Battle of Shiloh The Battle of Shiloh also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing , was a major battle in the Western Theater of the American Civil War , fought April 6 – 7 , 1862 , in southwestern Tennessee . A Union army under Maj . Gen . Ulysses S . Grant had moved via the Tennessee River deep into Tennessee and was encamped principally at Pittsburg Landing on the west bank of the river . Confederate forces under Generals Albert Sidney Johnston and P . G . T . Beauregard launched a surprise attack on Grant there . The Confederates achieved considerable success on the first day , but were ultimately defeated on the second day . On the first day of the battle , the Confederates struck with the intention of driving the Union defenders away from the river and into the swamps of Owl Creek to the west , hoping to defeat Grant ' s Army of the Tennessee before the anticipated arrival of Maj . Gen . Don Carlos Buell ' s Army of the Ohio . The Confederate battle lines became confused during the fierce fighting , and Grant ' s men instead fell back to the northeast , in the direction of Pittsburg Landing . A position on a slightly sunken road , nicknamed the " Hornet ' s Nest " , defended by the men of Brig . Gens . Benjamin M . Prentiss ' s and W . H . L . Wallace ' s divisions , provided critical time for the rest of the Union line to stabilize under the protection of numerous artillery batteries . Gen . Johnston was killed during the first day of fighting , and Beauregard , his second in command , decided against assaulting the final Union position that night . Reinforcements from Gen . Buell and from Grant ' s own army arrived in the evening and turned the tide the next morning , when the Union commanders launched a counterattack along the entire line . The Confederates were forced to retreat from the bloodiest battle in United States history up to that time , ending their hopes that they could block the Union advance into northern Mississippi . Background and opposing forces . After the losses of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in February 1862 , Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston withdrew his forces into western Tennessee , northern Mississippi , and Alabama to reorganize . In early March , Union Maj . Gen . Henry W . Halleck , then commander of the Department of the Missouri , responded by ordering Grant to advance his Army of West Tennessee ( soon to be known by its more famous name , the Army of the Tennessee ) on an invasion up the Tennessee River . Halleck then ordered Grant to remain at Fort Henry and turn field command of the expedition over to a subordinate , C . F . Smith , just nominated as a major general . Various writers assert that Halleck took this step because of professional and personal animosity toward Grant . However , Halleck shortly restored Grant to full command , perhaps influenced by an inquiry from President Abraham Lincoln . By early April , Grant had five divisions at Pittsburg Landing , Tennessee , and a sixth nearby . Meanwhile , Halleck ' s command was enlarged and renamed the Department of the Mississippi . Now having command over Buell ' s Army of the Ohio , Halleck ordered Buell to concentrate with Grant . Buell duly commenced a march with much of his army from Nashville toward Pittsburg Landing . Halleck intended to take the field in person and lead both armies in an advance south to seize the Memphis & Charleston Railroad , a vital supply line between the Mississippi River Valley , Memphis , and Richmond . Grant ' s army of 48 , 894 men consisted of six divisions , led by Maj . Gens . John A . McClernand and Lew Wallace , and Brig . Gens . W . H . L . Wallace ( replacing Charles Ferguson Smith , disabled by a leg injury ) , Stephen A . Hurlbut , William T . Sherman , and Benjamin M . Prentiss . By early April , all six of the divisions were encamped on the western side of the Tennessee River , Lew Wallace ' s at Crump ' s Landing and the rest farther south at Pittsburg Landing . Grant developed a reputation during the war for being more concerned with his own plans than with those of the enemy . His encampment at Pittsburg Landing displayed his most consequential lack of such concern — his army was spread out in bivouac style , many around the small log church named Shiloh ( the Hebrew word that means " place of peace " ) , spending time waiting for Buell with drills for his many raw troops , without entrenchments or other awareness of defensive measures . In his memoirs , Grant reacted to criticism of his lack of entrenchments : " Besides this , the troops with me , officers and men , needed discipline and drill more than they did experience with the pick , shovel and axe . . . . under all these circumstances I concluded that drill and discipline were worth more to our men than fortifications . " Lew Wallace ' s division was 5 miles ( 8 km ) downstream ( north ) at Crump ' s Landing , a position intended to prevent the placement of Confederate river batteries and to strike out at the railroad line at Bethel Station . On the eve of battle , April 5 , the first of Buell ' s divisions , under the command of Brig . Gen . William " Bull " Nelson , reached Savannah ; Grant instructed Nelson to encamp there rather than cross the river immediately . The rest of Buell ' s army was still marching toward Savannah , and only portions of four of his divisions , totaling 17 , 918 men , would reach the area in time to have any role in the battle , almost entirely on the second day . The other three divisions were led by Brig . Gens . Alexander M . McCook , Thomas L . Crittenden , and Thomas J . Wood , but Wood ' s division appeared too late even to be of much service on the second day . On the Confederate side , Johnston named his newly assembled force the Army of Mississippi . He concentrated almost 55 , 000 men around Corinth , Mississippi , about 20 miles ( 30 km ) southwest of Grant ' s position . Of these , 44 , 699 departed from Corinth on April 3 , hoping to surprise Grant before Buell arrived to join forces . They were organized into four large corps , commanded by : On the eve of battle , Grant ' s and Johnston ' s armies were of comparable size , but the Confederates were poorly armed with antique weapons , including shotguns , hunting rifles , pistols , flintlock muskets , and even a few pikes . However , some regiments , notably the 6th and 7th Kentucky Infantry , had Enfield rifles . They approached the battle with very little combat experience ; Braxton Bragg ' s men from Pensacola and Mobile were the best trained . Grant ' s army included 32 out of 62 infantry regiments who had combat experience at Fort Donelson . One half of his artillery batteries and most of his cavalry were also combat veterans . Johnston ' s second in command was P . G . T . Beauregard , who urged Johnston not to attack Grant . He was concerned that the sounds of marching and the Confederate soldiers test - firing their rifles after two days of rain had cost them the element of surprise . Johnston refused to accept Beauregard ' s advice and told him that he would " attack them if they were a million . " Despite General Beauregard ' s well - founded concern , the Union forces did not hear the sounds of the marching army in its approach and remained blissfully unaware of the enemy camped away . Johnston ' s plan was to attack Grant ' s left and separate the Union army from its gunboat support ( and avenue of retreat ) on the Tennessee River , driving it west into the swamps of Snake and Owl Creeks , where it could be destroyed . Johnston ' s attack on Grant was originally planned for April 4 , but the advance was delayed 48 hours . As a result , Beauregard again feared that the element of surprise had been lost and recommended withdrawing to Corinth . But Johnston once more refused to consider retreat . Battle , April 6 . Early morning attack . At 6 : 00 a . m . on Sunday , April 6 , Johnston ' s army was deployed for battle , straddling the Corinth Road . In fact , the army had spent the entire night bivouacking undetected in order of battle just two miles ( 3 km ) away from the Union camps . Their approach and dawn assault achieved almost total strategic and tactical surprise . The Union army had virtually no patrols in place for early warning . Grant telegraphed to Halleck on the night of April 5 , " I have scarcely the faintest idea of an attack ( general one ) being made upon us , but will be prepared should such a thing take place . " Grant ' s preparedness proved to be overstated . Sherman , the informal camp commander at Pittsburg Landing , did not believe that the Confederates were anywhere nearby ; he discounted any possibility of an attack from the south , expecting that Johnston would eventually attack from the direction of Purdy , Tennessee , to the west . When an Ohio colonel warned Sherman that an attack was imminent , the general said , " Take your damned regiment back to Ohio . There is no enemy nearer than Corinth . " Early that morning Colonel Everett Peabody , commanding Prentiss ' s 1st Brigade , had sent forward part of the 25th Missouri Infantry on a reconnaissance , and they engaged Confederate outposts at 5 : 15 a . m . The spirited fight that ensued did help a little to get Union troops better positioned , but the command of the Union army did not prepare properly . The confusing alignment of the Confederate troops helped to reduce the effectiveness of the attack since Johnston and Beauregard had no unified battle plan . Johnston had telegraphed Confederate President Jefferson Davis that the attack would proceed as : " Polk the left , Bragg the center , Hardee the right , Breckinridge