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General BuelFs Version of Shiloh
 

ERIC L. McKITRICK
 

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"^ HE immediate purpose of General Grant's operations in
the Western theatei of war, beginning early in 1862, was
to bring as much of Confederate Tennessee under Union
control as possible, while the more general objective (achieved at
Vicksburg in mid-1863) *3s control of the entiie Mississippi.
The Battle of Shiloh, or Pittsburg Landing, fought April 6 and 7
following Grant's February captute of Forts Henry and Donel-
son on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, successfully cul¬
minated the first phase of this effoit.

The Union victory at Shiloh was gained at a high price. That
battle was the first major engagement in the West; it was also one
of the bloodiest of the entire Civil War. Grant's Army of the
Tennessee, whose leading division was commanded by William
T. Sherman, was all but routed on the 6th, though discipline was
to some extent restored by evening. The following day the
Union forces, strengthened by Lew Wallace's fresh division and
by the arrival of the Army of the Ohio under Don Carlos Buell,
were able to rally and drive the Confederates from the field. The
enemy, whose preparatory movements had been largely screened
by the rough wooded terrain along the Tennessee River, had
struck before expected on the morning of the 6th. The troops
that wete camped on the west bank around Pittsbuig Landing
had had plenty of time to entrench but had not done so; Giant
 

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