CHAPTER XVI
The Battle of Shiloh.—1862
GENERAL A. S. JOHNSTON had fallen back at
first from Nashville in a southeasterly direction, to
Murfreesboro', where he strengthened his force by
reinforcements from Kentucky and Tennessee to the number
of nineteen thousand, and then moved by rail to the
Memphis & Charleston Railroad and over this road to its
junction with the Mobile & Ohio Railroad at Corinth, in
the northeast corner of Mississippi. This railroad centre
was selected as the point of concentration for all the available
rebel forces west of the Appalachian Mountains, as
from it they could be readily used for the protection of
both the middle rebel States and the Mississippi Valley.
At Corinth, Johnston found General Beauregard with ten
thousand men, and their united command continued to
receive accessions. The Union commanders became aware
of the proposed rebel concentration early in March, and
decided upon their future operations accordingly.
Very strong opinions have been expressed by competent critics, during and since the war, that it was a grave mistake of our military leaders to make for the point chosen by the enemy instead of drawing him away from it by strategic moves and compelling him to meet them upon a field chosen by themselves. It is not for me, however, to discuss the merits or demerits of what was to be known as the Shiloh campaign, but simply to record the fact that Generals Halleck and Buell reached an understanding that the latter's army should join that of General Grant at Savannah on the Tennessee River. The operations of the united armies were to be conducted under the chief
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