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Battle of Shiloh
Preliminary Campaign
| Map of the War in the West before Shiloh |
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| Battle of Shiloh Map |
Preliminary Campaign
War activity west of the Appalachian Mountains in 1861 was confined
chiefly to the States of Kentucky and Missouri. Toward the end of the year when loyalty, or at least the neutrality, of the
governments of these border States seemed assured, the Federals began making plans for the invasion of the South by way of
the western rivers and railroads. Each side began to maneuver for strategic positions. The Confederate General, Leonidas Polk,
believing that the Southern States were about to be invaded through Kentucky, moved up quickly from his position at Union
City, Tenn., and seized Columbus, Ky., the northern terminus of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, recently
appointed commander of the Federal troops in and around Cairo, Ill., had made preparations to occupy that important river
port and railway center on the following day. Thwarted at Columbus, Grant retaliated by taking Paducah, Ky., located at the
junction of the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers.
It now became apparent to the Confederate high command in Richmond
that a strong line would have to be established along the northwestern border of the Confederacy before the Union armies had
time to occupy more of the strategic points. They believed that the task could be performed more effectively if all troops
in that theater of operation were placed under one commander. Accordingly, Confederate President Jefferson Davis sent Gen.
Albert Sidney Johnston to the West with the imposing title of "General Commanding the Western Department of the Army of the
Confederate States of America."
Commodore Foote's gunboats ascending the Tennessee to attack Fort Henry.
Arriving in Nashville on September 14, 1861, General Johnston studied
his difficult assignment. The line he was supposed to occupy extended from the mountains of eastern Tennessee westward across
the Mississippi to the Kansas boundary. Only two points on the proposed line were then in Confederate hands: Columbus, which
he considered the natural key to the Confederate defense of the Mississippi, and Cumberland Gap, Ky., which he had previously
ordered Gen. Felix K. Zollicoffer to occupy.
One of Johnston's first official acts upon arriving at Nashville
was to order Gen. Simon B. Buckner to secure Bowling Green, Ky., one of the most important railroad centers south of the Ohio.
He also ordered garrisons to the incomplete works at Fort Henry, on the Tennessee, and Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland, hoping to prevent a Union advance up either of these natural
highways. A Federal offensive up the Tennessee or the Cumberland would endanger the important railroad and industrial center
of Nashville, Tenn.
Since the outbreak of the war, Nashville had been converted
into a huge arsenal and depot of supplies. Large quantities of food, clothing, and munitions had been collected and stored
in its warehouses. Its factories were turning out percussion caps, sabers, muskets, saddles, harness knapsacks, cannon, and
rifled pieces. Its looms were turning out thousands of yards of gray cloth which were being made into uniforms for the soldiers.
The loss of this city would be an irreparable blow to the Confederacy.
Dover Tavern, General Buckner's headquarters and scene of the surrender of Fort
Donelson.
While General Johnston was establishing his positions, the Federals
were rapidly organizing their forces preparatory to an attack upon the Confederate line. Gen. Henry W. Halleck, from headquarters
in St. Louis, was strengthening his positions at Cairo, Ill., and Paducah, Ky. At the same time, he was making ready a large
number of river steamers so that his troops could be moved by water to almost any point along his front. From headquarters
in Louisville, Gen. Don Carlos Buell, commander of the Department of the Ohio, reinforced his line so that Johnston had to
keep his main force at Bowling Green, Ky., to guard the important railroads which penetrated Middle and West Tennessee.
Various plans for an attack upon the Confederate line were considered
by the Federals. General Halleck, commander of the Department of the Missouri, believed that it would take an army of not
less than 60,000 men, under one commander, to break the well-established line. He, therefore, asked that General Buell's army
be transferred to him, or at least placed under his command.
Map of the battlefield of Shiloh, made by Gen. W.T. Sherman soon after the battle.
