On This Day in History

On April 7, 1862, the battle of Shiloh in the Civil War was ended. The Union army was able to defeat the Confederates, but only after paying a high price in deaths and wounded men.

The battle began on April 6, lasting two days. General Johnston led his troops to west Tennessee to reorganize after his failures at Forts Henry and Donelson. Johnston was able to pull his troops together with the plan of a surprise attack on the Union army. His plan almost worked, but the Union army discovered that he was advancing with his 55, 000 men just before he was about to attack. The two armies collided and the fighting lasted the entire day. By the end of the day, the Confederate army was able to push the Union army towards the river, but they were unsuccessful of pushing them entirely away from the river.

The fighting continued the following day but to the Union army's advantage. General Grant was able to send for reinforcements and 22,500 more soldiers arrived to fight with the exhausted troops. Unfortunately for the Confederate side, General Johnston was shot in the middle of the afternoon on the second day by a stray bullet. The Confederate army then became weak and unorganized especially as they were now outnumbered. The Union army was able to advance and push the Confederates back to where they began the battle. By the end of the evening, the remaining Confederate soldiers retreated to Corinth.

The numbers of deaths and wounded soldiers was astonishing to both armies as the causality rate was 23,741 men. Out of Grant's original 62, 000 men, 1,754 were killed, 8,408 were wounded, and 2,885 were captured or missing for a total of 13,047 casualties. The Confederate army started out with 45, 000 men and ended with 1,723 killed, 8,012 wounded, and 959 missing for a total of 10,694 casualties. This shocked many people as this was still close to the beginning of the war. Many people were hoping for a short war with very few deaths, but both armies were forced to see reality by the end of this battle.