Battle Of Shilh Essay

Looking over the Battle of Shiloh, it was a costly storm of confusion for both sides. The Battle of Shiloh started out with major difficulty for the Union and Confederacy. The fighting began with an attack on Grant’s encampments stationed at Pittsburg Landing. Over 40,000 Confederates emerged from the woods, screaming bloody murder and assailing the unorganized Union force. The Union troops were not positioned by terms of defense, violating the basic camp design of practicality. This mistake led to the first segment of the day’s conflict being put against the Union. They spent nearly half of the first day trying to come to their feet and hold their defensive positions at the Sunken Road and Hornet’s Nest. However, the Rebels fell back shortly

This was a fatal mistake on General Beauregard’s behalf. He thought that Buell’s army was miles away, so he rested his troops in preparation to terminate Grant’s army in the morning. Under the cover of night, though, Buell’s Army of the Ohio arrived to reinforce the Yankees. This gave the Union an advantage in size and refreshed troops. In addition, they also gained the element of surprise. Grant pushed his troops against the battered and unaware rebel forces, securing the area of battlefield that was taken, forcing Beauregard back to Corinth. As the battle concluded and Beauregard retreated, Grant’s troops were practically given the Mississippi River Valley.
Preceding the chaotic battle, two very different action plans were put into place while unexpected obstacles hindered both sides. Leading up to the hellish battle, an observable Union victory streak took place. The winning spree started when the Army-Navy regiment led by Ulysses S. Grant and Andrew H. Foote successfully penetrated

The Hornet’s Nest was an impenetrable oak thicket and a natural defensive strong point. The Confederates made as many as twelve separate charges on this defensive line, not being able to reduce it even slightly until five-thirty in the afternoon (McDonough 1: 1779). The Union was in a slight curve around the Confederates, who were in a block-like frontal assault position throughout. This gave troops at the Hornet’s Nest the chance to start a deadly crossfire at any given moment because of the troop positions. It was at the Hornet’s Nest that Johnston was killed, him dying with a piece of the Rebel spirit. Described as “a perfect tornado of rifle fire” by one survivor, the Sunken Road was a Rebel slaughterhouse. At the Sunken Road, the situation was similar to the Hornet’s Nest. The Union fell back to a little-used farm road on the flank of a peach orchard. There, Braxton Bragg forced two brigades to charge the strong point because he thought they were not being useful. In reality, he ushered troops who were injured and trying to transport dead and wounded off the battlefield into their immediate doom. Not much is known about these battlefields because there were so little survivors. Most of what is known about these clashes is a mess of myth and fact, but the advantages on both sides were