battle of shiloh

The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburgh Landing, was the bloodiest battle of the Civil War at the time. The Union forces, led by Ulysses S. Grant, were being pushed back by the Confederates. Grant's victories at Fort Henry and Fort Donaldson helped him learn important war strategies. The Confederate Army wanted to control the Corinth railroads, which would hinder Union supplies. The battle lasted two days, with the Union eventually being pushed back to the Tennessee River. The Hornet's Nest was a key area where the Union held their ground. Confederate commander Albert Sidney Johnson was killed in battle. With Johnson dead, the Union gained an advantage. Grant's reinforcements arrived, and the Union forces pushed the Confederates back the following day. There were a total of 23,000 casualties, with the Union suffering more losses. The Battle of Shiloh was a turning point for Grant's career, despite initial rumors of his drunkenness. So, I chose to do my final project over the Battle of Shiloh. So, this battle is also commonly known as the Battle of Pittsburgh Landing because that is where it was located. So, the Battle of Shiloh is very commonly known to be the bloodiest battle of the Civil War at the time. So, a little backstory of why I chose to do this battle is when I was in fourth grade, we had to pick one battle from the Civil War and create a 3D model of the battle. And this was the first big project I had done by myself. I did tons of research and one thing that really stuck out to me was that it was the bloodiest battle, so I created a very intricate, bloody battle scene. And I was very proud of this battle, or very proud of this project, so I thought it would be cool to build on the previous knowledge I had and see where I kind of got confused or the things I missed at that age. So anyways, we'll get into the facts now. The Battle of Shiloh is one of Tennessee's best known Civil War sites and many people come from all over to visit this site and learn about the different things about it. So, in early 1862, the Union wasn't doing as well as they were expecting. They were being pushed back and Ulysses S. Grant didn't know much when he was starting the war. He initially applied to be a colonel, but was very quickly promoted to be a general in the Army of Tennessee. So the Union forces were the first to arrive after their victories at Fort Henry and Fort Donaldson, where Grant learned very strategic war strategies. So like I mentioned previously, he was not very experienced, so these two battles were very important for his learning and learning the tactics to be able to win the Battle of Shiloh. So he was actually given the nickname of Unconditional Surrender Grant after the victory at Fort Henry and Fort Donaldson. So the Confederate Army was at Corinth, Mississippi at the crossing of two major railroad tracks that they were trying to get control over. So if they got control over these railroad tracks, it would lead to the Union not being able to get essential war supplies to themselves and the Confederate Army could use the railroad system to get their war supplies to them a lot easier. So it was very important to them to get these. So the battle was only a two-day battle. It was one of the first major battles of the Civil War, and it began when the Confederate soldiers launched an attack on the Union Army that was led by Ulysses S. Grant. So the Union Army was camped at a church named Shiloh, and Shiloh ironically means peace, which that's ironic because it's a war. So the Confederate Army was actually led by Commander Albert Sidney Johnson, and he launched the attack on the Union because he thought they were going to try to take control of the Corinth railroads. So the Union awoke from the Shiloh church to gunfire and realized that they were under attack. So many of the Confederate troops actually stopped and ate the breakfast that some of the Union troops had woken early to prepare. I thought that was kind of funny, but the Union was trying to stand their ground, but was eventually pushed back, mostly pushed back to the Tennessee River. But there was one area that was not pushed back, and it is now referred to as the Hornet's Nest, and I believe they also referred to it as the Hornet's Nest. But the Union was instructed not to move as everyone else was pushed back to the Tennessee River and reorganized and were preparing to back them up. So the Confederate Army liked to move into the Union camps and kill everyone they needed to or wanted to in order to conquer these. So the Confederate commander, Albert Sidney Johnson, was actually killed in the final charge of the Union at the Hornet's Nest. So he was the highest ranking general on both sides of the war to actually be killed in battle. So the Hornet's Nest was eventually captured by the Confederate Army, but it definitely did slow them down long enough for Grant to organize his troops. So with Johnson being dead, it also gave the Union an upper hand because they just lost their general. So Beauregard was the general to replace Johnson, and he was also the commander that ordered the first shot at Fort Sumter. So Beauregard sent a message to the Confederate president and basically said to him, the Union troops were on the run and the following day he would gain full victory of this war. So Grant held the war off until nightfall because he knew he was getting reinforcements and this would lead to him essentially winning the war. Beauregard was clearly unaware of these reinforcements, leaving the Confederate Army to be completely blindsided. So Grant's troops arrived on steamboats at Pittsburgh Landing to help the Union the following day. So the Union forces were on the offensive the second day, pushing the Confederate Army back. The Union forces had previously been on the defensive the first day with the Confederate Army being on the offensive, so they kind of did a flip-flop the second day. So they had their new troops. They were even stronger than before and they were quicker because these troops had not been fighting the previous day. They were ready to go, go, go. So one soldier is recorded of saying the Union Army was like mushrooms popping out of the ground and firing on them. So they ended up pushing the Confederate Army off the battlefield and the Confederate Army was unable to stand their ground. Beauregard decided to retreat and they went back to Gornice in the afternoon of April 7th. So there were actually a total of 23,000 casualties during this war, casualties being those killed, those who were missing, those who were injured, not just dead. So 13,000 of these casualties were the Union troops and the remaining 11,000 being the Confederate. So Shiloh was the largest battle fought in the Mississippi Valley. At the time of the battle, it was the bloodiest battle in American history. This battle truly shocked the nation. And the Battle of Shiloh was also very important, was a very important battle for Ulysses S. Graham, but not necessarily in a good way at first. So there were rumors that he was drunk the whole battle and he was scolded by his commander and the public for this. But he pushed through those rumors and he turned it around to eventually show that, hey, this was a victory and this is a very important stepping stone in my general career. So he used it to stand on and then he eventually went up after this. So the Battle of Shiloh was a very important battle and I loved to research it and find all of these details on it that I had no previous knowledge about, but that is all I have to say about it.