The Battle of Shiloh
The bloodiest war in American history
Why was the battle fought?
What was the significance of the battle?
The significance of this battle towards the war is that it was the war that kind of started the Civil War and was the bloodiest war in American history at the time. The effects of both sides were major losses, killings of soldiers, and many bloody injuries. Also, it showed that the Confederate can start a war, but not end it which shows that they are not strong enough as a "country".
Map of the Battle of Shiloh
Major Events (chronological order)
2. Confederate soldiers threatened Ulysses S. Grant and his entire command.
3. Union established a battle line along the sunken road known as "Hornet's Nest."
4. General Albert Sydney Johnston of the Confederate was badly wounded and replaced with P.G. T. Beauregard.
5. Grant’s April 7th counteroffensive overpowered the weakened Confederate forces.
6. Beauregard’s army retired the field, leaving the war lasting two bloody days.
7. Union won The Battle of Shiloh
Union and Confederate Generals
Confederate- Albert Sydney Johnson & P.G.T. Beauregard
Total Casualties!
Eyewitness Account
Henry Morton Stanley endured the horror of the Battle of Shiloh. He watched as men fought each other, blood on blood, flesh on flesh. He was a new soldier and had never been shot at in his life. He quotes the event of being shot at; “How the cannon bellowed, and their shells plunged and bounded, and flew with screeching hisses over us! Their sharp rending explosions and hurtling fragments made us shrink and cower, despite our utmost efforts to be cool and collected. I marveled, as I heard the unintermitting patter, snip, thud, and hum of the bullets, how anyone could live under this raining death.” He witnessed so many scarring things, his own friends dying right in front of his eyes. He quotes,”Another ball struck a man a deadly rap on the head, and he turned on his back and showed his ghastly white face to the sky.” He finally, as a sad end to his battle, was captured by the other side. He quoted, “Half a dozen of the enemy were covering me at the same instant, and I dropped my weapon, incontinently. Two men sprang at my collar, and marched me, unresisting, into the ranks of the terrible Yankees. I was a prisoner!"