Before a union of the two departments could be effected, General
Grant asked for, and received, permission to attack the line at Fort Henry. A combined land and naval attack by Grant's troops
and the gunboat fleet of Commodore Andrew H. Foote resulted in the surrender of Fort Henry on February 6, 1862, and the capture
of Fort Donelson, with about 12,000 prisoners, on the 16th. The loss of these forts broke Johnston's line at its center and
compelled him to evacuate Bowling Green and Columbus, permitting western Kentucky to fall into Union hands. To prevent encirclement,
he was also forced to withdraw from Nashville, abandon Middle and West Tennessee, and seek a new line on the Memphis and Charleston
Railroad.
Following the fall of Forts Henry and Donelson, Grant incurred
the displeasure of General Halleck by sending a division of troops into Buell's department at Clarksville. Halleck's indignation
increased when he learned that Grant had gone to Nashville for consultation with Buell. Halleck directed the withdrawal of
the division from Clarksville suspended Grant from command, and ordered him to Fort Henry to await orders.
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| Confederate Commanders Battle of Shiloh |
Conference of Confederate commanders the night before the battle. From left to
right, Gen. P. G. T Beauregard, Gen. Leonidas Polk (seated), Gen. John C. Breckinridge, Gen. A. S. Johnston, Gen. Braxton
Bragg, and Maj. J. F. Gilmer. Gen. W. J. Hardee was not present.
The army under Grant's successor, Gen. Charles F. Smith, moved up the Tennessee
toward the heart of the Confederacy, with the intention of rendezvousing at Savannah, Tenn., on the east side of the river.
Gen. William T. Sherman was sent forward on the so-called Yellow Creek Expedition for the purpose of destroying railroad communications
to the west of Corinth, Miss., the objective of the campaign. High water made Sherman's mission a failure, and he was compelled
to return. He reported to General Smith that a more convenient place for the assembling of his army was at Pittsburg Landing,
Tenn., 9 miles above Savannah, and on the west side of the river, from which direct roads led to Corinth. General Smith, therefore,
instructed him to disembark his division and that of Gen. Stephen A. Hurlbut at Pittsburg Landing, in positions far enough
back to afford room for the other divisions of the army to encamp near the river.
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| Cherry Mansion Battle of Shiloh Civil War |
Cherry Mansion, Savannah, Tenn., used as headquarters for the Union Army, March
13 to April 29, 1862. While eating breakfast in this house, General Grant heard the sounds of heavy firing which told him
the battle had begun. Generals W. H. L. Wallace and C. F. Smith died here in April 1862.
In obedience to this order, Sherman encamped his division along
a ridge on either side of Shiloh Church, almost 3 miles from Pittsburg Landing, with General Hurlbut's division about a mile
to his rear. Within a few days, Gen. Benjamin M. Prentiss' division took position on Sherman's left, while Gen. John A. MeClernand
and Gen. W. H. L. Wallace formed their divisions between Sherman and the river. The 3d Division, commanded by Gen. Lew Wallace,
was stationed at Crump's Landing, about 4 miles downstream from the main encampment. Thus, by April 5, 1862, there were in
the five divisions of the Army of the Tennessee at Pittsburg Landing 39,830 officers and men present for duty and 7,564 at
nearby Crump's Landing.
While this concentration of troops was in progress, General
Smith received a leg injury which became so serious that he had to give up his command. General Grant was restored to duty
and sent to Savannah with orders to concentrate troops and supplies, but to bring on no general engagement until a union could
be made with Buell's army, and Halleck had arrived to assume personal command of the combined forces.
General Johnston, in the meantime was concentrating all available
forces at Corinth, Miss., on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. After this had been accomplished, he resolved to take the
offensive and attack Grant's army at Pittsburg Landing, hoping to defeat that army before it could be reinforced by General
Buell. Hearing that Buell was nearing Savannah, Johnston determined to attack at once and accordingly on the 3d of April issued
the order for the forward movement. He expected to give battle at daylight on April 5th, but heavy rains and bad roads made
progress so slow that the last of his columns did not reach the field until late afternoon. It was then decided that the attack
should be postponed until daylight the next morning. Johnston's army, 43,968 strong, went into bivouac in order of battle
within less than 2 miles of the Federal camps. The Confederate forces were formed in three lines. Gen. W. J. Hardee's corps
and one of Gen. Braxton Bragg's brigades were in the first line, the remainder of Bragg's corps in the second line, and Generals
Leonidas Polk's and J. C. Breckinridge's corps in the third line.
