April 8, 1862: The Battle of Fallen Timbers, TN

APRIL 8, 1862:            

 

The Battle of Fallen Timbers, Tennessee.  

General Grant belatedly chose to pursue the retreating Confederates from Shiloh, and caught up to a rearward supply and hospital train. A charge on the Confederate line and a responsive charge on the Union line resulted in a disorganized hand-to-hand melee, in which Union General W.T. Sherman and Confederate General N.B. Forrest were both nearly captured. Forrest was shot and badly wounded, but survived to fight another day.

April 7, 1862---The Battle of Shiloh: Day Two

APRIL 7, 1862:            

The Battle of Shiloh (The Battle of Shiloh Church; The Battle of Pittsburg Landing) (Day Two):  

After a night of cold rain with the screams and moans of the injured and dying as a ghastly lullaby, the Federal army, reinforced by units under the command of Lew Wallace and Don Carlos Buell numbered about 50,000 even after the prior day’s losses. This easily outnumbered P.G.T. Beauregard’s army of now 20,000-28,000 men. Morale in the Confederate ranks was waning. The loss of the renowned Albert Sidney Johnston (the highest-ranking General to be lost by either side in the war), added to Grant’s overnight reinforcement, led Nathan Bedford Forrest, usually the most daring of men to say, “If the enemy comes on us in the morning, we'll be whipped like hell.”

The sun rose on a massive Union counteroffensive that overpowered the weakened Confederate forces. Brutal firefights that sounded like a single continuous din echoed through the woods. Although the Confederates managed to counterattack in the afternoon, their forces were repulsed and flanked.  

Brutally mauled, Beauregard’s army retired from the field. Grant’s army, exhausted, did not pursue them. The two day battle at Shiloh cost the Union 13,047 casualties: 1,754 killed, 8,408 wounded, and 2,885 captured or missing out of a total force of 67,000. Confederate losses were 10,699: 1,728 killed, 8,012 wounded, and 959 captured or missing out of a total force of 45,000.

Shiloh tarnished Grant’s reputation for a while, aided by Henry W. Halleck, Grant’s superior who disliked him and his growing fame. Grant’s failure to entrench or even set a picket line was laid down to his drinking. The horrendous number of casualties at Shiloh was laid at Grant’s feet. When Halleck was later reassigned, Grant emerged from under his cloud.

 

 

April 6, 1862---The Battle of Shiloh: Day One

APRIL 6, 1862:           

 The Battle of Shiloh (The Battle of Shiloh Church; The Battle of Pittsburg Landing) (Day One):            

In the early morning hours, 40,000 Confederate soldiers under the command of General Albert Sidney Johnston poured out of the nearby woods and struck U.S. Grant’s 50,000 man force encamped at Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River. The Union troops were utterly unprepared for such an attack---Grant had not even set up pickets, much less built entrenchments or fortifications. By some odd chance of acoustic shadowing, the Union men had not even heard the Confederates approaching. 

The Rebel yell echoed through the woods around Shiloh Church (the name, in Hebrew, means “Place of Peace”). The overpowering Confederate offensive drove the unprepared Federal forces from their camps and threatened to overwhelm Ulysses S. Grant’s entire command. Although many Federals fell, and others broke and ran, most Federals made determined stands, and by afternoon, they had established a battle line at the sunken road, known as the “Hornet's Nest.”

Fourteen headlong repeated Rebel attacks failed to capture the Hornet's Nest, but 50 cannons formed into a line of massed artillery named “Ruggles’ Battery” blasted the Union line to gory bits and helped to turn the tide as the Confederates surrounded the Union troops and captured, killed, or wounded most of them. The Confederate commanders sent messages to Richmond declaring a great victory, and predicting the capture of Ulysses S. Grant in the morning. Grant, for his part, was possessed of equanimity in the face of the day’s carnage. When General William Tecumseh Sherman encountered Grant under a tree, sheltering himself from the pouring rain, Grant was smoking one of his famous cigars while considering his losses and planning for the next day. Sherman remarked, "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" Grant looked up. "Yes," he replied, followed by a puff. "Yes. Lick 'em tomorrow, though."

During the first day’s attacks, General A.S. Johnston was mortally wounded and was replaced by P.G.T. Beauregard. Fighting continued until after dark, but the Federals continued to hold. Grant used the time to reorganize and reinforce. The sacrifices at the Hornet’s Nest had not been in vain.

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