Blackness

After Shiloh the South would never smile again. Known originally as the

Battle of Pittsburg Landing, The Battle of Shiloh was the bloodiest battle

fought in North America up to that time. Pittsburg Landing was an area from

where the Yankees planned to attack the Confederates who had moved from

Fort Donelson to Corinth, Mississippi. The North was commanded by

General Ulysses S. Grant and the South by General Albert Sydney Johnston.

The Union army was taken by surprise the first day when the Confederate

Army unexpectedly attacked, but after Union reinforcements arrived the

fighting virtually ended in a tie. Lasting for two days, April 6 and 7 of 1862,

casualties for both sides exceeded 20,000. The Battle of Shiloh was a

message to both the North and South that the Civil War was for real. General

Grant was anxious to maintain the momentum of his victory at Fort Donelson.

His army had moved up to a port on the Tennessee River called Pittsburg

Landing in preparation for an attack on Corinth, Mississippi, where the

Confederate troops were located. General Halleck, Western U.S. Army

commander, had ordered Grant to stay put and wait for reinforcements.

Grant had given command of the Pittsburg Landing encampment to General

William T. Sherman while he waited at his camp in Savannah, Tennessee. (1)

At Corinth, Confederate Generals Albert Sydney Johnston and P.G.T.

Beauregard worked feverishly to ready the 40,000 plus troops there for an

attack on the Union Army at Pittsburg Landing before U.S. Army General

Buell and reinforcements could arrive from Nashville. The officers appointed

as corps commanders for the South were Major General John Breckinridge,

Major General William J. Hardee, Major General Braxton Bragg, and Major

General Leonidas Polk. The South headed for Pittsburg Landing on April 4,

1862 but because of several delays the attack was postponed until April 6.

The Battle of Shiloh began early the morning of April 6. Johnston's men burst

out of the woods so early that Union soldiers came out of their tents to fight.

The Confederate army drove the Yankees back eight miles that day. One

area that was especially troublesome for the South was nicknamed the

Hornet's Nest and was commanded by Union General Prentiss. The area

was a sunken road that Federal troops rallied behind and mowed down wave

after wave of Rebel attackers until General Prentiss finally surrendered. The

Hornet's Nest got its name from Southern soldiers who reported that the

sound of bullets and mini-balls flying through the air sounded like hornets.

Prentiss fought, as he states, until "half-past five P.M., when finding that

further resistance must result in the slaughter of every man in the command, I

(2) had to yield

the fight. The enemy succeeded in capturing myself and two

thousand two hundred rank and file, many of them being wounded" (The

Rebellion Record, 1865 p 258). Prentiss was captured along with 2200

Union troops. In an interview with General Beauregard after being captured,

General Prentiss stated concerning the Union Army at Pittsburg "I am afraid

that all of our men will be taken" (New Orleans, Times-Picayune, 1862).

When a bystander asked him about General Buell he stated "Buell is not

coming here, and if any forces are on the way they must be very small. I

know nothing of them" (New Orleans, Times-Picayune, 1862). Both sides

had suffered devastating losses and injuries. That evening soldiers from both

armies wash their wounds in a small lake. The pond took on a red tint from

the troops blood loss. From then on, it was known as Bloody Pond. The

South suffered a terrible loss at 2:30 in the afternoon of April 6, 1862.