"Battle of the Month" Club

[ole]

Sorry Dred. The information age has passed me by. I need the pages and the feel of them. Something about riffling fingers and all that. Recommend a book!

ole

[Dred]

http://books.google.com/books?id=Cfg...reviews_anchor

[mobile_96]

Originally Posted by Dred

http://books.google.com/books?id=Cfg...reviews_anchor

ole, you have that book, according to the list you gave me sometime ago, and its also marked "Done", so maybe you've read it already.
It is a very good book.
Chuck

[Dred]

So the Confederates come out to attack, and the union is marching to meet them at Elkhorn Tavern. Why? This is what opened them up to the possibility of being flanked in the first place. The union could have sat and waited for the confederates to attack,preparing their line and consolidating their forces, and they would be in no danger of being flanked. Am I missing somehting here?

[Dred]

Well... for me at least, this brought a little known battle to the forefront and I actually learned something!! As it is now April 6, any suggestions for this month?

[M E Wolf]

Dear Dred,

We do have an April 6 & 7, 1862 Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee and for April 8, 1865 - Sabine Cross Roads, LA; April 9, 1865 - Pleasant Hills, LA and leads up to the April 12, 1865 battle at Fort Pillow, Tennessee.

Just some thoughts.

Respectfully submitted for consideration,
M. E. Wolf

[Dred]

I've always been fascinated with the battle of Shiloh! I just read a book entitled "Shiloh, the Battle that Changed the Civil War" by Larry J. Daniel. I think there is alot that can be learned an analyzed from this particular battle. I wouldn't mind talking about this one this month. Unless somebody has some other suggestions?

[ole]

Shiloh works for me. It was an astoundingly important battle from many angles: participants, objectives and just plain human interest.

ole

[M E Wolf]

Dear List Members,

Well, Shiloh works for me also --it really ties into the West of the Shenandoah battles. It is ranked in the top 10 of the most bloodiest battles of the Civil War. Union killed 1,735, Wounded 7,882; Missing 3,956 for a total 13,573 and Confederates 10,699

I should note, that Battle of Shiloh is also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing.

Further, this battle was right after the loss of Forts Henry and Donelson in February, so General Johnston withdrew his disheartened troops to Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama as to 'reorganize.' General US Grant was ordered to take his troops of the "Union Army of the West Tennessee" to capture and control the Tennessee River and occupy and control Pittsburg Landing. General Buell's Army of the Ohio coming from Nashville, Tennessee would join up to jointly seize the Memphis & Charleston Railroad, the Confederacy's only east-west all weather supply route that linked the lower Mississippi Valley to cities on the Confederacy's east coast.

Confederate General Johnston, assisted by second in command PT Beauregard, then shifted his scattered troops numbering around 55,000 men around Corinth. Strategy wise, the Memphis & Charleston crossed the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, Corinth was the western Confederacy's most important rail junction.

April 3rd, General Johnston realized that General Grant and General Buell, as Grant's reinforcement; launched an offensive with his newly christened Army of the Mississippi. Advancing upon Pittsburg Landing with 43,938 men, Johnston had planned to surprise Grant, by cutting his army off from retreat to the Tennessee River, and drive the Federals west into the swamps of Owl Creek.

A severe rainstorm on the night of the 4th stalling movement.

A small Federal reconnaissance discovered Johnston's army deployed for battle astride the Corinth road, just a mile beyond the forward Federal camps at Fraley Field. . Storming forward, the Confederates found the Federal position unfortified. Johnston had achieved almost total surprise. Johnson could smell victory by overrunning this camp as well as surprising a Federal Division,Johnston maneuvers eight brigades to overrun Prentiss's camps, routing the Union division.

What wasn't expected was, the stiff resistance on General Sherman's position, the Federal right entangled Johnston's brigades in a savage fight around Shiloh Church. General Wallace, with 5,800 men , moves to support General Sherman at Shiloh Church.


General Johnston's army hammered the Federal right, which gave ground but did not break. Casualties upon this brutal killing ground were immense. Johnston's flanking attack stalled in front of Sarah Bell's peach orchard and the dense oak thicket labeled the "hornet's nest" by the Confederates. This is where Union troops headed by Nelson advances through Wicker's and Sarah Bell's fields, Crittenden advances in center, but stalled in "hornet's nest" also.


