Shiloh- Jewish word meaning peace....not April 6, 1862

I don't think I ever mentioned that I am a Civil War "nut". I was reading and also watching video tapes of Shiloh- The Civil War Battle and I always can never understand that this counrty, America was torn aprt and killing each other over very important principles, yes, but killing?
Shiloh, which was the first major battle of the Civil War, had 31,000 casualties and General Grant stated during the aftermath that you could walk across the field and never touch the ground because of all the dead bodies. After the first nigt General grant coudnt ever sleep in his tent because of all the screaming he heard fro the men in the field and tents. So he slept up on a hill under a tree. One officer came up to him and said "Well, it was a devils day today" General Grant said "Yeah, but we'll lick'em tommarro" I cut and pasted some info on it below and I will from time to time Post about my "Unfortunate" favorite subject.
Battle, April 6At 6:00 a.m. on April 6, 1862, Johnston's army was deployed for battle, straddling the Corinth Road. In fact, the army had spent the entire night bivouacking undetected in order of battle just two miles away from the Union camps. His approach and dawn assault achieved almost total strategic and tactical surprise. The Union army had virtually no patrols in place for early warning. Grant telegraphed to Halleck on the night of the 5th, "I have scarcely the faintest idea of an attack (general one) being made upon us, but will be prepared should such a thing take place." Unfortunately for Grant, his preparedness was greatly overstated. Major General William T. Sherman, Grant's senior commander in the encampment, refused to believe that the Confederates were anywhere nearby; he discounted any possibility of an attack from the south, expecting that Johnston would eventually attack from the direction of Purdy, Tennessee, to the west. Sherman should have known something was up. Early that morning Major General Benjamin Prentiss had sent forward part of the 25th Missouri Infantry on a reconnaissance, and they became engaged with Confederate outposts at 5:15 a.m. The spirited fight that ensued did help a little to get Union troops better positioned, but the command of the Union army was figuratively asleep that morning.
Faulty planning on Johnston's part reduced the effectiveness of the attack. There were insufficient forces on the Confederate right to roll up the Union from that direction as planned. The corps of William J. Hardee and Braxton Bragg began the assault with their divisions in one long line. As these units advanced, they became intermingled and difficult to control. Corps commanders attacked in line without reserves. Beauregard, serving in the rear as second in command, ordered the corps of Leonidas Polk and John C. Breckenridge forward on the left and right of the line, diluting their effectiveness. The attack turned into a simple, but massive, frontal assault, with insufficient mass to break through.
The assault was nevertheless ferocious, and in its face, some of the many inexperienced Union soldiers of Grant's new army fled for safety to the Tennessee River. Others fought well, but were forced to withdraw under strong pressure and attempted to form new defensive lines. Major General John A. McClernand's division temporarily stabilized the position. Overall, however, Johnston's forces made steady progress until noon, rolling up Union positions one by one.
General Grant himself was downriver about ten miles on a gunboat at Savannah, Tennessee, that morning. He heard the sound of artillery fire and raced to the battlefield, arriving about 8:30 a.m. He worked frantically to bring up reinforcements that were nearby: Brigadier General William Nelson's division from across the river at the Landing; Lew Wallace's division from Savannah. Buell's army was still too far away to affect the action that morning.Starting at about 9:00 a.m., about 2,500 men of the Union division commanded by Prentiss established and held a line, nicknamed the Hornet's Nest, on a sunken road. The Confederates charged the position repeatedly, suffering appalling losses, rather than bypassing it, which have been more sensible militarily. The Union forces to the left and right of the Nest were forced back and Prentiss' position became a salient in the line. Coordination along the line was poor and units withdrew based solely on their individual commanders' decisions. Regiments became disorganized and companies disintegrated. However, it was not until the attackers assembled 62 cannons to blast the line that they were able to surround the position and the Hornet's Nest fell after holding for seven hours. A large part of Prentiss' division was captured, but their sacrifice bought time for Grant to establish a final defense line near Pittsburg Landing.
On the Union right flank, resistance was stiff and Johnston's forces bogged down in a savage fight around Shiloh Church. Throughout the day, the Confederates repeatedly assaulted the Union right, which gave ground but did not break.
The Union survivors established a solid front around Pittsburg Landing, including a ring of over 50 cannons, and repulsed the last Confederate charge as dusk ended the first day of fighting. Naval guns from the river assisted the defense. The Confederates' plan had failed; they had pushed Grant to the river, but they had not forced him west into the swamps.
In another setback, Johnston was mortally wounded at about 2:30 p.m. while personally leading attacks on the Union left. He had sent his personal surgeon away to care for troops, and in the doctor's absence, he bled to death from a leg wound that didn't seem serious at first. This was an enormous loss for the Confederacy. Jefferson Davis and many in the army considered Albert Sidney Johnston to be the most effective general they had. (This was two months before Robert E. Lee emerged as the pre-eminent Confederate general.) Beauregard assumed command.
As the exhausted Confederate soldiers bedded down in the abandoned Union camps, Sherman encountered Grant under a tree, sheltering himself from a pouring rain, smoking one of his cigars, considering his losses and planning for the next day. Sherman remarked, "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" Grant looked up. "Yes," he replied, followed by a puff. "Yes. Lick 'em tomorrow, though."
Grant had reason to be optimistic, for Don Carlos Buell's army had arrived that night, in time to turn the tide the next day.
April 7On April 7, 1862, the combined Union armies numbered 55,000 men. Beauregard had planned to continue the attack and drive Grant into the river, unaware that he was now outnumbered. Union forces started attacking at dawn; Grant and Buell launched their attacks separately and coordination occurred only down at the division level. Confederate lines stabilized around 9:00 a.m. By 10:00, the Union attack was occurring in concert along the entire line. The weight of the attack, which included the efforts of 25,000 fresh troops, was too much for the Confederates to withstand.
Realizing that he had lost the initiative, and that he was low on ammunition and food and with 15,000 of his men killed, wounded, or missing, Beauregard knew he could go no further. He withdrew beyond Shiloh Church, using Breckenridge as a covering force, and began marching back to Corinth. The exhausted Union soldiers did not pursue much past their original encampments. The battle was over.