Shiloh Reveals the War's True Scale
A surprise Confederate attack on Grant's army produces more casualties than every earlier American war combined
Quick facts
- Location
- Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee
- Union commander
- Ulysses S. Grant
- Confederate commander killed
- Albert Sidney Johnston
- Casualties
- About 23,000 total
What happened
Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston, hoping to crush Ulysses S. Grant's army at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee before Union reinforcements under Don Carlos Buell could arrive, launched a surprise dawn attack on April 6, 1862, near a small log church called Shiloh. The assault initially drove Grant's men back toward the Tennessee River, and Johnston was killed by a bullet that severed an artery behind his knee, bleeding to death before anyone realized the wound was fatal. Union forces, reinforced overnight by Buell's arriving troops, counterattacked on April 7 and pushed the Confederates, now under P.G.T. Beauregard, back to Corinth, Mississippi. Roughly 23,000 men on both sides were killed, wounded, captured, or missing over the two days, out of about 110,000 engaged, a toll that stunned both governments.
Why it matters
Shiloh's casualty count, greater than the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and Mexican-American War combined, forced Americans on both sides to abandon any remaining illusion that the conflict would be short or bloodless, and it secured the Union's hold on the war's Western theater.
How we know
The National Park Service's Shiloh National Military Park history and the American Battlefield Trust's casualty figures are both drawn from official Union and Confederate reports filed after the battle.
Sources
- Shiloh National Military Park, National Park Service. Battle of Shiloh · Reputable sourcenps.gov · The domain "nps.gov" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- American Battlefield Trust. Shiloh Battle Facts and Summary · Reputable sourcebattlefields.org · The domain "battlefields.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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