General Grant's left flank withstood Confederate assaults for seven crucial hours before being forced to yield ground in the late afternoon. Despite inflicting heavy casualties, the results were --only driving Grant towards the river, instead of away from it. The Federal survivors established a solid front before Pittsburg Landing and repulsed the last Confederate charge as dusk ended the first day of fighting. Meanwhile, in the mid-afternoon, a stray bullet found General Albert Sidney Johnston and was killed when directing his right flank. Also, Nelson ferried across river. Federal gunboats fire into captured Federal camps.

Generals;Sherman, McClernand and Hurlbut cross Tilghman Branch and join Wallace in fighting against Polk and Bragg on Confederate left. Causing, the reinforced, Nelson and Crittenden to advance, forcing Beauregard's right flank to retreat south to Hamburg/Purdy road.


Second day, April 7, 1862--At dusk, an advance division of General Buell's Federal Army of the Ohio finally reached Pittsburg Landing, and crossed the river to file into line on the Union left during the night. General Buell's arrival, plus the timely appearance of a reserve division from Grant's army, led by Major General Lewis Wallace, fed over 22,500 reinforcements into the Union lines. On April 7, General Grant renewed the fighting with an aggressive counterattack. This 'counter attack' really surprised General Beauregard.

General Beauregard managed to rally 30,000 of his badly disorganized Confederates, and mounted a tenacious defense. Inflicting heavy casualties on the Federals, only temporarily haulted the Federal advance. But, by this time -- General Grant had the numbers of troops in his favor. In mid-afternoon; waves of fresh Federal troops swept forward, pressing the exhausted Confederates back to Shiloh Church.

General Beauregard realized his armies' danger and ordered a retreat. During the night, the Confederates withdrew, greatly disorganized, to their fortified stronghold at Corinth. Possession of the grisly battlefield passed to the victorious Federal's, who were satisfied to simply reclaim Grant's camps and make an exhausted bivouac among the dead.

IF, General Johnston's massive and rapid concentration at Corinth, and surprise attack on Grant at Pittsburg Landing, had worked, it would have presented the Confederacy with an opportunity to reverse the course of the war. However, these events left the invading Union forces still poised to carry out the capture of the Corinth rail junction. Shiloh's awesome toll of 23,746 men killed, wounded, or missing brought to summary that the Civil War wasn't going to end soon and would continue to be a 'bloody mess.'

The Generals and Commanding Officers:
Confederates:Army Of Mississippi
General ALBERT S. JOHNSTON
General G.T. BEAUREGARD
FIRST CORPS
Maj. Gen. LEONIDAS POLK.
FIRST DIVISION.
Brig. Gen CHARLES CLARK.
First Brigade.
Col. R. M. RUSSELL.
Second Brigade.
Brig. Gen. A. P. STEWART
SECOND DIVISION.
Brig. Gen. B. F. CHEATHAM.
First Brigade.
Brig. Gen. B. R. JOHNSON.
Second Brigade.
Col. W. H. STEPHENS.
SECOND CORPS.
Maj. Gen. BRAXTON BRAGG.
FIRST DIVISION.
Brig. Gen. DANIEL RUGGLES.
First Brigade.
Col. R. L. GIBSON.
Second Brigade.
Brig. Gen. PATTON ANDERSON.
Third Brigade
Col. PRESTON POND, Jr.
SECOND DIVISION.
Brig. Gen. JONES M. WITHERS.
First Brigade.
Brig. Gen. A. H. GLADDEN.
Second Brigade.
Brig. Gen. J. R. CHALMERS
Third Brigade.
Brig. Gen. J. K. JACKSON
THIRD CORPS.
Maj. Gen. W. J. HARDEE.
First Brigade.
Brig. Gen. T. C. HINDAN
Second Brigade
Brig. Gen. P. R. CLEBURNE
Third Brigade.
Brig. Gen. S. A.M. WOOD
RESERVE CORPS.
Brig. Gen. J. C. BRECKINRIDGE
First Brigade.
Col. R. P. TRABUE.
Second Brigade.
Brig. Gen. J. S. BOWEN.
Third Brigade.
Col. W. STATHAM.

