By all historical rights, the United States shouldn’t exist. The Civil War should have destroyed the nation, and the skeptics and despots of the world should have watched American democracy tear itself apart. Yet nearly 150 years later, many stories of that conflict remain untold. We remember Gettysburg and Bull Run, but the war was arguably won in the West—on the vast lands between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River.
It was there that the Union Army bisected the Confederacy and took control of the Mississippi. To understand the full impact of the war, you have to understand what happened in the West. The nation was born of war, founded on the idea that all men are created equal. But slavery was the ugly exception to that cry for liberty.
Many white Americans saw no conflict between freedom and slavery. They believed the revolutionary principles applied only to white people. Science of the time, like the work of French zoologist Georges Cuvier, claimed that Africans were closer to apes than humans, providing a supposed justification for treating them as property. The first Africans arrived in 1619, and by 1789, the new nation had nearly 700,000 slaves.
Congress banned the importation of slaves in 1808, and many thought slavery would die out. Then the cotton gin was invented in the 1790s, and slavery exploded. Cotton became the white gold of the transatlantic economy, and the enslaved people who produced it were valued at $3 billion—more than all the railroads, factories, and banks in America combined. Northern banks, mills, and insurance companies profited just as much as southern planters.
The nation’s economy was built on the backs of slaves, and it was a national issue, not just a southern one. Northern whites were often as committed to white supremacy as southern slaveholders. They opposed slavery not because it was unjust, but because it brought black people to America. Abolitionists were denounced as extremists, but by the 1850s, their message began to resonate.
Southern slaveholders developed their own moral justification, calling slavery a positive good that civilized African people. For them, slavery was an economic, social, and racial necessity. If you got rid of slavery, you got rid of the structure that guaranteed all white southerners their status. The catalyst for war came from the West.
As the nation expanded, the question of whether slavery would spread into new territories tore the country apart. Political compromises in 1820, 1850, and 1854 provided temporary solutions, but western expansion disrupted the balance between free and slave states. Violence erupted in Kansas. Then, in 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president without a single southern electoral vote.
He was unashamedly opposed to slavery, and southerners saw him as a wolf in sheep’s clothing, an arrow pointed at the heart of their social and economic system. They believed his election spelled their demise. In 1860, there were about 3. 9 million enslaved people in the United States, making up 40% of the Confederate population.
The deep southern states, with the highest percentages of slaves, were the first to secede. Mississippi, the largest cotton-producing state, joined South Carolina in leaving the Union just two months after Lincoln’s election. Five more states followed within a month. Jefferson Davis was chosen as president of the new Confederate States of America.
The Mississippi secession delegates declared that their position was “thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery,” calling it “the greatest material interest in the world. ” They made no bones about it: slavery was the central issue of the war. On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces bombarded Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, forcing its surrender. Lincoln called for 75,000 troops, which convinced Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee to join the Confederacy.
Both sides believed the war would be over within 90 days, that the bloodshed could be mopped up with a handkerchief. They thought it would be an adventure, that they’d be home by Christmas. Instead, they ended up in camps dying of disease, enduring boredom and loneliness, punctuated by incredible violence. The first major battle in the East, Bull Run, was a Union defeat.
But Union leaders realized that to defeat the Confederacy, they had to take the fight beyond the Appalachians. The West held the most important economic highway of the continent: the Mississippi Valley. One Union general wrote, “Whatever nation gets control of the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri rivers will control the continent. ”
In February 1862, 15,000 Union soldiers landed along the Tennessee River.
The campaign was a test for the Navy’s ironclad gunboats and for a little-known graduate of West Point, a soldier with an average record whom many had unfairly branded a drunk: General Ulysses S. Grant. He would emerge as the greatest general in the Union Army. Grant’s orders were to seize two strategic forts guarding the Confederate interior: Fort Henry on the Tennessee River and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland.
On February 6, naval gunboats pounded Fort Henry into submission. Fort Donelson was stronger, with heavy guns pointing northward. On February 14, Union ironclads were decisively repulsed. Grant’s force of 27,000 moved overland and approached the fort’s landward side.
Grant’s philosophy of war was simple: “Get at the enemy as quick as you can, hit him as hard as you can, and keep moving on. ”
The next morning, the Confederates attempted to break out of Fort Donelson. After furious fighting, Grant forced them back inside. Confederate General Simon Buckner asked for terms of surrender.
