April 7, 1862

April 7 & 8, 1862. (the second and follow up day at the Battle of Shiloh)

“If the enemy comes on us in the morning, we’ll be whipped like hell”.

– Col. Nathan Bedford Forrest (Yes, Forrest Gump was named after this man)

The best estimates of casualties on the first day are the south lost 8,500 men to death and injury and an equal number to desertion. The effective force was about 28,000. The north had about 10,000 killed and wounded with few desertions (better discipline and training) leaving them with a significant advantage. About 50,000 fighting men, which prompted the quote from Confederate Col. Nathan Bedford Forrest whose advice General Beauregard ignored.

The Confederates had withdrawn into the old Union camps to get away from the naval bombardment, to search for food and ammunition. There was complete disarray, no lines of battle, no defensive positions.

At dawn Grant attacked with full force on his right driving the confederates out of their poorly defended positions with Lew Wallace’s “Lost Division”. The remainder of Sherman’s, McClernand’s and Tuttle’s (Tuttle replaced the surrendered Prentiss) divisions down the center with the Army of the Ohio on the right next to the river. The Confederate defenders were so badly commingled that little unit cohesion existed. It required more than two hours to locate Gen. Polk and bring up his division from its position before 10 a.m., Beauregard had realigned his front with his commanders from west to east: Bragg, Polk, Breckinridge, and Hardee.

Fighting was intensified now that the confederates had some cohesiveness. In a thicket near the Hamburg-Purdy Road, the fighting was so intense that Sherman described in his report of the battle “the severest musketry fire I ever heard.”

Though they were able to mount a decent defense the numbers way out favored the Union troops. They relentlessly pushed them back to the original lines from the previous day by noon. A series of counter attacks were made near the Shiloh Church house. With temporary effect they were able to drive the Union off of the Corinth Road until they were flanked by Union forces at the junction of the Hamburg-Purdy and East Corinth Roads.

Realizing that he had lost the initiative and was low on ammunition and food and with over 10,000 of his men killed, wounded, or missing, Beauregard knew he could go no further. He withdrew well beyond Shiloh Church, using 5,000 men under Breckinridge as a covering force, massing Confederate batteries along the way and on the ridge south of Shiloh Branch. These forces kept the Union forces in position on the Corinth Road until 5 p.m., when the Confederates began an orderly withdrawal back to Corinth. The exhausted Union soldiers did not pursue much past the original Sherman and Prentiss encampments; Lew Wallace’s division advanced beyond Shiloh Branch but, receiving no support from other units, halted at dark and returned to Sherman’s camp. The battle was over.

Grant and Buell quarreled over Grant’s decision not to mount an immediate pursuit with another hour of daylight remaining. Grant cited the exhaustion of his troops, although the Confederates were certainly just as exhausted. Grant was the senior officer and in command of both armies, though Buell made it quite clear throughout the two days that he was acting independently.

April 8, the aftermath

Grant sent Sherman south along the Corinth Road on a reconnaissance in force to ascertain if the Confederates had retreated, or if they were regrouping to resume their attacks. Because the Union army lacked the large organized cavalry units that would have been better suited for reconnaissance and pursuit of a retreating enemy. Sherman marched with two infantry brigades from his division, along with two battalions of cavalry, and they met up with Brig. Gen. Wood’s division of Buell’s army. Six miles southwest of Pittsburg Landing, Sherman’s men came upon a clear field in which an extensive camp was erected, including a Confederate field hospital, protected by 300 Confederate cavalry, commanded by Col. Nathan Bedford Forrest. The road approaching the field was covered by fallen trees for over 200 yards.

As skirmishers approached, having difficulty clearing the fallen timber, Forrest ordered a charge, producing a wild melee with Confederate troopers firing shotguns and revolvers while brandishing sabers, nearly resulting in the capture or killing of General Sherman. As Col. Hildebrand’s Union brigade began forming in line of battle, the Southern troopers started to retreat at the sight of the strong force, and Forrest, who was well in advance of his men, came within a few yards of the Union soldiers before realizing he was all alone. Sherman’s men yelled out, “Kill him! Kill him and his horse!” A Union soldier shoved his musket into Forrest’s side and fired, striking him above the hip, penetrating close to the spine. Although he was seriously wounded, Forrest was able to stay on horseback and escape; Forrest grabbed a Union soldier, pulled him onto his horse to use as a shield then dumped the man once he had broken clear and was out of range, then he galloped back to his troopers, he survived both the wound and the war. The Union lost about 100 men, mostly captured during Forrest’s charge, in an incident that has been remembered with the name “Fallen Timbers”. After capturing the Confederate field hospital, Sherman encountered the rear of Breckinridge’s covering force and, determining that the enemy was making no signs of renewing its attack and withdrew back to camp.

