Grant at Shiloh: Surprise Attack, Hornet's Nest and a Night in the Rain

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On the morning of April 6, 1862, Ulysses S. Grant was at breakfast in Savannah, Tennessee, on crutches after a fall from his horse, when he heard artillery from his army's camps at Pittsburg Landing. This episode treats Shiloh as a case study in crisis management. Fresh from victories at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, Grant had been briefly sidelined by Henry Halleck over rumors of drinking. His camps near Shiloh church had no entrenchments, because he and William T. Sherman believed Albert Sidney Johnston's army at Corinth would not attack.

Colonel Everett Peabody's unauthorized dawn patrol into Fraley Field triggered the battle and bought time. Sherman, who had brushed off warnings, saw an orderly shot beside him, then rallied raw troops while wounded twice. Johnston's three-mile-wide lines broke apart in the ravines, he bled to death leading at the front, and Benjamin Prentiss held the Hornet's Nest for six hours. That night the gunboats Tyler and Lexington shelled Confederate positions, Buell's army arrived, and Grant counterattacked on April 7. Nearly 24,000 casualties led to calls for his removal, which Lincoln refused.

Pierre G.T. Beauregard sent a premature telegram on the first night announcing a complete victory.
Sherman found Grant under a tree in the rain with a lantern, and Grant said they would whip them tomorrow.
The episode argues that exhaustion, disorganization and lost daylight, not Johnston's death, stalled the Confederate attack.
Journalist Whitelaw Reid published claims of Union soldiers bayoneted in their tents, drawn from stragglers' accounts.
Halleck took field command and made Grant second in command, and Sherman talked him out of resigning.

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