April 6, 1862

April 6, 1862: Western Theater, Tennessee Valley Campaign - THE BATTLE OF SHILOH, Tennessee. Day One. Early in the morning, a Colonel Peabody in Prentiss’ division, camped with the rest of the Army of the Tennessee at Pittsburg Landing, sends out more patrols, which run into the advance of the Confederate army. The Federals retreat. The Rebels, exhausted after a three-day march through torrential rains and muddy roads, approach in the pre-dawn deployed in a four-brigade front of Hardee’s corps, followed by Bragg’s corps in a six-brigade front---and then Polk’s corps in column of brigades, and Breckenridge in column of brigades. (A nervous colonel tells Sherman that Rebels are massing on his front, and an annoyed Sherman retorts, "Colonel, take your damn regiment back to Ohio! There are no rebels nearer than Corinth!")

The Confederate attack comes bursting out of the woods minutes afterward, catching the Federals unprepared, smashing into Sherman’s division and Prentiss’ division on Sherman’s left. Behind them were two more divisions—Hurlbut on the left, and McClernand on the right, and then W.H.L. Wallace’s division between them and back closer to the rear, at Pittsburg Landing, which was also the army’s only escape route. The last division, 5,000 men under Lew Wallace, is several miles downriver, at Crump’s Landing, so the Federals are facing the Confederate attack of 40,000 men with only 38,000 troops. The Rebels, intending to flank Sherman’s left, end up in a frontal assault into Sherman’s hastily-forming line. Prentiss is pushed back, but rallies enough of his men to form the center of a line for which WHL Wallace’s men make up the right flank, and Hurlbut’s troops make up the left flank. As Sherman falls back, McClernand forms another line behind him and to the right of the Wallace-Prentiss-Hurlbut line.

The Union troops mostly fight well, although some regiments and even whole brigades simply dissolve and run to the rear. In no time, thousands of fled Yankees are hiding behind the river bluffs at the landing. Gen. Grant takes a fast steamer upriver from his headquarters to the battle, and immediately begins to build a defensive line at the Landing. He sends word for Lew Wallace to move up, but it takes Wallace all day to get there.

The Hornet's Nest

Meanwhile, Prentiss and Wallace form a line along a sunken wagon road, with artillery, and with Wallace’s troops and some of Hurlbut’s, holds. Soon, Wallace is mortally wounded. Eleven Rebel charges against this position decimate the Southern ranks, and yet Prentiss holds at what is now called The Hornet’s Nest, while the rest of the Federals pull back to the heights at Pittsburg Landing to re-group. Grant comes to Prentiss and asks him to hold as long as he can. 

Brig. Gen. Benjamin Prentiss

Prentiss begins with 4,400 men. Late in the afternoon, the Rebels launch an attack with 62 cannon assisting. Some troops of Wallace’s and Hurlbut’s commands break and run. Prentiss is surrounded, and has about 2,200 men left when he surrenders finally at 5:30 PM.

Gen. A.S. Johnston, the Rebel commander, while leading a single brigade in an attack, is shot in the leg, severing an artery, and bleeds to death. Beauregard in command, he orders an assault on Grant’s new line–studded with artillery, and strengthened with Lew Wallace’s Lost Division, and with Nelson’s division ferried across from Savannah. But the Rebel attack is shredded before it can get close. Beauregard orders his exhausted men to stand down and get some rest, intending to finish the Yankees off in the morning, thinking he has them trapped against the river. He sends a message to Richmond, claiming a great victory, and giving the news of Johnston’s death. The Southern troops collapse where they are, and no attempt is made at re-forming regiments or brigades. All night long, thunder, lightning, and rain lash the area, and Union gunboats toss shells into the Confederates.

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Army of the Tennessee   U.S. Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant 43,000	Army of the Mississippi   C.S. Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston Gen. Pierre G.T. Beauregard 40,000 men
1st Div. Maj. Gen. John McClernand 1 Brig. - A. M. Hare 2 Brig. - C. Marsh 3 Brig. - J. Raith 2nd Div. Brig. Gen. WHL Wallace 1 Brig. - J. Tuttle 2 Brig. - J. McArthur 3 Brig. - T. Sweeney	I Corps Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polk 1st Div. Brig. Gen. Charles Clark 1 Brig. - R. Russell 2 Brig. - A.P. Stewart 2nd Div. Brig. Gen. Benj. F. Cheatham 1 Brig. - Bushrod Johnson 2 Brig. - W. Stephens Unatt. - 47th Tennessee Inf. Reg. 1st Miss. Cav. Reg.
3rd Div. Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace 1 Brig. - M.L. Smith 2 Brig. - J. Thayer 3 Brig. - C. Whittlesey 4th Div. Brig. Gen. Stephen Hurlbut 1 Brig. - N. Williams 2 Brig. - J. Veatch 3 Brig. - J. Lauman	II Corps Maj. Gen. Braxton Bragg 1st. Div. Brig. Gen. Daniel Ruggles 1 Brig. - P. Gibson 2 Brig. - P. Anderson 3 Brig. - P. Pond 2nd Div. Brig. Gen. Jones Withers 1 Brig. - A. Gladden 2. Brig. - J. Chalmers 3 Brig. - J. Jackson Alabama Cav. Battalion
5th Div. Brig. Gen. William T. Sherman 1 Brig. - J. McDowell 2 Brig. - D. Stuart 3 Brig. - J. Hildebrand 4 Brig. - R. Buckland	III Corps Maj. Gen. William J. Hardee 1 Brig. - T. Hindman 2 Brig. - Patrick Cleburne 3 Brig. - S. Wood
6th Div. Brig. Gen. Benjamin Prentiss 1 Brig. - E. Peabody 2 Brig. - M. Miller	Reserve Corps Brig. Gen. John C. Breckenridge 1 Brig. - R. Trabue 2 Brig. - John S. Bowen 3 Brig. - W. Statham
Unattached troops: 15th Iowa Inf. Reg. 23rd Mo. Inf. Reg. 18th Wisc. Inf. Reg. 14th Wisc. Inf. Reg. 15th Mich. Inf. Reg. 11th Ill. Cav. Reg. 8 assorted artillery batteries	Unassigned Cavalry: 3 Regiments