in reserve . " His strategy was to emphasize the attack on his right flank to prevent the Union Army from reaching the Tennessee River , its supply line and avenue of retreat . He instructed Beauregard to stay in the rear and direct men and supplies as needed , while he rode to the front to lead the men on the battle line . This effectively ceded control of the battle to Beauregard , who had a different concept , simply to attack in three waves and push the Union Army straight eastward into the Tennessee River . The corps of Hardee and Bragg began the assault with their divisions in one line , almost 3 miles ( 5 km ) wide . As these units advanced , they became intermingled and difficult to control . Corps commanders attacked in line without reserves . Artillery could not be concentrated to effect a breakthrough . At about 7 : 30 a . m . from his position in the rear , Beauregard ordered the corps of Polk and Breckinridge forward on the left and right of the line , diluting their effectiveness . The attack therefore went forward as a frontal assault conducted by a single linear formation , which lacked both the depth and weight needed for success . Command and control in the modern sense were lost from the onset of the first assault . Grant and Sherman rally . The assault , despite some shortcomings , was ferocious , and some of the numerous inexperienced Union soldiers of Grant ' s new army fled for safety to the Tennessee River . Others fought well but were forced to withdraw under strong pressure and attempted to form new defensive lines . Many regiments fragmented entirely ; the companies and sections that remained on the field attached themselves to other commands . During this period , Sherman , who had been so negligent in preparation for the battle , became one of its most important elements . He appeared everywhere along his lines , inspiring his raw recruits to resist the initial assaults despite staggering losses on both sides . He received two minor wounds and had three horses shot out from under him . Historian James M . McPherson cites the battle as the turning point of Sherman ' s life , which helped to make him one of the North ' s premier generals . Sherman ' s division bore the brunt of the initial attack , and despite heavy fire on their position and their right flank crumbling , they fought on stubbornly . The Union troops slowly lost ground and fell back to a position behind Shiloh Church . McClernand ' s division temporarily stabilized the position . Overall , however , Johnston ' s forces made steady progress until noon , rolling up Union positions one by one . As the Confederates advanced , many threw away their flintlock muskets and grabbed rifles dropped by the fleeing Union troops . General Grant was about ten miles ( 16 km ) down river at Savannah , Tennessee , that morning . On April 4 , he had been injured when his horse fell and pinned him underneath . He was convalescing and unable to move without crutches . He heard the sound of artillery fire and raced to the battlefield by boat , arriving about 8 : 30 a . m . He worked frantically to bring up reinforcements that seemed near enough to arrive swiftly : Bull Nelson ' s division from Savannah and Lew Wallace ' s division from Crump ' s Landing . However , he would wait almost all day before the first of these reinforcements ( from Nelson ' s division ) arrived . Wallace ' s slow movement to the battlefield became particularly controversial . Lew Wallace ' s lost division . Wallace ' s group had been left as reserves near Crump ' s Landing at a place called Stoney Lonesome to the rear of the Union line . At the appearance of the Confederates , Grant sent orders for Wallace to move his unit up to support Sherman . Wallace took a route different from the one Grant intended ( claiming later that there was ambiguity to Grant ' s order ) . Wallace arrived at the end of his march to find that Sherman had been forced back and was no longer where Wallace thought he was . Moreover , the battle line had moved so far that Wallace now found himself in the rear of the advancing Southern troops . A messenger arrived with word that Grant was wondering where Wallace was and why he had not arrived at Pittsburg Landing , where the Union was making its stand . Wallace was confused . He felt sure he could viably launch an attack from where he was and hit the Confederates in the rear ; after the war he claimed that his division might have attacked and defeated the Confederates if his advance had not been interrupted . Nevertheless , he decided to turn his troops around and march back to Stoney Lonesome . Rather than realign his troops so that the rear guard would be in the front , Wallace chose to march the troops in a circle so that the original order was maintained , only facing in the other direction . Wallace marched