Thunder in the Thicket

After six hours of bloody fighting, a strong Union force still held the dense oak thicket at the center of the battlefield. Confederate leaders concluded that infantry alone would not break this position and shifted artillery batteries from various parts of the field to engage it, amassing more than 50 cannons along a half-mile frontage extending south from this point, the largest concentration of field guns yet witnessed on a North American battlefield. For more than an hour, the Confederate guns pounded the thicket, pinning down the Union defenders while Confederate infantry moved to encircle them and eventually forced their surrender. Captain Francis A. Shoup, chief of artillery for Hardee's Corps, recalled gathering scattered fragments of batteries under cover of woods beyond a field until all were ready, then opening a coordinated fire. The enemy's right gave way, but the center and left held.

Shiloh, Tennessee · United States