The Battle of
Shiloh (aka Battle of
Pittsburg Landing) was the first major battle in the Western Theatre of
the American Civil War and the bloodiest battle in United States history up to that
time. A two-day affair (April 6-7, 1862), the Confederates appeared to be on their way
to a major victory after the first day of action, but Union reinforcements
counterattacked the next day, driving the defeated Confederates from the field. The
bloody fighting at the infamous "hornet's nest"--where bullets flew as thick as
hornets--was an example of the old European style warfare: Instead of bypassing the
heavily fortified Union position, the Confederates stubbornly assaulted it more than a
dozen times before assembling 50 cannon to blast the surviving Union troops from the
position.
In the aftermath of the battle, both sides were
stunned at the carnage and high casualty rates; combined total casualities totalled
nearly 24,000, including Confederate General Albert Sydney Johnston, considered the
South's finest commander. Few people in either the North or South thought the war would
last but a few months, but Shiloh changed the opinions of many. The battle also
introduced the nation to two men who would become the finest commanders in the Union
army by the end of the war: Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh
Sherman.
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