When you teach American History, the Battle of Shiloh stands out in the Civil War unit. Shiloh is a Hebrew word meaning ‘place of peace’ and though the battle might have taken place on a Sunday, normally a peaceful and quite day, this Sunday was anything but. In fact, the two-day battle of Shiloh was the costliest in American history up to that time, Union casualties were 13,047 (1,754 killed, 8,408 wounded, and 2,885 missing) out of 65,000 and the Confederate casualties were 10,699 (1,728 killed, 8,012 wounded, and 959 missing or captured) out of 45,000. Both sides were shocked at the carnage. No one suspected three more years of such bloodshed remained and eight larger and bloodier battles were yet to come.
Again, it was that railroad at Corinth that caused these two armies to come together at Shiloh. General Ulysses S. Grant from the Union was marching with his army towards Corinth and Albert Sidney Johnston of the Confederacy decided to go out to meet him and take them by surprise. And, what a surprise it was - caught them cooking breakfast and relaxing with virtually no patrols out. The first day of the battle was a rout of the Union which was pushed back from their positions almost to the river where they had originally landed. It was such a decisive rout that the Confederate commander wired Jefferson Davis that they had won a decisive victory and that tomorrow would be just mopping up.
Over night,however, General Buell arrived with 20,000 fresh soldiers to augment Grant’s army and they pushed the Confederates back so decisively that they retreated and headed back to Corinth. In the end, the Confederacy lost > 10,000 of their army. Since the Confederacy had only 1/2 of the Union army, they could only afford to lose only 1/2 of what the Union lost in any engagement. They also lost Johnston, considered one of their best generals. He was wounded during the first day, shot in the knee possibly by one of his own men. He might have survived and even had a tourniquet in his pocket. However, no one noticed the blood since it was falling into his knee-high boot. He might not even have noted that he was wounded since he had earlier suffered an injury to his sciatic nerve and had a numbness to pain, cold and heat.
Grant, on the other hand, though his reputation was tarnished a bit from being surprised chalked up a victory.
It was a beautiful day for a road trip and a beautiful day for walking the battlefield - though, I’ll admit, that the battle field was pretty big and we walked only a portion. We stopped at the VC to watch the film of the battle. It was a marvelous film and you could almost feel yourself on the field. It was a mix of maps and re-enactors with voice-over summaries. Excellent, excellent film. And, I understand, just new. The first monument that we visited was, natch, the Iowa monument and it was glorious but the battlefield had many monuments.
It also had a plethora of artillery and here is a collection of artillery from a confederate unit.
It was aimed at an Iowa brigade trapped in what became known as the ‘Hornet’s Nest’ for the whizzing buzzing of minie balls through the air.
The Iowa brigade became surrounded and had to surrender but put up such a ferocious fight that the rest of Grant’s army was able to move back further. Here the red is the Confederacy and the Blue is the Union.
Finally, the Union was pushed back almost to the Tennessee River when nightfall came.
General Beauregard of the Confederacy thought the battle all but won and only mopping up was in store for tomorrow but over night General Buell’s army was coming into Grant’s camp and in the morning they mounted a furious offensive, pushed the Confederates back and they turned around and marched back to Corinth. The battle was over but at what a cost. It stunned both sides but bloodier battles were to follow.
Here is a trench grave holding Confederate soldiers.
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