of vindicating their
courage was felt by officers and men of the Union Army. They had fully
recovered from the effects of the surprise, and pressed forward with
zealous assurance. Before the day was done Grant had won the field and
compelled a disorderly retreat. In this battle the commander of the
Confederate army, General Albert Sidney Johnston, was killed in the
first day's fighting, the command devolving on General G. T. Beauregard.
On the first day the Union forces on the field numbered about 33,000
against the enemy's above 40,000. On the second day the Union forces
were superior. The Union losses in the two days were 1754 killed, 8408
wounded, and 2885 missing; total 13,047. Beauregard reported a total
loss of 10,694, of whom 1723 were killed. General Grant says that the
Union army buried more of the enemy's dead than is here reported in
front of Sherman's and McClernand's divisions alone, and that the total
number buried was estimated at 4000.

The battles of Shiloh and Pittsburg Landing together constitute one of
the critical conflicts of the long war. Had the Confederate success of
the first day been repeated and completed on the second day, it would
have been difficult, if not impossible, to prevent the enemy from
possessing Tennessee and a large part of Kentucky.

After this battle General Halleck came to Pittsburg Landing and took
command of all the armies in that department. Although General Grant was
second in command, he was not in General Halleck's confidence, and was
contemptuously disregarded in the direction of affairs. Halleck
proceeded to make a safe campaign against Corinth by road-building and
parallel intrenchments. He got there and captured it, indeed, having
been a month on the way, but the rebel army, with all its equipments,
guns, and stores, had escaped beforehand. Grant's position was so
embarrassing that during Halleck's advance he made several earnest
applications to be relieved. Halleck would not let him go, apparently
thinking that he needed to be instructed by an opportunity of observing
how a great soldier made war. What Grant really learned was how not to
make war.

After the fall of Corinth he was permitted to make his headquarters at
Memphis, while Halleck proceeded to construct defensive works on an
immense scale. But in July Halleck was appointed commander-in-chief of
all the armies, with his headquarters in Washington, and Grant returned
to Corinth. He was the ranking office