Grant’s response was “unconditional and immediate. ” At Fort Donelson, 12,000 Confederates surrendered, and the Northern press anointed Grant a national hero. Just nine days later, Nashville fell to Union troops. The victories enabled Union forces to seize control of the lower Tennessee River, the strategic pathway into the Confederate heartland.
Confederate forces retreated south, abandoning Kentucky and Middle Tennessee. In March 1862, the Federals leased steamboats to transport Grant’s troops deeper into Tennessee. They unloaded at Pittsburgh Landing, where roads provided access to rail lines crucial to the Confederate war effort. By early April, Grant’s force of 48,000 stretched across a high wooded plateau.
His most inexperienced troops camped near a simple Methodist meeting house named Shiloh, a Hebrew word meaning “place of peace. ” Grant’s mission was to sever two vital western Confederate railroads that intersected at Corinth, Mississippi. One Confederate official called Corinth “the vertebrae of the Confederacy. ” Grant knew a large enemy force had gathered to defend Corinth, but he was unaware that those same Confederates were marching forward to attack him.
General Albert Sidney Johnston commanded the Western Confederate Army. Jefferson Davis boasted, “If Johnston is not a general, then we have no general. ” Johnston had a bold plan: destroy Grant’s army before reinforcements arrived. He would surprise Grant, turn his left flank, cut off his line of retreat, and force him to surrender.
The Confederate advance was troubled from the start. A spring storm turned roads into rivers of mud, and a march that should have taken one day consumed three. That delay would haunt Johnston. Grant was under explicit orders not to advance until General Don Carlos Buell’s army arrived.
Grant was convinced Johnston lacked the resolve to attack. He never considered that Johnston would leave his entrenchments and march 20 miles to attack him in the open. But Johnston did. Sixteen-year-old Thomas Duncan, a Confederate courier, rode to a high point and heard Union troops drilling.
He realized, “The Union Army is absolutely unaware of the presence of our army. ”
General William Tecumseh Sherman received reports of large groups of Confederates but dismissed them as scouting parties. The previous year, Sherman had been criticized for overestimating Confederate numbers, and newspapers had even reported he was insane. He was determined not to make that mistake again.
Just a mile beyond Sherman’s camp was the leading edge of Johnston’s 43,000 Confederates. They camped there, some even firing their weapons, and nobody paid much attention. Most of the Confederates were raw recruits who had never tasted battle. As night came, they lay down in line of battle, realizing the danger of the coming morning and the certainty that for many, the next sunrise would be their last on earth.
Colonel Everett Peabody commanded a brigade on the Union front line. Unlike his superiors, he believed the Confederate presence was more than scouting parties. Despite orders not to engage, he sent 250 men out on a pre-dawn patrol. Just after 5:00 a.
m. , they stepped onto the farm of James Fraley, some two miles southwest of Shiloh Church. They fired the opening shots of what would become the first epic battle of the Civil War. After an hour, Peabody’s troops withdrew.
It wasn’t until sunrise that the Union side realized they were up against Johnston’s whole army. Johnston told his men, “Today we must conquer or perish. ” The Confederate attack was like a sledgehammer. Peabody’s superior, General Benjamin Prentiss, accused him of violating orders and bringing on the engagement.
Peabody replied, “I didn’t bring on an engagement. The whole Confederate army’s marching on me, sir. ” Prentiss scolded him severely, but Peabody’s heavily outnumbered division put up stubborn resistance. By 9:00 a.
m. , their defense crumbled, and Peabody was killed while trying to rally his troops. In four hours of fighting, the Union suffered over 2,000 casualties. Half of Grant’s soldiers at Shiloh had never been in combat.
They experienced all the horrors of war for the first time: seeing what artillery fire does to the human body, blood spilled in ways they couldn’t imagine. Eighteen-year-old Leander Stillwell, a private with the 61st Illinois, was astonished at the retreat. “It seemed to me we were forever disgraced. I kept thinking to myself, what will they say about this at home?
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Many Confederates broke ranks to ransack Union camps. Some hadn’t eaten since leaving Corinth three days earlier. Johnston was infuriated when he caught an officer plundering. To rally his men, he took his own plunder, a simple tin cup, and said, “Let this be my portion of the poor today.
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By mid-morning, the Confederate advance reached Shiloh Church, the scene of some of the most savage fighting. Horses were screeching and dying. People were getting hit, screaming, calling for their mothers, calling on God. It was mass confusion.
