After taking Fort Donelson, Ulysses Grant had wanted to move on the Confederate base in Corinth, Mississippi, where Albert Sidney Johnston, the Confederate commander in the West, was known to be assembling troops. Grant was ordered to delayhis advance until Union General Don Carlos Buell, who had been operating in EastTennessee, could join him.Early on April 6, 1862, Johnston's army, which had come up to the federal linesundetected, struck Grant's army, which was encamped at Pittsburg Landing on theTennessee River. The Battle of Shiloh followed.Grant's Federal army was not fully prepared for the thousands of screaming rebelswho burst out of the woods near Shiloh church on that early Sunday morning of April 6.They first hit the two green divisions of William Tecumseh Sherman and of Benjamin M.Prentiss. Sherman performed this day with coolness and courage. He was everywherealong his lines at Shiloh, shoring up his raw troops and inspiring them to hurl back theinitial assaults, which caused staggering losses on both sides. Sherman himself waswounded slightly and had three horses shot under him. On his left Prentiss's men alsostood fast at first, while up from the rear came reinforcements form the other threedivisions, two of which had fought at Donelson.Waiting for Buell's arrival at army headquarters nine miles downriver, Grant heardthe firing as he sat down to breakfast. Commandeering a dispatch boat, he steamed up toPittsburg Landing and arrived on the battlefield about 9:00. The fighting by this time hadreached a level unprecedented in the war. Johnston and Gen. Pierre Gustave T.Beauregard committed all six of their divisions early in the day. All of Grant's soldiers inthe vicinity also double-timed to the front, which stretched six miles between theTennessee River on the Union left and Owl Creek on the right. Grant sent a courier tosummon Lew Wallace's division to the battlefield. But Wallace took the wrong road andhad to countermar...
