Shiloh National Military

The peaceful landscape at Shiloh National Military Park gives little indication of the enormous battle that took place here on April 6 and 7, 1862. The Battle of Shiloh was one of the first major battles in the Western Theater of the Civil War and, at the time, the bloodiest battle yet fought in American history.

In the spring of 1862, Union forces under Major General Ulysses S. Grant were camped near Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River. Grant was waiting for additional troops before advancing south toward Corinth, Mississippi, an important Confederate railroad center. Two major rail lines crossed at Corinth, making the town strategically important to both sides.

Rather than wait for Grant to advance, Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston launched a surprise attack on the Union encampments early on April 6. The fighting was intense, with Union forces driven back toward the Tennessee River. One of the most famous areas of the battlefield became known as the Hornet’s Nest, where Union soldiers resisted repeated Confederate attacks before many were eventually surrounded and captured.

Johnston was mortally wounded during the fighting, leaving General P.G.T. Beauregard in command. By nightfall, the Confederates believed they were close to victory. But Union reinforcements arrived during the night, including Major General Don Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio. On April 7, Grant counterattacked with a strengthened army and forced the Confederates to retreat toward Corinth.

The human cost was staggering. Approximately 23,000 Union and Confederate soldiers were killed, wounded, captured, or missing during two days of fighting. Shiloh destroyed many of the early expectations that the Civil War would be a short conflict.

The Union victory also opened the way toward Corinth. Union forces advanced on the city following Shiloh, and the Confederates evacuated Corinth at the end of May 1862. Control of this vital railroad junction significantly strengthened the Union position in the Western Theater.

Shiloh National Military Park was established in 1894, making it one of the earliest federally preserved Civil War battlefields. The park today protects thousands of acres associated with Shiloh as well as important sites connected with the later fighting at Corinth, Mississippi.

Preserving the landscape allows us to understand the battle in a way that simply reading about it cannot. Here we can stand where the armies fought, see the distances they crossed, and begin to comprehend the scale of a battle that helped change the course of the Civil War in the West.