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Hardin County, Tennessee

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April 6-7, 1862

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General Grant, General A.S. Johnston, Former Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Major General Henry W. Halleck, Major General Ulysses S Grant, Major General Don Carlos Buell.

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On April 7, 1862, the Civil War's Battle of Shiloh ended with a United States (Union) victory over Confederate forces in Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee. The two-day conflict was at that point the bloodiest battle in American history, with more than 23,000 dead and wounded. The point of the war was to  allow  Grant to begin a massive operation in the Mississippi Valley later that year

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By mid-February 1862, United States forces had won decisive victories in the West at Mill Springs, Kentucky, and Forts Henry and Donelson in Tennessee. These successes opened the way for invasion up the Tennessee River to sever Confederate rail communications along the important Memphis & Charleston and Mobile & Ohio railroads. Forced to abandon Kentucky and Middle Tennessee, Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, supreme Confederate commander in the West, moved to protect his rail communications by concentrating his scattered forces around the small town of Corinth in northeast Mississippi-strategic crossroads of the Memphis & Charleston and the Mobile & Ohio.

In March, Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck, commanding U.S. forces in the West, advanced armies under Maj. Gens. Ulysses S. Grant and Don Carlos Buell southward to sever the Southern railroads. Grant ascended the Tennessee River by steamboat, disembarking his Army of the Tennessee at Pittsburg Landing, 22 miles northeast of Corinth. There he established a base of operations on a plateau west of the river, with his forward camps posted two miles inland around a log church called Shiloh Meeting House. Halleck had specifically instructed Grant not to engage the Confederates until he had been reinforced by Buell's Army of the Ohio, then marching overland from Nashville. Once combined, the two armies would advance on Corinth and permanently break western Confederate railroad communications.

General Johnston, aware of Federal designs on Corinth, planned to smash Grant's army at Pittsburg Landing before Buell arrived. He placed his troops in motion on April 3, but heavy rain and difficulties encountered by marching large columns of men, artillery, and heavy wagons over muddy roads, delayed the attack. By nightfall, April 5, his Army of the Mississippi, nearly 44,000 men present for duty, was finally deployed for battle four miles southwest of Pittsburg Landing.

At daybreak, Sunday, April 6, the Confederates stormed out of the woods and assailed the forward Federal camps around Shiloh Church. Grant and his nearly 40,000 men present for duty were equally surprised by the onslaught. The Federals soon rallied, however, and bitter fighting consumed "Shiloh Hill." Throughout the morning, Confederate brigades slowly gained ground, forcing Grant's troops to give way, grudgingly, to fight a succession of defensive stands at Shiloh Church, the Peach Orchard, Water Oaks Pond, and within an impenetrable oak thicket battle survivors named the Hornets' Nest.

Despite having achieved surprise, Johnston's troops soon became as disorganized as the Federals. The Southern attack lost coordination as corps, divisions, and brigades became entangled. Then, at mid-afternoon, as he supervised an assault on the Union left, Johnston was struck in the right leg by a stray bullet and bled to death, leaving Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard in command of the Confederate army. Grant's battered divisions retired to a strong position extending west from Pittsburg Landing where massed artillery and rugged ravines protected their front and flanks. Fighting ended at nightfall.

Overnight, reinforcements from Buell's army reached Pittsburg Landing. Beauregard, unaware Buell had arrived, planned to finish the destruction of Grant the next day. At dawn, April 7, however, it was Grant who attacked. Throughout the day, the combined Union armies, numbering over 54,500 men, hammered Beauregard's depleted ranks, now mustering barely 34,000 troops. Despite mounting desperate counterattacks, the exhausted Confederates could not stem the increasingly stronger Federal tide. Forced back to Shiloh Church, Beauregard skillfully withdrew his outnumbered command and returned to Corinth. The battered Federals did not press the pursuit. The battle of Shiloh, or Pittsburg Landing, was over. It had cost both sides a combined total of 23,746 men killed, wounded, or missing, and ultimate control of Corinth's railroad junction remained in doubt.

Halleck, recognizing Corinth's military value, considered its capture more important than the destruction of Confederate armies. Reinforced by another army under Gen. John Pope, he cautiously advanced southward from Tennessee and, by late May, entrenched his three armies within cannon range of Confederate fortifications defending the strategic crossroads. Despite being reinforced by Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn's Trans-Mississippi Army, Beauregard withdrew south to Tupelo, abandoning the most viable line of east-west rail communications in the western Confederacy.

Federal efforts to recover the Mississippi Valley stalled in the late summer of 1862, and Confederate leaders launched counteroffensives in every theater. Armies led by Gens. Braxton Bragg and Edmund Kirby Smith invaded Kentucky, while troops under Van Dorn boldly attacked the heavily fortified Union garrison at Corinth, "linchpin" of Federal control in northern Mississippi. In one of the more bitterly contested battles of the war, Van Dorn was decisively repulsed, following two days of carnage (October 3-4) that claimed nearly 7,000 more Confederate and Union casualties.