back to Stoney Lonesome and then to Pittsburg Landing , arriving at Grant ' s position about 6 : 30 or 7 p . m . , when the fighting was practically over . Grant was not pleased , and his endorsement of Wallace ' s battle report was negative enough to damage Wallace ' s military career severely . Today , Wallace is best remembered not as a soldier , but as the author of " " . Hornet ' s Nest . On the main Union defensive line , starting at about 9 : 00 a . m . , men of Prentiss ' s and W . H . L . Wallace ' s divisions established and held a position nicknamed the " Hornet ' s Nest " , in a field along a road now popularly called the " Sunken Road , " although there is little physical justification for that name . The Confederates assaulted the position for several hours rather than simply bypassing it , and they suffered heavy casualties during these assaults — historians ' estimates of the number of separate charges range from 8 to 14 . The Union forces to the left and right of the Nest were forced back , and Prentiss ' s position became a salient in the line . Coordination among units in the Nest was poor , and units withdrew based solely on their individual commanders ' decisions . This pressure increased with the mortal wounding of Wallace , who commanded the largest concentration of troops in the position . Regiments became disorganized and companies disintegrated . However , it was not until the Confederates , led by Brig . Gen . Daniel Ruggles , assembled over 50 cannons into " Ruggles ' s Battery " to blast the line at close range that they were able to surround the position , and the Hornet ' s Nest fell after holding out for seven hours . Surrounded on three sides , General Prentiss surrendered himself and the remains of his division to the Confederates . A large portion of the Union survivors , numbering from 2 , 200 to 2 , 400 men , were captured , but their sacrifice bought time for Grant to establish a final defense line near Pittsburg Landing . While dealing with the Hornet ' s Nest , the South suffered a serious setback in the death of their commanding general . Johnston was mortally wounded at about 2 : 30 p . m . while leading attacks on the Union left through the widow Bell ' s cotton field against the Peach Orchard when he was shot in his left leg . Deeming the leg wound to be insignificant , he had sent his personal surgeon away to care for some wounded captured Union soldiers , and in the doctor ' s absence , he bled to death within an hour , his boot filling with blood from a severed popliteal artery . This was a significant loss for the Confederacy . Jefferson Davis considered Albert Sidney Johnston to be the most effective general they had ( this was two months before Robert E . Lee emerged as the pre - eminent Confederate general ) . Johnston was the highest - ranking officer from either side to be killed in combat during the Civil War . Beauregard assumed command , but from his position in the rear he may have had only a vague idea of the disposition of forces at the front . He ordered Johnston ' s body shrouded for secrecy to avoid damaging morale in the army and then resumed attacks against the Hornet ' s Nest . This was likely a tactical error . The Union flanks were slowly pulling back to form a semicircular line around Pittsburg Landing , and if Beauregard had concentrated his forces against the flanks , he might have defeated the Union Army and then reduced the Hornet ' s Nest salient at his leisure . Defense at Pittsburg Landing . The Union flanks were being pushed back , but not decisively . Hardee and Polk caused Sherman and McClernand on the Union right to retreat in the direction of Pittsburg Landing , leaving the right flank of the Hornet ' s Nest exposed . Just after the death of Johnston , Breckinridge , whose corps had been in reserve , attacked on the extreme left of the Union line , driving off the understrength brigade of Colonel David Stuart and potentially opening a path into the Union rear area and the Tennessee River . However , they paused to regroup and recover from exhaustion and disorganization , and then chose to follow the sound of the guns toward the Hornet ' s Nest , and an opportunity was lost . After the Hornet ' s Nest fell , the remnants of the Union line established a solid three - mile ( 5 km ) front around Pittsburg Landing , extending west from the Tennessee and then north up the River Road , keeping the approach open for the expected belated arrival of Lew Wallace ' s division . Sherman commanded the right of the line , McClernand the center , and on the left , remnants of W . H . L . Wallace ' s , Hurlbut ' s , and Stuart ' s men mixed in with the thousands of stragglers who were crowding on the bluff over the landing . One brigade of Buell ' s army , Colonel Jacob Ammen ' s brigade of Bull Nelson ' s division , arrived