Union / Federal
Army Of The Tennessee
Maj. Gen. U.S. GRANT, Commanding
FIRST DIVISION.
Maj. Gen. John A. McClernand.
First Brigade
(1.) Col A. M. HARE (wounded in battle)
(2.) Col. M. M. Crocker.
Second Brigade.
Col. C. C. MARSH.
Third Brigade.
(1.) Col. Julius RAITH (Mortally Wounded).
(2) Lieut, Col. E P. WOOD.
SECOND DIVISION.
(1.) Brig. Gen. W. H. L. Wallace (Mortally Wounded).
(2.) Col. JAMES M. TUTTLE
First Brigade
Col. JAMES M. TUTTLE
Second Brigade
(1.) Brig. Gen. JOHN McARTHUR (Wounded).
(2.) Col. THOMAS MORTON.
Third Brigade
(1.) Col. T. W. SWEENY (Wounded).
(2.) Col. S. D. BALDWIN
THIRD DIVISION.
Maj. Gen. Lewis WALLACE
First Brigade
Col. MORGAN L. SMITH
Second Brigade
Col. JOHN M. THAYER
Third Brigade
Col. CHARLES WHITTLESEY.
FOURTH DIVISION.
Brig. Gen. S. A. HURLBUT.
First Brigade
(1.) Col. N. G. WILLIAMS (Wounded)
(2.) Col. ISAAC C. PUGH.
Second Brigade
Col. JAMES. C. VEATCH
Third Brigade
Brig. Gen. J. G. LAUMAN
FIFTH DIVISION.
Brig. Gen. W. T. SHERMAN (Wounded -severely wounded in the hand the first day his place was never vacant. He was again wounded, and had three horses killed under him.)
First Brigade
Col. J. A. McDOWELL.
Second Brigade
(1.) Col. DAVID STUART (Wounded).
(2.) Col. T. K. SMITH.
Third Brigade
Col. J. HILDEBRAND.
Fourth Brigade
Col. R P. BUCKLAND.
SIXTH DIVISION.
Brig. Gen. B. M. PRENTISS (Captured).
First Brigade
Col. EVERETT PEABODY, (Killed)
Second Brigade
Col. MADISON MILLER (Captured).

ARMY OF THE OHIO.
Maj. Gen. D.C. BUELL, Commanding
SECOND DIVISION.
Brig. Gen. A. MCD. McCook
Fourth Brigade
Brig. Gen. L. H. ROUSSEAU.
Fifth Brigade
Col. E. N. KIRK (Wounded).
Sixth Brigade
Col. W. H. GIBSON
FOURTH DIVISION.
Brig. Gen. WILLIAM NELSON.
Tenth Brigade
Col. JACOB AMMEN
Nineteenth Brigade
Col. WILLIAM B. HAZEN.
Twenty-Second Brigade
Col. S. D. BRUCE
FIFTH DIVISION.
Brig. Gen. T. L. CRITTENDEN.
Eleventh Brigade
Brig. Gen. J. T. BOYLE
Fourteenth Brigade
Col. W. S. SMITH.
SIXTH DIVISION.
Brig. Gen. T. J. WOOD.
Twenthieth Brigade
Brig. Gen. J. A. GARFIELD
Twenty-First Brigade
Col. G. D. WAGNER.

Naval involvement by:
Gunboats Tyler and Lexington
Captains Gwin (Tyler) and Shirk (Lexington), U.S. Navy, Commanding.


Personally observations and comments based on "Official Reports" able to read online -- It seems that there were some groups of officers and men who retreated a bit too soon and left their comrades to remain and fight a bloody battle on the Union side. In looking at how many wounded Generals and Officers, one can see who held the line and resisted the Confederate Assaults.

With the capture of General Prentiss, his officers were killed and or captured as well as his troops.

It is my understanding from the reports; the battlefield was terrible; as it had rained heavily on the 4th, into the night into April 5th. The fields were not kind to artillery and heavy pieces. So, it was mainly a infantry, cavalry and naval engagement. Artillery suffered the most, as they were sitting ducks per se.

Although Shiloh was a Union victory in the end--many good officers and potential officers were killed, wounded and or disabled. The Confederates also suffered their losses, the records are more 'sparce' other than the killing of General A. S. Johnston. The Union reports of the dead, record that the loss of life on the Confederate side was more than the Union.

I am sure there are individuals on the list, who can add to this initial posting about the Battle of Pittsburg Landing / Battle of Shiloh.

Just some thoughts.

Respectfully submitted for consideration,
M. E. Wolf

[ole]

An interesting overview. I was disturbed, however, in the mention of Nelson and Crittenden being on the field the first day -- most of their troops spending much of the night crossing the river. Ammen's Brigade was able to support some of Grant's guns and helped convince the Confederates to leave off that last assault.

ole