What were the details leading up to the battle of Shiloh?

Answer 1

General Grant and his army had captured Fort Henry and controlled the Cumberland River. They had captured Paducah, Kentucky, and controlled the entire Ohio River. They captured Fort Donelson, including an entire army, and controlled the mouth of the Tennessee River.

This series of successes by the Union Army threatened to split the Confederacy in two.

Grant and his army moved south to Pittsburg Landing, almost on the Tennessee-Alabama border. About 20 miles south, in Florence, Alabama, was a major rail crossroads, linking the western part of the rebellious states with the eastern.

Grant was waiting at the Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, area to be joined by the Union Army of the Ohio, under General Don Carlos Buell. The CSA knew that once the two armies were joined, they would be unstoppable.

General Albert Sidney Johnston, CSA, decided to attack Grant's army before Buell could join him. The result was the Battle of Shiloh Church, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing.

This battle reportedly was the only major battle of the war in which the Confederates outnumbered the Union.

The first day, the Confederates pushed the Union back. The second and third days, the Union forces prevailed. The Confederates, now under General PGT Beauregard [A.S. Johnston was killed on day 1], retreated from the field.

The importance of this battle is that it showed that the war would be very bloody, and that the Union troops were not push-overs at all.

Answer 2

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