in time to be ferried over and join the left end of the line . The defensive line included a ring of over 50 cannons and naval guns from the river ( the gunboats USS " Lexington " and USS " Tyler " ) . A final Confederate charge of two brigades , led by Brig . Gen . Withers , attempted to break through the line but was repulsed . Beauregard called off a second attempt after 6 p . m . , with the sun setting . The Confederate plan had failed ; they had pushed Grant east to a defensible position on the river , not forced him west into the swamps . Evening lull . The evening of April 6 was a dispiriting end to the first day of one of the bloodiest battles in American history . The pitiful cries of wounded and dying men on the fields between the armies could be heard in the Union and Confederate camps throughout the night . A thunderstorm passed through the area and rhythmic shelling from the Union gunboats made the night a miserable experience for both sides . A famous anecdote encapsulates Grant ' s unflinching attitude to temporary setbacks and his tendency for offensive action . As the exhausted Confederate soldiers bedded down in the abandoned Union camps , Sherman encountered Grant under a tree , sheltering himself from the pouring rain . He was smoking one of his cigars while considering his losses and planning for the next day . Sherman remarked , " Well , Grant , we ' ve had the devil ' s own day , haven ' t we ? " Grant looked up . " Yes , " he replied , followed by a puff . " Yes . Lick ' em tomorrow , though . " Beauregard sent a telegram to President Davis announcing " A COMPLETE VICTORY " and later admitted , " I thought I had General Grant just where I wanted him and could finish him up in the morning . " Many of his men were jubilant , having overrun the Union camps and taken thousands of prisoners and tons of supplies . But Grant had reason to be optimistic , for Lew Wallace ' s division and 15 , 000 men of Don Carlos Buell ' s army began to arrive that evening , with Buell ' s men fully on the scene by 4 a . m . , in time to turn the tide the next day . Beauregard caused considerable historical controversy with his decision to halt the assault at dusk . Braxton Bragg and Albert Sidney Johnston ' s son , Col . William Preston Johnston , were among those who bemoaned the so - called " lost opportunity at Shiloh . " Beauregard did not come to the front to inspect the strength of the Union lines but remained at Shiloh Church . He also discounted intelligence reports from Col . Nathan Bedford Forrest ( and bluster from prisoner of war Gen . Prentiss ) that Buell ' s men were crossing the river to reinforce Grant . In defense of his decision , his troops were simply exhausted , there was less than an hour of daylight left , and Grant ' s artillery advantage was formidable . He had also received a dispatch from Brig . Gen . Benjamin Hardin Helm in northern Alabama , indicating that Buell was marching toward Decatur and not Pittsburg Landing . Battle , April 7 . On Monday , April 7 , the combined Union armies numbered 45 , 000 men . The Confederates had suffered as many as 8 , 500 casualties the first day . Because of straggling and desertion , their commanders reported no more than 20 , 000 effectives ( Buell disputed that figure after the war , stating that there were 28 , 000 ) . The Confederates had withdrawn south into Prentiss ' s and Sherman ' s former camps , and Polk ' s corps retired all the way to the April 5 Confederate bivouac , 4 miles ( 6 . 5 km ) southwest of Pittsburg Landing . No line of battle was formed , and few if any commands were resupplied with ammunition . The soldiers were consumed by the need to locate food , water , and shelter for a much - needed night ' s rest . Beauregard , unaware that he was now outnumbered , planned to continue the attack and drive Grant into the river . To his surprise , Union forces started moving forward in a massive counterattack at dawn ; Grant and Buell launched their attacks separately ; coordination occurred only down at the division level . Lew Wallace ' s division was the first to see action , at the extreme right of the Union line , crossing Tilghman Branch around 7 a . m . and driving back the brigade of Col . Preston Pond . On Wallace ' s left were the survivors of Sherman ' s division , then McClernand ' s , and W . H . L . Wallace ' s ( now under the command of Col . James M . Tuttle ) . Buell ' s divisions continued to the left : Bull Nelson ' s , Crittenden ' s , and McCook ' s . The Confederate defenders were so badly commingled that little unit cohesion existed above the brigade level . It required over two hours to locate Gen . Polk and bring up his division from its bivouac to the southwest . By 10 a . m . , Beauregard had stabilized his front with his corps commanders from left to right : Bragg , Polk , Breckinridge , and Hardee . In a thicket near the Hamburg - Purdy Road , the fighting was so intense that Sherman described in his report of the battle " the severest musketry fire I ever heard . " On the Union left , Nelson ' s division led the advance , followed closely by Crittenden ' s and McCook ' s , down the Corinth and Hamburg - Savannah Roads . After heavy fighting , Crittenden ' s division recaptured the Hornet ' s Nest area by late morning , but Crittenden and Nelson were both repulsed by determined counterattacks launched by Breckinridge . The Union right made steady progress , driving Bragg and Polk to the south . As Crittenden and McCook resumed their attacks , Breckinridge was forced to retire , and by noon Beauregard ' s line paralleled the Hamburg - Purdy Road . In early afternoon , Beauregard launched a series of counterattacks from the Shiloh Church area , aiming to ensure control of the Corinth Road . The Union right was temporarily driven back by these assaults at Water Oaks Pond . Crittenden , reinforced by Tuttle , seized the road junction of the Hamburg - Purdy and East Corinth Roads , driving the Confederates into Prentiss ' s old camps . Nelson resumed his attack and seized the heights overlooking Locust Grove Branch by late afternoon . Beauregard ' s final counterattack was flanked and repulsed when Grant moved Col . James C . Veatch ' s brigade forward . Realizing that he had lost the initiative and that he was low on ammunition and food and with over 10 , 000 of his men killed , wounded , or missing , Beauregard knew he could go no further . He withdrew beyond Shiloh Church , using 5 , 000 men under Breckinridge as a covering force , massing Confederate batteries at the church and on the ridge south of Shiloh Branch . These forces kept the Union forces in position on the Corinth Road until 5 p . m . , when the Confederates began an orderly withdrawal back to Corinth . The exhausted Union soldiers did not pursue much past the original Sherman and Prentiss encampments ; Lew Wallace ' s division advanced beyond Shiloh Branch but , receiving no support from other units , halted at dark and returned to Sherman ' s camp . The battle was over . For long afterwards , Grant and Buell quarreled over Grant ' s decision not to mount an immediate pursuit with another hour of daylight remaining . Grant cited the exhaustion of his troops , although the Confederates were certainly just as exhausted . Part of Grant ' s reluctance to act could have been the unusual command relationship he had with Buell . Although Grant was the senior officer and technically was in command of both armies , Buell made it quite clear throughout the two days that he was acting independently . Fallen Timbers , April 8 . On April 8 , Grant sent Sherman south along the Corinth Road on a reconnaissance in force to ascertain if the Confederates had retreated , or if they were regrouping to resume their attacks . Grant ' s army lacked the large organized cavalry units that would have been better suited for reconnaissance and for vigorous pursuit of a retreating enemy . Sherman marched with two infantry brigades from his division , along with two battalions of cavalry , and they met up with Brig . Gen . Thomas J . Wood ' s division of Buell ' s army . Six miles ( 10 km ) southwest of Pittsburg Landing , Sherman ' s men came upon a clear field in which an extensive camp was erected , including a Confederate field hospital , protected by 300 troopers of Confederate cavalry , commanded by Col . Nathan Bedford Forrest . The road approaching the field was covered by fallen trees for over . As skirmishers from the 77th Ohio Infantry approached , having difficulty clearing the fallen timber , Forrest ordered a charge , producing a wild melee with Confederate troopers firing shotguns and revolvers and brandishing sabers , nearly resulting in the capture of Sherman . As Col . Jesse Hildebrand ' s brigade began forming in line of battle , the Southern troopers started to retreat at the sight of the strong force , and Forrest , who was well in advance of his men , came within a few yards of the Union soldiers before realizing he was all alone . Sherman ' s men yelled out , " Kill him ! Kill him and his horse ! " A Union soldier shoved his musket into Forrest ' s side and fired , striking him above the hip , penetrating to near the spine . Although he was seriously wounded , Forrest was able to stay on horseback and escape ; he survived both the wound and the war . The Union lost about 100 men , mostly captured during Forrest ' s charge , in an incident that has been remembered with the name " Fallen Timbers " . After capturing the Confederate field hospital , Sherman encountered the rear of Breckinridge ' s covering force and , determining that the enemy was making no signs of renewing its attack , withdrew back to