7 April 1862: Second Day of the Battle of Shiloh

When the fighting ended the evening of 6 April, Brig. Gen. Beauregard was convinced the Confederates had won a decisive victory. He spent the night in the tent Brig. Gen. Sherman had occupied the night before and the rebel units occupied the encampments abandoned by the Yankees and began plundering them.

While they rested, General Grant was making plans to attack the rebels the next morning. Between midnight and 4 a.m. he met with Sherman and his remaining commanders as well as Brig. Gen. William “Bull” Nelson’s division from Buell’s Army of the Ohio, which had arrived at Pittsburg Landing and assumed the left-flank position in Grant’s line. Still to come were two more of Buell’s divisions: those commanded by Brig. Gens. Alexander McCook and Thomas Crittenden. Learning of Grant’s plan to attack, Buell assumed he would be free to plan his operations on the left flank separately because he, too, was an army commander.

Beauregard received just one regiment worth of reinforcements: the 47th Tenn. Inf. witb 600 raw recruits, which did not arrive until 8 a.m. After allowing for casualties and units that had abandoned the field, Beauregard had less than 20,000 combat troops available. Moreover, because of the heavy rain and hail overnight, combined with his belief that the Union force was retreating, Beauregard took no steps to reorganize his units or plan for any operations on the 7tth.

That was the situation when operations resumed early that morning. For more details, see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Shiloh#

When the battle ended that evening with the Confederates withdrawing toward Corinth, the Union forces had lost more than 13,000 men--including nearly 2,000 dead, 8,500 wounded and another almost 3,000 captured or missing. Rebel losses amounted to more than 10,500, with nearly 2,000 dead, 8,000 wounded, and nearly 1,000 missing or captured. This made Shiloh one of the top 10 deadliest battles of the Civil War.

ILLUSTRATIONS: (1) Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant (r) and Brig. Gen. William T. Sherman meet in the wee hours of 7 April to discuss the previous day's setbacks at Shiloh and make plans for the next day. (2) General Grant confers with a subordinate commander as Union troops go on the offensive at Shiloh. (3) Men from Brig. Gen. William Wallace's division assault Col. Preston Pond's isolated Confederate brigade early on the second day at Shiloh. (4) Rebel troops begin falling back on the second day at Shiloh. (5) Men of the 19th Tenn. Inf. Regt. try to hold the line during a Union assault. (6) Rebel soldiers make a last stand on the second day at Shiloh. (7) Leading the rear guard, Col. Nathan Bedford Forrest attacks a Union brigade with a small regiment of cavalry the day after the battle of Shiloh.