell would move sluggishly to capture Corinth, "The Crossroads of the Confederacy", as it would come to be known. But he would take it after another ferocious fight.
Grant would later go on to capture Vicksburg, "The Gibraltar of the West", and break the Confederate siege of the Army of the Cumberland, at Chattanooga. He would, of course, accept the surrender of Lee, at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. After the war, he would become president of the United States, no doubt riding on his Civil War-earned fame.
Shiloh would spell one of the last great chances for the Confederacy to gain victory in the western theatre. The loss at Shiloh would be followed by the loss of Memphis and Corinth, and Vicksburg later on. From this battle, several prominent leaders on both sides would rise: Cleburne, Forrest, and Sherman among them. The war would move on and get even bloodier, with the 23,000 men lost at Shiloh ranking low on the list of bloddiest Civil War battles. But it was at Shiloh that the true nature of the war was revealed.