The Battle of Shiloh took place on April 6th and 7th, 1862 in the woods near the Tennessee River just north of the Mississippi border. The battle takes its name from a log church which was there at the time and built by the settlers in the area. The word ”Shiloh” sadly comes from the Hebrew for “Place of Peace”, but in our history it will forever be remembered as a place of terrible, bloody conflict. The Union was moving down the Tennessee River with the hopes of capturing and controlling the Mississippi River Valley. One of the keys to that goal was the important railroad crossing in nearby Corinth, Mississippi, which linked the Mississippi and Charleston and the Mobile and Ohio Railroads. The first was the only rail link between the Mississippi River and the Atlantic Ocean. After a decisive victory at Fort Donelson and the subsequent falls of Nashville and Clarksville, the Union Army set their sights on Corinth, and the Confederacy rushed to reorganize and defend it.
While Union General Ulysses S. Grant arrived with his army by river and disembarked at Pittsburgh Landing near the Shiloh Church, he had orders to wait to attack until reinforcements arrived from Nashville. Knowing this, the Confederate Army of the West, under the command of perhaps their greatest general, Albert Sidney Johnston, decided to move in from Corinth and go on the offensive. Rain slowed their advance, and was to be one of many determining factors in the ensuing battle. The first day of the battle, April 6th, was merciless with many casualties on both sides but the Confederacy taking the upper hand. As darkness and rain fell that night, it seemed victory would come early the next morning for Johnston and his Rebel forces. The Union, however, received much needed reinforcements during the night, and they dug in. On April 7th, the tides turned and when General Johnston was killed it was the worst omen for the confederacy. P.G.T. Beauregard assumed command and after taking heavy casualties decided to retreat and head back to Corinth. With his troops exhausted and damaged, Grant chose not to follow.
The Battle of Shiloh was an important one in the history of the war. The casualties were beyond belief for both sides, with almost 24,000 soldiers killed, wounded or captured. To put this in perspective, that’s more than all previous battles fought in American history combined. Most of the soldiers who fought there that day, half of the Union forces and 8 out of 10 Confederates, had never seen war before. They learned quickly that it wasn’t the noble stuff of fairy tales. The war would escalate after Shiloh, and would last another three terrible years. Both sides had lost too much in those two days to turn back. Two future Presidents were there that day (Grant and Garfield), as were legendary explorers John Wesley Powel (Grand Canyon) and Henry Stanley (“Dr. Livingston, I presume?”) and the author of Ben Hur, Lew Wallace. I’m sure they, like everyone present at Shiloh, carried the scars of that battle with them and they would help shape the men they would become.
Shiloh became a National Battlefield in 1894, interestingly while many men who fought there were still alive. Many came back to help interpret the battle and left us with an amazing record of the events that took place during those two days in April, 1862. Today it is expertly run by the National Park Service, and is open daily (and free) to the public. When I visited, I was there right before dusk and while the echoes of the bullets still ring through the trees there, it was quiet and has once again become a Place of Peace.