Battle of Shiloh

April 6-7, 1862

While Lincoln fumed over the cautious, hesitant General McClellan, he had no such
problems with Ulysses S. Grant. Bold and restless, Grant grew impatient when he
was asked to lead defensive maneuvers. He wanted to be on the attack. As a
commander of forces in the Union’s western campaign, he would get his wish.

Western Theater

The western campaign focused on taking control of the Mississippi River. This
strategy would cut off the eastern part of the Confederacy from sources of food
production in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. From bases on the Mississippi, the
Union army could attack southern communication and transportation networks.

In February 1862, Grant led an assault force into Tennessee. With help from navy
gunboats, Grant’s Army of Tennessee (Union) took two outposts on key rivers in the
west. On February 6, he captured Fort Henry on the Tennessee River. Several days
later he took Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River.

Fort Donelson’s commander asked for the terms of surrender. Grant replied, “No
terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted.” The fort
surrendered. The North gave a new name to Grant’s initials: “Unconditional
Surrender” Grant.

Advancing south in Tennessee, General Grant paused near Shiloh Church to await the
arrival of Don Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio (Union). Grant knew that the large
rebel army of General A. S. Johnston was nearby in Corinth, Mississippi, but he did
not expect an attack. Instead of setting up defenses, he worked on drilling his new
recruits.
Grant was stationed with 42,000 troops on the west side of the Tennessee River near
the Mississippi border. He remained there for nearly a month, waiting for the arrival
of Don Carlos Buell’s Union army. However, Confederate General Johnston decided
to attack first, hoping to catch Grant’s troops before Buell arrived.

On April 6th, 1862, the Confederate forces caught the

Union troops completely off guard (Union General
Grant was away from the front receiving treatment for
an injured leg), and after three hours of brutal, bloody
fighting, the Confederates began to overrun the Union
forces. The battle could have turned into a rout, but the
Confederate army lost its momentum when its soldiers
started rummaging through the now abandoned Union
camps looking for food and supplies.

The battle became increasingly disorganized, and soldiers on both sides scrambled to
find their correct units. One major battle turned into numerous smaller skirmishes
[fights], with both sides taking heavy casualties. In many cases, confused Confederate
troops dressed in both blue and gray fired on their own men, and hundreds of panic-
stricken soldiers on both sides ran from the battlefield in terror.

When Union General Grant finally arrived on the scene, he ordered

his remaining men to hold their positions in a sense thicket at all
costs. With Grant barking orders and doing his best to rally them,
the Union soldiers managed to repel more than a dozed hard
Confederate defenders of the thicket, which came to be known as
“the Hornet’s Nest” because of the constant gunfire, were ordered
to surrender as they came under fire from Confederate artillery. But
it was growing dark, and it had started to rain, so the Confederates
decided to delay a final assault until the next morning. The decision
would cost them greatly.

During the night, Grant was greatly reinforced as Don Carlos Buell’s army had finally
arrived. When fighting resumed around 7:30 A.M., the Confederate army was fighting
a Union force that was twice the size it had been the day before. The Union forces
were able to recapture almost all of the ground they had lost earlier and the
Confederate army was forced to withdrawal back to Corinth.

Grant’s army won the battle, but Grant was strongly rebuked for being caught by
surprise. His superior officer, Henry Halleck, accused Grant of being drunk at the
time (an accusation that was not true, but was typical of Halleck) and also blamed him
for the large number of Union casualties. More than 13,000 Union soldiers were
killed, wounded, or missing in the battle, compared to 10,694 on the Confederate side;
this loss was more than twice the number of dead in all previous engagements
combined.