Although overshadowed by the failure of Robert E. Lee's Confederate invasion in Maryland, Van Dorn's defeat, coupled with Bragg's retreat from Kentucky after the battle of Perryville (October 8), caused discouragement in Richmond and relief in Washington. More significantly, Van Dorn's defeat at Corinth-the last Confederate offensive in Mississippi-seriously weakened the only mobile Southern army defending the Mississippi Valley. This permitted Ulysses S. Grant to launch a relentless nine-month campaign to capture "the fortress city" of Vicksburg and recover the Mississippi River.

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Battle of Shiloh - Shiloh National Military Park (U.S. National Park Service)

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By mid-February 1862, United States forces had won decisive victories in the West at Mill Springs, Kentucky, and Forts Henry and Donelson in Tennessee. These successes opened the way for invasion up the Tennessee River to sever Confederate rail communications along the important Memphis & Charleston and Mobile & Ohio railroads.

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After taking Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in Tennessee in February 1862, Major General U. S. Grant was ordered to advance up the Tennessee River. By early April, most of Grant's Army of the Tennessee had arrived at Pittsburg Landing, where they were ordered to await Major General Buell's Army of the Ohio in preparation for further campaigns. While waiting, Grant chose not to fortify his position, choosing instead to drill his men, many of whom were raw recruits.

Confederate General A. S. Johnston and his Army of Mississippi had fallen back to Corinth, Mississippi, to reorganize after the loss of the two forts. Johnston was determined to attack the Union forces at Pittsburg Landing before they could be reinforced for their next campaign.

The Confederate Army's attack early Sunday morning, April 6, took the Union by surprise, initially overwhelming them. Union soldiers made a determined stand in a sunken road that came to be known as the "Hornet's Nest." That action allowed other Union units to pull back and establish a battle line covering Pittsburg Landing. Johnston was killed during the fighting, and his second-in-command, Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard, took charge. As the sun set, Beauregard called off further attacks, and both sides spent a miserable night in the rain. That evening and during the night, Buell's fresh troops arrived to reinforce the Union.

"On Sunday morning at 7 O Clock when most of our men were quietly eating their breakfast, they were rushed upon by the enemy, and bullets flew thick and fast, tents completely riddled, and soon their Artillery commenced a raking fire."

It was the Confederate Army's turn to be surprised by the Union's counterattack at dawn on April 7. Throughout the day, Beauregard's army was pushed back until he conceded that the battle could not be won and withdrew to Corinth.

Cheney's Battery arrived at Pittsburg Landing on April 9, too late to join the other batteries of the 1st Illinois Light Artillery in the Battle of Shiloh. Cheney recorded an account of the battle in his April 12 letter to Mary, perhaps given to him by other "Dixon boys" in the 34th and 46th Illinois Infantry Regiments who had participated. After riding over the battlefield, Cheney described it as "a horrible sight." Cheney credited Buell and "his noble army" with saving the day, criticizing Grant for letting his army be taken by surprise. "I think it is high time that such men be removed," Cheney wrote. He was not alone in his criticism of Grant. Calls for Grant to be removed prompted President Abraham Lincoln's famous reply, "I can't spare this man; he fights."

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After taking Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in Tennessee in February 1862, Major General U. S. Grant was ordered to advance up the Tennessee River. By early April, most of Grant's Army of the Tennessee had arrived at Pittsburg Landing, where they were ordered to await Major General Buell's Army of the Ohio in preparation for further campaigns.

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Kids learn about the Battle of Shiloh during the Civil War. First major battle in the western theater.

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On April 7, 1862, the Battle of Shiloh ended with a United States (Union) victory over Confederate forces in Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee.

Subjects

Geography, Physical Geography, Social Studies, U.S. History

On April 7, 1862, the Civil War's Battle of Shiloh ended with a United States (Union) victory over Confederate forces in Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee. The two-day conflict was at that point the bloodiest battle in American history, with more than 23,000 dead and wounded. (This gruesome distinction was surpassed a year later by the Battle of Gettysburg, which resulted in more than 47,000 casualties.) The Battle of Shiloh was a crucial success for the Union Army, led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee (named for the river, not the state). It allowed Grant to begin a massive operation in the Mississippi Valley later that year. This culminated in the brutal Vicksburg Campaign, which targeted the "fortress city" of Vicksburg, Mississippi-the last Confederate-controlled area along the Mississippi River. The Battle of Shiloh also robbed the Confederacy of one of her most capable leaders, Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston. Former Confederate President Jefferson Davis later said Johnston's death was "the turning point of our fate."

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National Geographic Society

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National Geographic Society

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Last Updated

October 19, 2023

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On April 7, 1862, the Battle of Shiloh ended with a United States (Union) victory over Confederate forces in Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee.

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Our Battle of Shiloh page includes history articles, battle maps, photos, web links, and the latest preservation news for this important 1862 Civil War battle in Tennessee.