Most soldiers were between 18 and 30 years old. They realized it wasn’t about adventure or lofty concepts like honor and independence. It was about killing, and many had a great deal of ambivalence about shouldering their weapons and actually killing people. Sixteen-year-old musician John Cocker arrived with his father, the commander of the 70th Ohio Infantry.
They became separated near Shiloh Church, and John soon found himself aiding the wounded. Passing soldiers called for him to assist. They carried a poor fellow to the rear and found a scene of disorder, not to say panic. The enemy pressed closely, and Shiloh Church was no longer a desirable place for observation.
John started toward the Tennessee River. He encountered General John McClernand’s Highland Brigade of Illinois troops. A chipper young lieutenant stopped him and asked where he belonged. John replied that he belonged to Ohio.
The lieutenant said Ohio was making a bad show of it and asked if John wanted to fight with them. John said he was willing to take a temporary berth in his regiment. Thus, he became attached to Company B of the 9th Illinois Regiment. John didn’t realize it, but he had joined a unit that would have the highest casualty rate of all Union regiments at Shiloh.
In five hours of brutal fighting, the Confederates overran the forward Union camps. Fresh Union divisions moved forward from Pittsburgh Landing to help stop the onslaught. Johnston personally supervised the Confederate right while General P. G.
T. Beauregard oversaw the left. By 11:00 a. m.
, the battle raged along a crooked three-mile front. Grant had completely underestimated the Confederates, a mistake he would never make again. At noon, Grant ordered Sherman to counterattack. The Confederate attack began to splinter, losing its steam.
Sherman grudgingly gave ground, but his decimated divisions had bought Grant precious time. Adding to the Confederates’ woes was the hellish terrain: a morass of dense woods, thick undergrowth, and deep ravines. Most serious was the awful carnage. Earlier in the day at Fraley Field, the 6th Mississippi marched straight into a murderous Union crossfire.
In mere moments, 300 of the regiment’s 425 soldiers were cut down. The slaughter was repeated again and again. The reason for the extremely high casualties was that both sides were very similar in motivation and simply determined to prevail. If they had been using short swords, they probably would have stood up against each other and hacked at each other until they had killed about that many.
Though staggered, the majority of Johnston’s army continued to engage the Union left and right. Meanwhile, another fight erupted in an oak thicket choking the center of the battlefield. Since mid-morning, Union soldiers had been putting up a stubborn defense in the thick underbrush. Confederate soldiers, hearing Union bullets whistling through the thicket, referred to the area as the Hornets’ Nest.
Over four hours, Confederate troops repeatedly stormed the Hornets’ Nest, and each time they were driven back. Colonel Randall Lee Gibson commanded a brigade from Louisiana and Arkansas. Four times the assault proved unavailing. The enemy’s position was strong and almost inaccessible, his infantry well-covered in ambush, his artillery skillfully posted.
It was found to be impregnable to infantry alone. The geography played a role; the Hornets’ Nest was a very difficult place to get to. It came down to geography and sheer determination. Johnston was determined to crush the federal stronghold.
He personally rallied a group that had refused to charge. “The Yankees were stubborn,” he said, “and you’re going to have to give them the bayonet. ” He leaned out and tapped their bayonets with his tin cup. As he got to the middle of their line, he turned his horse toward the enemy and said, “I will lead you.
” They advanced into a peach orchard just east of the Hornets’ Nest, where some of the most bitter fighting of Shiloh took place. Private Sam Watkins of the 1st Tennessee later wrote, “I had heard and read of battlefields, seen pictures of battlefields, horses and men, cannon and wagons all jumbled together while the ground was strewn with dead and dying and wounded. But I must confess that I never realized the pomp and circumstance of the thing called glorious war till I saw this. It all seemed to me a dream.
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With the battle raging around the peach orchard, an aide found Johnston reeling in his saddle. “General, are you wounded? ” Johnston said, “Yes, and I fear seriously. ” The aide led Johnston to a sheltered place and helped him off his horse.
He began looking for the wound but couldn’t find it. Johnston had quickly lost consciousness. Behind Johnston’s knee, a bullet had lacerated a large artery. In less than 20 minutes, he bled to death.
General Albert Sidney Johnston would be the highest-ranked officer killed in the Civil War. The day that began with so much promise ended with the death of the man Jefferson Davis considered the finest officer in the Confederacy. Word of Johnston’s death slowly made its way through the Confederate ranks. A soldier from Louisiana remarked, “A chilliness of gloom crept over our entire command.
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