During the night of April 5th the two hostile armies were encamped
within a short distance of each other: the Confederates poised, ready to attack, while the unsuspecting Union army went about
its normal camp routine, making no preparations for the defense of its position. On Saturday, a few hours before the battle,
Sherman wrote Grant: "I have no doubt that nothing will occur to-day more than some picket firing," and that he did not "apprehend
anything like an attack" on his position. The same day, after Sherman's report from the front, Grant, who was at Savannah,
telegraphed Halleck: "I have scarcely the faintest idea of an attack (general one) being made upon us, but will be prepared
should such a thing take place."
(Sources listed at bottom of page.)
Recommended
Reading: Shiloh: The Battle
That Changed the Civil War (Simon & Schuster).
From Publishers Weekly: The bloodbath at Shiloh, Tenn.
(April 6-7, 1862), brought an end to any remaining innocence in the Civil War. The combined 23,000 casualties that the two
armies inflicted on each other in two days shocked North and South alike. Ulysses S. Grant kept his head and managed, with
reinforcements, to win a hard-fought victory. Continued below…
Confederate
general Albert Sidney Johnston was wounded and bled to death, leaving P.G.T. Beauregard to disengage and retreat with a dispirited
gray-clad army. Daniel (Soldiering in the Army of Tennessee) has crafted a superbly researched volume that will appeal to
both the beginning Civil War reader as well as those already familiar with the course of fighting in the wooded terrain bordering
the Tennessee River.
His impressive research includes the judicious use of contemporary newspapers and extensive collections of unpublished letters
and diaries. He offers a lengthy discussion of the overall strategic situation that preceded the battle, a survey of the generals
and their armies and, within the notes, sharp analyses of the many controversies that Shiloh
has spawned, including assessments of previous scholarship on the battle. This first new book on Shiloh
in a generation concludes with a cogent chapter on the consequences of those two fatal days of conflict.
Recommended
Reading: Shiloh--In Hell before Night. Description: James McDonough has written a good, readable and concise history of
a battle that the author characterizes as one of the most important of the Civil War, and writes an interesting history of
this decisive 1862 confrontation in the West. He blends first person and newspaper accounts to give the book a good balance
between the general's view and the soldier's view of the battle. Continued below…
Particularly
enlightening is his description of Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston, the commander who was killed on the first day
of the battle. McDonough makes a pretty convincing argument that Johnston fell far short of the image that many give him
in contemporary and historical writings. He is usually portrayed as an experienced and decisive commander of men. This book
shows that Johnston was a man of modest war and command experience,
and that he rose to prominence shortly before the Civil War. His actions (or inaction) prior to the meeting at Shiloh -- offering
to let his subordinate Beauregard take command for example -- reveal a man who had difficulty managing the responsibility
fostered on him by his command. The author does a good job of presenting several other historical questions and problems like
Johnston's reputation vs. reality that really add a lot of
interest to the pages.
Recommended
Reading: Seeing the Elephant: RAW RECRUITS AT THE BATTLE
OF SHILOH.
Description: One of the bloodiest battles in the Civil War, the two-day engagement near Shiloh,
Tennessee, in April 1862 left more than 23,000 casualties. Fighting alongside
seasoned veterans were more than 160 newly recruited regiments and other soldiers who had yet to encounter serious action.
In the phrase of the time, these men came to Shiloh to "see the elephant". Continued below…
Drawing on
the letters, diaries, and other reminiscences of these raw recruits on both sides of the conflict, "Seeing the Elephant" gives
a vivid and valuable primary account of the terrible struggle. From the wide range of voices included in this volume emerges
a nuanced picture of the psychology and motivations of the novice soldiers and the ways in which their attitudes toward the
war were affected by their experiences at Shiloh.
