Shiloh - April 6, 1862 - Noon to 4:30pm

American Battlefield Trust's map of the Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee, on April 6, 1862, from Noon to 4:30pm

By the afternoon of April 6, 1862, a major Confederate victory seemed to be taking shape near Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River. Confederate Gen. Albert S. Johnston's surprise attack staggered the Federals, who struggled to piece together a defensive line in the choking woods near Shiloh Chruch. Johnston attempted to press his advantage. At one time boasting that he and his men would water their horses in the Tennessee River that evening. 

A vigorous Confederate assault on the Union right drove the Federals back toward the river. The Federal left, too, began to crumble. At the height of their success, though, Johnston was wounded in the leg. The bullet severed his femoral artery, and the overall Confederate commander bled to death on the afternoon of April 6. Command devolved to Gen. Pierre G. T. Beauregard. Beauregard, the co-victor of the First Battle of Manassas, was removed from the front, but initially kept the pressure upon the Federals. While the Confederates became focused on a group of some 6,400 Federals in an area now known as the Hornet's Nest, Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant arrived on the field and began to scratch together a final line near Pittsburg Landing. Reinforcements, too, were on the way in the form of the Union Army of the Ohio.