Surrender in the Thicket

At the battlefield area called the Hornets' Nest by Confederate survivors, Union infantry and artillery held off several piecemeal Confederate frontal assaults for eight hours on the first day of battle and inflicted heavy casualties. The Confederates eventually massed cannons from eleven field batteries against the thicket while infantry pressed its flanks. After the Union's left and right wings retired to form a new defensive line, the troops defending the thicket were exposed to encirclement. As Confederate forces converged and fired from all directions, many Union defenders escaped, but more than 2,250 men were forced to surrender, including General Benjamin Prentiss. Sergeant Benjamin F. Thomas of Company G, 14th Iowa Infantry recalled that even after the surrender, troops coming in sight of the captives, even at long distance, would fire shots and sometimes volleys, killing and wounding a number of men there, while the bulk of Grant's army retired north to form a new defensive line extending west from Pittsburg Landing.

Shiloh, Tennessee · United States