Existing comment:
Grant's Last Line
The first day of fighting had been disastrous for General Grant's Union Army of the Tennessee. At daybreak the Confederates surprised many of the Federals in their tents. Hastily-formed lines of defense broke. Casualties multiplied. More than 2,000 men surrendered. Reinforcements arrived late. At day's end, Grant's army had fallen back to this high ground -- his last line.
That evening Union reinforcements arrived, and on the second day fortunes reversed. Grant's desperate "last line" became a strong attack position. The bolstered Union forces pushed the Confederates back to the southwestern end of the battlefield near Shiloh Church. |