Despite the fact that the war had unexpectedly lasted for a solid year by April of 1862, the fighting to this point had yet to reach a scale totally out of proportion to previous American wars. That was about to change. In one single, cataclysmic battle, the war's second April would reveal with appalling clarity just how horrifying war can truly be.
April 1862 would also witness the fall of the South's second largest city, the first national military draft in American history, and the start of the Civil War's transformation from a mostly limited war to the wrenching, bitter, all-consuming bloodbath that it would all too quickly become.
Shiloh - Late on the afternoon of April 7th, 1862, the Confederate Army of the Mississippi broke contact with the Union Army of the Tennessee near Pittsburg Landing, and began the slow, painful retreat back to Corinth, Mississippi. Their exhausted Union opponents were more than happy to let them leave in peace. After two days and an enormous number of casualties, the battle of Shiloh was finally over.
At the time Shiloh took place, Americans North and South simply did not have a reference point for what they were reading and hearing about this battle along the Tennessee River. What they heard and read about that battle, in fact, was nearly beyond belief.
To understand the reason for this, it's necessary to put the battle in perspective. Prior to Shiloh, the largest battle in American history had been the battle of Manassas, or Bull Run as it was also known. (What we now call First Manassas or First Bull Run.) This battle, generally recognized as the first major land battle of the Civil War, had produced some 4,700 totally casualties on both sides, itself a truly astonishing number to Americans of that day. By comparison, the battle of Shiloh had produced nearly 24,000 casualties - five times those of Manassas.
Today First Manassas is generally regarded as among the smaller of the so-called major battles of the war. But Americans of 1862 did not have the perspective of the war that we have now. Up until April 1862 in fact, Manassas was not only regarded as a large and important battle, it was the largest battle in all of American history. That was the perspective of Americans at that time. So when a battle came along that not only surpassed Manassas in terms of casualties, but also surpassed those casualties five times over, it was almost more than many people could grasp.