Two of the wars most famous Generals nearly died that day. Sherman and Forrest would become the ultimate hero and or bad guys for each side.

“I rode forward several miles the day after the battle, and found that the enemy had dropped much, if not all, of their provisions, some ammunition and the extra wheels of their caissons, lightening their loads to enable them to get off their guns. About five miles out we found their field hospital abandoned. An immediate pursuit must have resulted in the capture of a considerable number of prisoners and probably some guns. Shiloh was the severest battle fought at the West during the war, and but few in the East equaled it for hard, determined fighting. I saw an open field, in our possession on the second day, over which the Confederates had made repeated charges the day before, so covered with dead that it would have been possible to walk across the clearing, in any direction, stepping on dead bodies, without a foot touching the ground. (Hornets Nest) On our side National and Confederate troops were mingled together in about equal proportions; but on the remainder of the field nearly all were Confederates. On one part, which had evidently not been plowed for several years, probably because the land was poor, bushes had grown up, some to the height of eight or ten feet. There was not one of these left standing un-pierced by bullets. The smaller ones were all cut down”. (the thicket near the Hamburg-Purdy Road) – General Ulysses S. Grant

The nation was not ready for the reports of the battle. Union casualties were estimated at 13,000. Confederate at 11,000. The costliest two day battle in our history up till that point. Newspaper’s went into a frenzy after Grant saying he was drunk and incompetent. Lincoln was flooded with demands for his removal and courts martial. But Lincoln needed to win the war, and as he told Grant’s detractors in no uncertain terms that his general would keep his job. Lincoln said, “I cannot spare this man he fights.”

The newspapers promoted Sherman as an immediate hero, his steadfastness under fire and amid chaos making up for his previous melancholy and his defensive lapses preceding the battle. (really the result of having no cavalry) Today, Grant is recognized positively for the clear judgment he was able to retain under the strenuous circumstances, and his ability to perceive the larger tactical picture that ultimately resulted in victory on the second day.

Nevertheless, Halleck removed Grant from command and replaced him with himself assigning Grant a desk job. It was during this time that Grant decided to resign and go home. When Sherman found out about it he rushed to his side determined to talk him into staying on. Sherman was able to convince Grant that he would soon be back in command because the war in the east was in a quagmire and going nowhere. Grant agreed prompting one of Sherman’s most famous quotes about their meeting. “Grant stood by me when I was crazy, and I stood by him when he was drunk, now we stand by each other”.

Grant was restored to command. Grant eventually pushed on down the Mississippi to besiege Vicksburg. After the surrender of Vicksburg and the fall of Port Hudson in the summer of 1863, the Mississippi River was under Union control and the Confederacy was cut in two. Grant would replace Halleck as Commander of all Army’s after the battle for Chattanooga. Sherman would take over as Commander of the Army of the Mississippi. This allowed them the luxury of a two pronged attack on the Confederacy.

William Tecumseh Sherman on the folly of continuing the war;

“If they want eternal war, well and good; we accept the issue, and will dispossess them and put our friends in their place. I know thousands and millions of good people who at simple notice would come to North Alabama and accept the elegant houses and plantations there. If the people of Huntsville think different, let them persist in war three years longer, and then they will not be consulted. Three years ago by a little reflection and patience they could have had a hundred years of peace and prosperity, but they preferred war; very well. Last year they could have saved their slaves, but now it is too late. All the powers of earth cannot restore to them their slaves, any more than their dead grandfathers. Next year their lands will be taken, for in war we can take them, and rightfully, too, and in another year they may beg in vain for their lives. A people who will persevere in war beyond a certain limit ought to know the consequences. Many, many peoples with less pertinacity have been wiped out of national existence”. – Letter to Maj. R. M. Sawyer, from Vicksburg (31 January 1864)

At Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee and around the little wooden Methodist church named Shiloh was fought the first major battle in the western theater of the civil war. It was one battle that the Confederacy simply had to win in order to restore the Confederate boundaries to the Kentucky-Ohio border. Failing to do this the western theater became the advantage the union needed to secure Tennessee and Kentucky and advance the reunification of the union.

“The South never smiled again after Shiloh.”

– George Washington Cable, Confederate Author and Historian.

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