It was 150 years today that Confederate General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard pulled his troops from Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, leaving the field to Ulysses S. Grant’s Army of the Tennessee. It was the second day of what came to be known as the Battle of Shiloh, and it cost the Confederates their original commanding general, Albert S. Johnston, and nearly 11,000 casualties.
The Federals actually lost more men—more than 13,000 casualties—but they held the ground.
The first day, 6 April, was marked by Union confusion and retreat. In fact, Beauregard actually wired “a complete victory” to CSA president Jefferson Davis that evening. But even as that was being sent, Grant was reported to be having a laconic exchange with General William T. Sherman.
Sherman: Well, Grant, we’ve had the devil’s own day, haven’t we?”
Grant: “Yes. Lick ‘em tomorrow, though.”
Holding the field didn’t protect Grant from being maligned by the press. He was alleged to have been drunk before and during the fighting. And yet Abraham Lincoln, faced with demands for Grant’s replacement, said, “I can’t spare this man; he fights.” So Grant remained.
Shiloh was the bloodiest battle in US history. Up until that time.
But that record would be broken shortly, and for all time until now, in just a few months.
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