The FReeper Foxhole Revisits the Battle of Shiloh - March 20th, 2004

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/1257/shiloh.html ^

[snippy_about_it]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.


...................................................................................... ...........................................

U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues

Where Duty, Honor and Country
are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.

Our Mission:

The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans.

In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support.

The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer.

If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions.

We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.

To read previous Foxhole threads or
to add the Foxhole to your sidebar,
click on the books below.

The FReeper Foxhole Revisits

A Very Bloody Affair

The First Day
April 6, 1862

With the loss of Forts Henry and Donelson in February, General Johnston withdrew his disheartened Confederate forces into west Tennessee, northern Mississippi and Alabama to reorganize. In early March, General Halleck responded by ordering General Grant to advance his Union Army of West Tennessee on an invasion up the Tennessee River.

Occupying Pittsburg Landing, Grant entertained no thought of a Confederate attack. Halleck's instructions were that following the arrival of General Buell's Army of the Ohio from Nashville, Grant would advance south in a joint offensive to 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.

Assisted by his second-in-command, General Beauregard, Johnston shifted his scattered forces and concentrated almost 55,000 men around Corinth. Strategically located where the Memphis & Charleston crossed the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, Corinth was the western Confederacy's most important rail junction.

On April 3, realizing Buell would soon reinforce Grant, Johnston launched an offensive with his newly christened Army of the Mississippi. Advancing upon Pittsburg Landing with 43,938 men, Johnston planned to surprise Grant, cut his army off from retreat to the Tennessee River, and drive the Federals west into the swamps of Owl Creek.



In the gray light of dawn, April 6, a small Federal reconnaissance discovered Johnston's army deployed for battle astride the Corinth road, just a mile beyond the forward Federal camps. Storming forward, the Confederates found the Federal position unfortified. Johnston had achieved almost total surprise. By mid-morning, the Confederates seemed within easy reach of victory, overrunning one frontline Union division and capturing its camp. However, stiff resistance on the Federal right entangled Johnston's brigades in a savage fight around Shiloh Church. Throughout the day, Johnston's army hammered the Federal right, which gave ground but did not break. Casualties upon this brutal killing ground were immense.



Meanwhile, 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. 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 and seizing ground, the Confederates only drove 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.

The Second Day
April 7, 1862

Shiloh's first day of slaughter also witnessed the death of the Confederate leader, General Johnston, who fell at mid-afternoon, struck down by a stray bullet while directing the action on the Confederate right. At dusk, the advance division of General Buell's Federal Army of the Ohio reached Pittsburg Landing, and crossed the river to file into line on the Union left during the night. 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, Grant renewed the fighting with an aggressive counterattack.



Taken by surprise, General Beauregard managed to rally 30,000 of his badly disorganized Confederates, and mounted a tenacious defense. Inflicting heavy casualties on the Federals, Beauregard's troops temporarily halted the determined Union advance. However, strength in numbers provided Grant with a decisive advantage. By midafternoon, as waves of fresh Federal troops swept forward, pressing the exhausted Confederates back to Shiloh Church, Beauregard realized his armies' peril 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.

General Johnston's massive and rapid concentration at Corinth, and surprise attack on Grant at Pittsburg Landing, had presented the Confederacy with an opportunity to reverse the course of the war. The aftermath, however, 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 a shocking realization to both sides that the war would not end quickly.

---

---

FReeper Foxhole Armed Services Links

[AnAmericanMother]

None of my folks were at Vicksburg.

The great thing about studying the Civil War/War Between the States/War of Northern Aggression is that there's so much material (including original material) around that you'll never come to the end of it. Our local Civil War Roundtable has lots of guys in their 60s and 70s who've been doing research all their lives - and they're still finding new stuff! It's a neat field.

[snippy_about_it]

Hi all.

Thanks so much bentfeather for helping us out. Sam just called and I read him the posts on today's thread. I think he's hooked on this place. LOL. He wanted to make sure I let everyone know he'd be home in time to post tomorrow morning early before they trek out again and of course he was very moved by your help feather and sorry he couldn't post at your place today.

Foxhole freepers are the best!

[Professional Engineer]

War of Northern Aggression

LOL I had never heard this term until I started listening to talk radio in earnest a few years ago. At first, I scoffed at it. Over time I have learned more about the was, and realize how narrow minded historians have gotten on their writings. I can see the merit of the label.

[The Mayor]

quick vacation, either that or he is addicted, LOL!!

[Soaring Feather]

Hi snippy so glad to hear from you and Sam. Please Sam, you just enjoy your time with your family.

I have been in the position of not being able to FReep, torture sheer torture!! LOL :-)

[AnAmericanMother]

Well, my specialty in my undergraduate degree (history) was the study of original documents.

You can't read the letters of ordinary Southerners of the time (not letters "for publication" or public fulminations, just the letters between husbands and wives, brothers and brothers, etc., that they never expected would be read by anybody) without realizing that the usual explanations for the whys and wherefores of the War just don't wash.

[snippy_about_it]

With three kids in school and it being spring break he's on a few short vacations. ;-)

[snippy_about_it]

Hi feather. He's enjoying himself but misses his "other" family as well. ;-)

[snippy_about_it]

Thanks, it's a revisited thread Sam originally did, it is good!

[snippy_about_it]

Thanks Gail. Let's keep the heat on kerry and one day it will make it to mainstream press I hope.

[snippy_about_it]

Thanks CJ. I've been picking from the oldest group moving forward in case they were missed or just plain good to re-read.

[Professional Engineer]

without realizing that the usual explanations for the whys and wherefores of the War just don't wash.

I bet! That would be very interesting to study. History was one of my interests in high xchool, but math and science grabbed me far more.

I ended up studying electrical engineering instead. The history of engineering is fascinating in itself.

[Darksheare]

Yup, Sam's addicted to this place.
*chuckle*
Of course, so am I..
Hmm..
Thanks Bentfeather for helping out.
(I'm an html klutz, that rules me out form doing anything more than going: "Umm.. the skull noggin seems to recall this.. er.. hmm.. wait, that can't be right.")

*chuckle*

Seems everyone is going on a vacation.
*sigh*
I'd stow away in someone's luggage, but that would be troublesome and difficult to explain for several reasons.

[Professional Engineer]

Can't be any harder explain than this guy's story. Biologist stopped at airport with severed seal's head in luggage

[Darksheare]

Ah yes, grown up little boys still play with dead things they find?
*chuckle*
As far as what it was really in his luggage for..
I won't even venture a guess.

But, luggage checkers would be massively perturbed if the luggage went through the X-ray machine and WAVED at them..

[Professional Engineer]

But, luggage checkers would be massively perturbed if the luggage went through the X-ray machine and WAVED at them.

ROFLOL I imagine some one would have to change some pants!

[Samwise]

I don't know why, but I really like the Civil War threads. It must be the Gone with the Wind syndrome.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Hi bentfeather. I'm doing fine, thanks.

How are you doing?

[Valin]

I'm sure they found plenty of common ground.

[Samwise]

I'm helping out in the FOXHOLE for a bit.

So you are the class monitor. I hope you're not a tattle tale. :^)