Union Victory At Shiloh

            
             Tactics, Planning, and Attack Formations.
            
             The battle of Shiloh was one of the bloodiest fought in the western theater. The superior tactics of the Union forces along with the problems involved with confederate attack formations and planning secured a victory for the Federals. General Johnston's initial plan to attack Grant's army, cut it off from Pittsburgh Landing, and force it into the swamps north and west of the landing before Buell arrived from Nashville with the reinforcements fell through. The battle of Shiloh dashed all southern hopes of recovering west and middle Tennessee. In terms of movement, both General Johnston and Buearegard have both been somewhat blamed for not moving sooner and more rapidly to Corinth to attack the Federals in Pittsburgh Landing., which would have enabled them to anticipate General Buell's junction with General Grant.1 The Confederacy failed to plan for the worst and allowed them enough time; if General Van Dorn arrived on time to aid the Confederate troop, the result at Shiloh might have been different. He was, unfortunately for the Confederates, delayed by high waters, and arrived at Memphis three days after the battle of Shiloh.2 Also, the attack formations of the Confederate side bore too much on the Federal left. This brought the Confederates into close proximity with the Tennessee River, where two enemy gunboats engaged the right flank of the Confederates.3 The Union side was also at an advantage over the confederate side due to their superior tactics.
             The Union victories at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in February 1862 open the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers to Union gunboats. Major General Ulysses S. Grant's army went south to the Pittsburgh Landing area on the west bank of the Tennessee River, about twenty-two miles northwest of Corinth in mid-March.4 This was done to land as close as possible to the railroad intersection at Corinth.