The Battle of Shiloh
The massive engagement took its
name from a small Methodist
THE BATTLE OF SHILOH
|Shiloh National Military Park
Cannon aim out over some of the
bloodiest ground in
The Battle of Shiloh
The massive engagement took its
name from a small Methodist
THE BATTLE OF SHILOH
|Shiloh National Military Park
Cannon aim out over some of the
bloodiest ground in American history,
Tennessee's Shiloh battlefield. The site is
now a national park.
Shiloh National Military Park
The Battle of Shiloh took place in
southern Tennessee on April 6-7,
1862. The site is now preserved at
Shiloh National Military Park.
The Union and Confederate armies in
the West had battled repeatedly during
the first year of the War Between the
States (or Civil War). Sadly, the
casualties suffered at even massive
engagements like the Battle of Pea
Ridge, Arkansas, had been but mere
shadows of what was to come at Shiloh.
The two day fight left an estimated
23,746 men and boys dead or
wounded. The toll stunned citizens and
In February of 1862, the Union army of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had pierced the
Confederate defenses in the West by taking Forts Henry and Donelson on the
northern border of Tennessee. Nashville fell and Federal troops pushed south
almost to Mississippi. Confederate Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston hoped to halt
Grant and reclaim the advantage by concentrating his forces at the vital railroad
and road junction of Corinth, Mississippi.
Johnston knew that there were two Union armies in Tennessee and hoped to strike
before they could unite. He marched his army north from Corinth to attack Grant's
unsuspecting army which was camped around Shiloh Church at Pittsburg Landing,
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