Recommended
Reading:
Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862. Review: The bloody and decisive two-day battle of Shiloh (April
6-7, 1862) changed the entire course of the American Civil War. The stunning Northern victory thrust Union commander Ulysses
S. Grant into the national spotlight, claimed the life of Confederate commander Albert S. Johnston, and forever buried the
notion that the Civil War would be a short conflict. The conflagration at Shiloh had its roots in the strong Union advance
during the winter of 1861-1862 that resulted in the capture of Forts Henry and Donelson in Tennessee. Continued below…
The offensive
collapsed General Albert S. Johnston advanced line in Kentucky and forced him to withdraw all the way to northern Mississippi. Anxious to attack the enemy, Johnston began
concentrating Southern forces at Corinth, a major railroad center just below the Tennessee border. His bold plan called for his Army of the Mississippi to march north and destroy General Grant's Army of the Tennessee
before it could link up with another Union army on the way to join him. On the morning of April 6, Johnston
boasted to his subordinates, "Tonight we will water our horses in the Tennessee!"
They nearly did so. Johnston's sweeping attack hit the unsuspecting Federal camps at Pittsburg
Landing and routed the enemy from position after position as they fell back toward the Tennessee River.
Johnston's sudden death in the Peach Orchard, however, coupled
with stubborn Federal resistance, widespread confusion, and Grant's dogged determination to hold the field, saved the Union
army from destruction. The arrival of General Don C. Buell's reinforcements that night turned the tide of battle. The next
day, Grant seized the initiative and attacked the Confederates, driving them from the field. Shiloh
was one of the bloodiest battles of the entire war, with nearly 24,000 men killed, wounded, and missing. Edward Cunningham,
a young Ph.D. candidate studying under the legendary T. Harry Williams at Louisiana
State University, researched and wrote Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862 in 1966. Although it remained unpublished, many Shiloh
experts and park rangers consider it to be the best overall examination of the battle ever written. Indeed, Shiloh
historiography is just now catching up with Cunningham, who was decades ahead of modern scholarship. Western Civil War historians
Gary D. Joiner and Timothy B. Smith have resurrected Cunningham's beautifully written and deeply researched manuscript from
its undeserved obscurity. Fully edited and richly annotated with updated citations and observations, original maps, and a
complete order of battle and table of losses, Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862 will
be welcomed by everyone who enjoys battle history at its finest. Edward Cunningham, Ph.D., studied under T. Harry Williams
at Louisiana State
University. He was the author of The Port Hudson Campaign: 1862-1863
(LSU, 1963). Dr. Cunningham died in 1997. Gary D. Joiner, Ph.D. is the author of One Damn Blunder from Beginning to End: The
Red River Campaign of 1864, winner of the 2004 Albert Castel Award and the 2005 A. M. Pate, Jr., Award, and Through the Howling
Wilderness: The 1864 Red River Campaign and Union Failure in the West. He lives in Shreveport,
Louisiana. About the Author: Timothy B. Smith, Ph.D., is author of Champion Hill:
Decisive Battle for Vicksburg (winner of the 2004 Mississippi
Institute of Arts and Letters Non-fiction Award), The Untold Story of Shiloh: The Battle and the Battlefield, and This Great
Battlefield of Shiloh: History, Memory, and the Establishment of a Civil War National Military Park. A former ranger at Shiloh,
Tim teaches history at the University of Tennessee.
Recommended
Reading: Shiloh: A Novel, by Shelby Foote. Review: In the novel Shiloh, historian and Civil War expert Shelby
Foote delivers a spare, unflinching account of the battle of Shiloh, which was fought over
the course of two days in April 1862. By mirroring the troops' movements through the woods of Tennessee with the activity of each soldier's mind, Foote offers the reader a broad perspective
of the battle and a detailed view of the issues behind it. Continued below…
The battle
becomes tangible as Foote interweaves the observations of Union and Confederate officers, simple foot soldiers, brave men, and cowards and describes
the roar of the muskets and the haze of the gun smoke. The author's vivid storytelling creates a rich chronicle of a pivotal
battle in American history.
