Part 7 - Shiloh

Grant

Albert Sydney Johnston

Carlos Beull

The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the western theater. 
It was also a turning point.  Union General Ulysses S. Grant led his army of Tennessee (48,894 strong) after his victories at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson and his drive through Tennessee.  As Grants army was encamped at Pittsburg Landing.  The Confederates under General Albert Sydney Johnston and P. G. T. Beauregard launched a massive ambush of Grants troops as they marched from Pittsburg Landing.  On the first day of the battle, the Confederates struck with the intention of driving the Union defenders away from the river and into the swamps of Owl Creek to the west, hoping to defeat Grant's Army of Tennessee, before the anticipated arrival of Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Beull's Army of the Ohio. (17,918 strong)The Confederate battle lines became confused during the fierce fighting, and Grant's men instead fell back to the northeast, in the direction of Pittsburg Landing. A position on a slightly sunken road, nicknamed the "Hornet's Nest", defended tenaciously by the Federal forces.

Beauregard

This provided critical time for the rest of the Union line to stabilize under the protection of numerous artillery batteries. Gen. Johnston was killed during the first day of fighting, and Beauregard, his second in command, decided against assaulting the final Union position that night.  Jefferson Davis, President of CSA said when he heard the news of Johnston's death "I realized that our strongest pillar had been broken."

 Reinforcements from Gen. Buell and from Grant's own army arrived in the evening and turned the tide the next morning, when the Union commanders launched a counterattack along the entire line. The Confederates were forced to retreat from the bloodiest battle in United states history up to that time.  The battle itself was a draw, but a tactical victory for the Federals.  It cost the CSA 10,699 men in casualties, their best western theater General, locked the Confederates out of west Tennessee for good, and shook the armies confidence.