After the Union victories at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in February 1862, Confederate general Johnston withdrew from Kentucky and left much of the western and middle of Tennessee to the Federals. This permitted Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant to push his troops toward Corinth, Mississippi, the strategic intersection of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad and the Memphis and Charleston Railroad and a vital troop and supply conduit for the South. Alerted to the Union army’s position, Johnston intercepted the Federals 22 miles northeast of Corinth at Pittsburg Landing. 

The Union prevailed, but the encounter was devastating to both sides due to an extreme number of casualties. The South’s defeat at Shiloh ended the Confederacy’s hopes of blocking the Union advance into Mississippi and doomed the Confederate military initiative in the West. With the loss of their commander Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston in battle, Confederate morale plummeted. After Shiloh, both sides realized the magnitude of the conflict, which would be longer and bloodier than they could have imagined.

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