Battle Of Shilo Essay, Research Paper

The Battle of Shiloh 1962

The Battle of Shiloh was one of bloodiest battles of the civil

War. In fact it was one of the bloodiest battles fought on Tennessee soil.

The battle was actually fought in Pittsburgh Landing Tennessee. The battle

Was named after a church in the area were the wounded and dead were

Taken. The pre- battle, the battle, and the post battle were all important to

How the civil war ended.

Before the Battle of Shiloh was fought a lot of important things

happened which made the battle very important. The confederates had just

sustained very hard losses at Forts Henry and Donelson . After these losses

Gen. Joseph Johnston was placed in charge of the remaining forces . Gen.

Johnston set his headquarters in Jackson, Tennessee and started forming

the Army of Mississippi.(Discovering U.S History The Battle of Shiloh)

when Gen. Grant started landing at shiloh Gen. Albert Johnston left

Nashville to take command of the newly formed Army of Mississippi which

totaled 40,000 men.

The union had come off some major victories were not aware of the army

of Mississippi .Gen. grant was moving into TN. with 45,000 men and was going to get

25,000 more from Gen. Buell who was coming from Columbia .They were delayed

because of bad weather.(Cantton,60)

The actual battle lasted two days the first day is when most of the battle

was fought. The confederate plan was to surprise the union. This plan worked, the union

was caught off guard and the confederates pushed back the union. Even though the union

out numberedthem the element of surprise took toll. The confederates broke through the

union lines and won the first day of battle. That night Gen. Buell arrived with a fleet of

boats firing Buell?s army landed on land .

The next day the union set out to reclaim the land they lost. With fresh

troops and the confederates tired the union reclaimed the land they lost. This time

the element of surprise was not there. Since Gen. Johnston had died the confederates

had lost all sense of order and were no match for the unions superiority leadership

and numbers.

The union ended up winning the second day and the over all battle.

The wining of this battle was important to both sides the confederates needed to win

because of the losses at Donelson and Henry .They also needed to win so they could

take back the land they lost in TN. The union needed to win so they could march on

to the deep south. Since the union won the deep south was opened and they could go

on and win the war. This battle paved the road for Shermans march to Savannah which

led to the ending of the war.

The pre-battle ,the battle and the post battle were all important to the unions success in

ending the civil war. Before the battle two major battles were fought and these set the

tempo for this battle. During the battle many lives were lost in a union victory .

After the battle many more important battles were able to happen because of this battle.