What was the North's advantages at Shiloh?

Answer 1

Surprise. The Union troops had set up camps around Pittsburg Landing and the Shiloh church. They had been there for some time and did not see any Confederates. The day before the battle, General Sherman reported that there were no Confederates as far as Corinth, MS. Early on the morning of 6 April, the Confederates attacked and overan Sherman's camp before they had time to organize a solide defense at the Sunken Road. Oops. I answered that wrong---that was the Confederates Advantage not DisAdvantage. The Confederates had to advance on Shiloh through trackless forrests. There had been heavy rains and the artillery lagged far behind the infantry. The Union arrived by troop ships that came down the Tennessee River. General Johnston requested 400 rail cars to move his men to Corinth but got only 160. The Confederates lead by General Johnston tried to bring reinforcements together from various States and areas. Many had suffered defeats at Forts Donnelson and Henry. Most of Tennessee had been taken over by Union troops, including the capitol of Nashville. Some troops did not want to serve under a different commander. The Confederates at Shiloh lacked modern rifles. Some still used flintlock rifles. Col. Zachariah Deas paid $28,000 to outfit the 22nd Alabama Regiment with Enfiled rifles. The 6th & 9th Kentucky Regiments exchanged muskets for Enfields after capturing enemy camps. Some Confederate regiments had not been trained for battle. They had just organized and were issued uniforms and rifles, but this was also true for the Union. The Confederate generals knew they had to act fast and attack Grant's Army of Tennessee before it could be reinforced with Buell's Army of Ohio.

Answer 2

Disadvantages:

1 - the Union divisions encamped without providing to reinforce their positions by field fortifications. Indeed Grant had thought to order the digging of a defensive line but his chief engineer, Col. McPherson objected that, in order to set up an effective one, the troops had to be displaced about a half mile behind from the positions they were occupying. So nothing had been done. Had Grant had more experience at that time, he wouldn't have made such a mistake.

2 -

Grant was aware that a Confederate force was coming up but, due to the superiority of Confederate cavalry he knew but very less about how strong the enemy army was and how far they were.

3 - Grant foresaw he would give battle somewhere southward before Corinth and before moving forward he waited for the Army of Ohio to come in order to match the Confederates with the highest available number of troops at his disposal. As these reinforcements were not at hand, his position was somewhat risky.

Furthermore one of the six divisions of Grant's Army, that commanded by Gen. Lewis Wallace, had been detached westward, at Crump's landing, several miles far from Pittsburg Landing.

Therefore, at the onset of the battle, the Federals could deploy about 38,000 men with 90 guns, against about 45,000 men with more than 100 cannons of the Confederates.

Advantages:

1 - The conformation of terrain made very strong the positions of both Union wings.

2 - It allowed the Confederates to attack only from the angle between the Owl Creek and the Eastern Corinth Road so that the major point of pressure would have been likely developed against the centre and the left of Union line, hindering any decisive progress against theits rightthus preventing the Confederate from reaching Pittsburg Landing, the goal which would have made them winning the battle.

3 - The control of the River Tennessee, which would have assured a quick or at least a timely intervention of the gunboats firepower to support the Federals in case of an unfavourable course of the battle and the affluence of the Ohio Army's divisions.

Answer 3

The prospect of bigreinforcements arriving from the East. They wererather late, but they did swing the battle.