The fighting 243With reinforcements from Buell's
command, Grant seized the initiative early
the next morning, attacking and eventually
sweeping the field by afternoon. Sherman
then attempted to organize an effective
pursuit, but it was too late. The Federals
were as confused in victory as the Rebels
were in defeat.
What Grant won on the battlefield at
Shiloh, however, he lost in the eyes of the
Northern public. The unprepared state of the
army, and the massive casualties at Shiloh,
over 13,000 on the Union side and
10,600 Confederates in two days, appalled
Northerners, and cries for Grant's removal
radiated from all around the country. Halleck
stepped in, stilling the public clamor against
Grant but also displacing him. While
Grant stewed in his nominal post of
second-in-command. Halleck cautiously
maneuvered his ponderous army of over
100,000 and eventually occupied Corinth.
By mid-June 1862, the Union had
achieved extraordinary success in the West.
Kentucky and central and western Tennessee
had fallen into Union hands, as had a part of
northern Mississippi. Brigadier-General John
Pope had crushed Rebel defenses at New
Madrid, Missouri, and Island No, 10,
removing obstacles to Mississippi River
passage all the way down to northern
Mississippi. Naval forces advancing
downriver blasted past Fort Pillow, and by
early June they had shelled Memphis into
submission. Farther to the south, a Union
fleet led by David Farragut had pounded its
way upriver and compelled the
Confederacy's largest city, New Orleans, to
surrender. Occupation troops followed.
When Lincoln called Halleck to
Washington as commanding general the
following month, it looked on the surface as
if the Confederacy in the west was in dire
straits. But before Halleck left, he slowed the
advance and began to consolidate Federal
gains, dispersing his massive army for some
occupation duty and an advance under
Buell on Chattanooga, Tennessee. It did
not take long for the initiative to shift to
the Confederacy.
Admiral David Farragut became the first great naval hero
for the United States in the war. A bold commander
Farragut forced his fleet up the Mississippi River and
compelled New Orleans to surrender in 1862. Later
he forced his way into Mobile Bay and closed a
valuable Confederate port. (Library of Congress)After Johnston's death, his
second-in-command, General P. G. T.
Beauregard, took over. Beauregard
successfully evacuated Corinth, but then
took an unauthorized leave when he fell ill.
Confederate President Davis, already irritated
with Beauregard for his unprofessional
conduct in Virginia, used this as the basis for
Beauregard's replacement. Davis chose
General Braxton Bragg, a Mexican War hero
with a reputation for quarrelsomeness, as the
new commander.
Confederate cavalrymen in the area
taught Bragg a valuable lesson. While Buell's
army crept east toward Chattanooga,
Forrest's cavalry struck his railroad supply
line, and later another mounted raid under
Kentuckian John Hunt Morgan did so as
well. Both Rebel horsemen made Buell's life
extremely difficult. Bragg realized that a
larger, coordinated movement in the Federal
rear might wreak havoc on Federal troops in