Over 20,000 soldiers lost their lives on April 6, 1862 as they battled for victory around the white church of Shiloh. Faith was strong enough on both sides, creating troops determined for victory.

The Union army was marching into Tennessee to stave off a Southern advance. Confederate forces made their way north attempting to block the Northern thrust forward. The Union army in their blue uniforms were lead by General Ulysses S. Grant and the Confederates in gray followed the direction of both Generals Albert S. Johnston and P.G.T Beauregard.

The two sides met along the Tennessee River where an overwhelming amount of Southern soldiers held back Grant’s troops who floundered as they tried to hold on until reinforcements arrived. On the first day of the battle the Union soldiers were held back in an area called “the Hornet’s Nest”. They waited in trepidation for the arrival of General Buell’s regiment from Ohio who could provide enough extra men to push the south back.

As they fought against Johnston’s troops, the Union soldiers lost many comrades. Thousands were injured or killed by the constant onslaught throughout the day.

“I would fight them if there were a million of them.” General Johnston before the battle

At the close of battle on the first day, General Johnston was slain in the fighting. Whether from respect or need for respite, second in command Beauregard let his men get some sleep and didn’t resume battle until the morning light. April 7th saw the second round of fighting, but by now Union reinforcements had arrived.

The Northerners pushed back the Confederate soldiers and advanced the battle into Southern territory. In the next few years, Union soldiers would fight battle after battle, enter town after town and force the surrender of the Confederates.

Referred to also as Pittsburgh’s Landing, the Battle of Shiloh became a turning point in the Civil War. Not because of it being any great victory for the Union, but rather because it gave the nation a shock. In the quantity of dead soldiers, they saw reflected a country at war with itself at the cost of a generation of young people. With the North’s bloody win at Shiloh, the South realized during those determined two days that the Yankees weren’t about to give up.

The war would last until 1865 when the surrender of Robert E. Lee to General Grant brought an end to one of the darkest periods in American social history. Out of a 100,000 men a quarter lost their lives in a battle that revealed the strengths and weaknesses of both sides.

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