BATTLE OF SHILOH BEGINS
Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee (JFK+50) On April 6, 1862, Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant came under attack along the Tennessee River in the western part of the state. The battle was named Shiloh after a small church located on the battlefield.
General Grant's forces had captured Forts Henry and Fort Donelson in February and then made their way southward along the Tennessee River.
Confederate troops under Generals Albert Sidney Johnston and PGT Beauregard launched a surprise attack and by the end of the day had driven Grant's forces back to the river.
Union forces under General Benjamin Prentiss* made a stand at the Sunken Road where fighting was so intense this area of the battlefield was called the "Hornets Nest." In a tragic turn of events for the Confederacy, General Johnston was wounded in the leg during the afternoon and bled to death on the battlefield.
Despite the fact that there would be even bloodier battles to come, because it was the first battle of the War Between the States to have so high numbers of casualties on both sides, the Battle of Shiloh is known as the "Bloodiest Battle of the Civil War."
*Benjamin Prentiss (1819-1901) was born in Belleville, Virginia and was a rope maker and auctioneer before the Civil War. He served as a postmaster in Bethany, Missouri after the war.
Map by Hal Jespersen
