The American Civil War - This Mighty Scourge of War

120 The American Civil War

The largely unseasoned Confederate Army
of the Mississippi left Corinth on 3 April.
Muddy roads and the inhospitable terrain,
however, stalled the advance for two days,
forcing Beauregard to conclude that the
element of surprise had been lost. Nonsense,
Johnston remarked on the evening of
5 April, 'I would fight them if they were a
million.' The same evening Buell had made
it to Savannah, a few miles downriver from
Pittsburg Landing. The countryside around
Pittsburg Landing was cut by ravines,

The Battle of Shiloh, 6-7 April 1862

blanketed by heavy underbrush and

blossoming peach trees, and crossed by a

maze of small creeks and old wagon trails

that bisected one another. The only

distinguishing landmark was a small

Methodist church that stood near the main

road to Corinth. The church was known as

Shiloh, which in Hebrew means 'Place

of Peace.'

It was early on Palm Sunday, 6 April,

when a Union patrol ventured out toward

the woods and detected a wave of