camp . Aftermath . In the immediate aftermath of the battle , Northern newspapers vilified Grant for his performance during the battle on April 6 . Reporters , many far from the battle , spread the story that Grant had been drunk , falsely alleging that this had resulted in many of his men being bayonet ed in their tents because of a lack of defensive preparedness . Despite the Union victory , Grant ' s reputation suffered in Northern public opinion . Many credited Buell with taking control of the broken Union forces and leading them to victory on April 7 . Calls for Grant ' s removal overwhelmed the White House . President Lincoln replied with one of his most famous quotations about Grant : " I can ' t spare this man ; he fights . " Sherman emerged as an immediate hero , his steadfastness under fire and amid chaos atoning for his previous melancholy and his defensive lapses preceding the battle . Today , however , Grant is recognized positively for the clear judgment he was able to retain under the strenuous circumstances , and his ability to perceive the larger tactical picture that ultimately resulted in victory on the second day . Nevertheless , Grant ' s career suffered temporarily in the aftermath of Shiloh . Henry W . Halleck combined and reorganized his armies , relegating Grant to the powerless position of second - in - command . In late April and May the Union armies , under Halleck ' s personal command , advanced slowly toward Corinth and captured it , while an amphibious force on the Mississippi River destroyed the Confederate River Defense Fleet and captured Memphis . Halleck was promoted to be general in chief of all the Union armies , and with his departure for the East , Grant was restored to command . Grant eventually pushed on down the Mississippi to besiege Vicksburg . After the surrender of Vicksburg and the fall of Port Hudson in the summer of 1863 , the Mississippi River was under Union control and the Confederacy was cut in two . Command of the Army of Mississippi fell to Braxton Bragg , who was promoted to full general on April 6 . In the fall of 1862 , he led it on an unsuccessful invasion of Kentucky , culminating in his retreat from the Battle of Perryville . The two - day battle of Shiloh , the costliest in American history up to that time , resulted in the defeat of the Confederate army and frustration of Johnston ' s plans to prevent the joining of the two Union armies in Tennessee . Union casualties were 13 , 047 ( 1 , 754 killed , 8 , 408 wounded , and 2 , 885 missing ) ; Grant ' s army bore the brunt of the fighting over the two days , with casualties of 1 , 513 killed , 6 , 601 wounded , and 2 , 830 missing or captured . Confederate casualties were 10 , 699 ( 1 , 728 killed , 8 , 012 wounded , and 959 missing or captured ) . The dead included the Confederate army ' s commander , Albert Sidney Johnston ; the highest ranking Union general killed was W . H . L . Wallace . Both sides were shocked at the carnage . None suspected that three more years of such bloodshed remained in the war and that eight larger and bloodier battles were yet to come . Grant came to realize that his prediction of one great battle bringing the war to a close was probably not destined to happen . The war would continue , at great cost in casualties and resources , until the Confederacy succumbed or the Union was divided . Grant also learned a valuable personal lesson on preparedness that ( mostly ) served him well for the rest of the war . Battlefield preservation . Shiloh ’ s importance as a Civil War battle , coupled with the lack of widespread agricultural or industrial development in the area where the battle took place after the war ended , led to its development as one of the first five battlefields restored by the federal government in the 1890s . Government involvement eventually proved insufficient to preserve the sprawling canvas upon which the battle took place . While the federal government had saved just over 2 , 000 acres at Shiloh by 1897 and consolidated those gains by adding another 1 , 700 acres by 1954 , preservation eventually slowed and gains since 1954 account for only 300 additional acres of saved land . Private preservation organizations have stepped in to fill this void . The Civil War Trust has been the primary agent of these efforts , preserving 1 , 154 acres at Shiloh since its inception . The land already preserved by the Trust at Shiloh includes tracts over which Confederate divisions passed as they brought the fight to Ulysses S . Grant ’ s men on the battle ’ s first day and land over which those same troops retreated during the Union counteroffensive on day two . A 2012 campaign focused in particular on a section of land which was part of the Confederate right flank on day one and on several tracts which were part of the Battle of Fallen Timbers .