Recommended Reading: The Battle
of Shiloh and the Organizations Engaged (Hardcover). Description: How can an essential "cornerstone of Shiloh
historiography" remain unavailable to the general public for so long? That's what I kept thinking as I was reading this reprint
of the 1913 edition of David W. Reed's “The Battle of Shiloh and the Organizations Engaged.” Reed, a veteran of
the Battle of Shiloh and the first historian of the Shiloh National Military Park,
was tabbed to write the official history of the battle, and this book was the result. Reed wrote a short, concise history
of the fighting and included quite a bit of other valuable information in the pages that followed. The large and impressive
maps that accompanied the original text are here converted into digital format and included in a CD located within a flap
at the back of the book. Author and former Shiloh Park Ranger Timothy Smith is responsible for bringing this important reference
work back from obscurity. His introduction to the book also places it in the proper historical framework. Continued below…
Reed's history of the campaign and battle covers only seventeen pages and is meant to be a brief history of the subject.
The detail is revealed in the rest of the book. And what detail there is! Reed's order of battle for Shiloh goes down to the regimental
and battery level. He includes the names of the leaders of each organization where known, including whether or not these men
were killed, wounded, captured, or suffered some other fate. In a touch not often seen in modern studies, the author also
states the original regiment of brigade commanders. In another nice piece of detail following the order of battle, staff officers
for each brigade and higher organization are listed. The book's main point and where it truly shines is in the section entitled
"Detailed Movements of Organizations". Reed follows each unit in their movements during the battle. Reading this section along
with referring to the computerized maps gives one a solid foundation for future study of Shiloh.
Forty-five pages cover the brigades of all three armies present at Shiloh.
Wargamers and buffs will love the "Abstract of Field Returns". This section lists Present for Duty, engaged, and casualties
for each regiment and battery in an easy to read table format. Grant's entire Army of the Tennessee has Present for Duty strengths. Buell's Army of the Ohio is also counted well. The Confederate Army of the Mississippi
is counted less accurately, usually only going down to brigade level and many times relying only on engaged strengths. That
said, buy this book if you are looking for a good reference work for help with your order of battle.
In what I believe is an unprecedented move in Civil War literature, the University
of Tennessee Press made the somewhat unusual decision to include Reed's
detailed maps of the campaign and battle in a CD which is included in a plastic sleeve inside the back cover of the book.
The cost of reproducing the large maps and including them as foldouts or in a pocket in the book must have been prohibitive,
necessitating this interesting use of a CD. The maps were simple to view and came in a PDF format. All you'll need is Adobe
Acrobat Reader, a free program, to view these. It will be interesting to see if other publishers follow suit. Maps are an
integral part of military history, and this solution is far better than deciding to include poor maps or no maps at all. The
Read Me file that came with the CD relays the following information:
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The maps contained on this CD are scans of the original oversized maps printed in the 1913 edition of D. W. Reed's
The Battle of Shiloh and the Organizations Engaged. The original maps, which were in a very large format and folded out of
the pages of this edition, are of varying sizes, up to 23 inches by 25 inches. They were originally created in 1901 by the
Shiloh National Military Park under the direction of its historian,
David W. Reed. They are the most accurate Shiloh battle maps in existence.
The maps on the CD are saved as PDF (Portable Document Format) files and can be read on any operating system (Windows,
Macintosh, Linux) by utilizing Adobe Acrobat Reader. Visit http://www.adobe.com to download Acrobat Reader if you do not have
it installed on your system.
Map 1. The Field of Operations from Which the Armies Were Concentrated at Shiloh,
March and April 1862
Map 2. The Territory between Corinth, Miss., and Pittsburgh Landing, Tenn., Showing Positions and Route of the Confederate
Army in Its Advance to Shiloh, April 3, 4, 5, & 6, 1862
Map 3. Positions on the First Day, April 6, 1862
Map 4. Positions on the Second Day, April 7, 1862
Complete captions appear on the maps.
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Timothy Smith has done students of the Civil War an enormous favor by republishing this important early work on Shiloh. Relied on for generations by Park Rangers and other serious students of the battle, The Battle
of Shiloh and the Organizations Engaged has been resurrected for a new generation of Civil War readers. This classic reference
work is an essential book for those interested in the Battle of Shiloh. Civil War buffs, wargamers, and those interested in
tactical minutiae will also find Reed's work to be a very good buy. Highly recommended.
Sources: Albert Dillahunty, Shiloh National Military Park Tennessee: National Park Service Historical Handbook
Series No. 10, Washington, D.C., 1955. Reprint 1961.
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