April 7, 1862 Monday
During the stormy night of April 6-7 on the western bank of the Tennessee River at Pittsburg Landing more Federal troops of Don Carlos Buell joined those of Grant’s battered but stubborn army, as did the division of Lew Wallace, delayed the day before. Thus freshened with new life Grant’s forces faced the second day of Shiloh or Pittsburg Landing in better shape than their fatigued, somewhat disorganized, and equally blooded opponents. At first the Federals managed to retake most of the ground lost April 6, but near the Peach Orchard, the Confederates rallied and heavy fighting swirled back and forth. Beauregard, replacing the fallen Johnston, awaited word of reinforcements from Earl Van Dorn of the Trans-Mississippi. Word came, but it was that Van Dorn was unable to make it from Arkansas. Faced now with a greatly superior enemy, Beauregard broke off the battle and, pulling together his shattered legions, drew back slowly toward Corinth. Grant was content to reoccupy his old camps and repair the human and physical damage of battle. Then too, there was the problem of whether Grant had had the authority to order Buell’s largely unfought army forward or not. As with all the great conflicts of the war, the conflict of words long outlasted the echoes of the gunfire, but strategically Grant held the field and the Confederates went back from whence they came. For the South, which had much to gain from victory, it must be considered a defeat in its effects. For the North, a victory only in that it held what had been taken earlier, but gained little. The statistics: Federal, Grant’s Army of the Tennessee effectives put at around 42,000 plus three divisions of Buell’s Army of the Ohio totaling about 20,000; losses 1754 killed, 8408 wounded, and 2885 missing for a total of 13,047. Confederate effectives about 40,000 with 1723 killed, 8012 wounded, and 959 missing, total of 10,694. Among the dead for the South, Gen Albert Sidney Johnston, of whom much had been expected. A Northern soldier wrote, “Gentle winds of Springtime seem a sighing over a thousand new made graves.” Mrs Lincoln's half-brother, Samuel B. Todd, is mortally wounded during second day's fighting at Pittsburg Landing, Tenn. (Battle of Shiloh).
http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/sh ... hmap2.html For more than a month Gen John Pope, his army, and the Federal gunboats had been battling not only Confederate opponents but geography in the campaign at Island No 10 or New Madrid Bend, where the swamps were worth divisions to the South. With the passage of U.S.S. Carondelet below the island April 4, and followed by U.S.S. Pittsburg on April 7, Pope now had floating artillery and transportation below the strongly placed island and could launch his attack on Confederates in the Tiptonville area on the soggy mainland of Tennessee. Pounding the batteries on the Tennessee shore the gunboats forced evacuation. Pope’s troops had landed behind the Confederate defenders and blocked the only escape road. The garrison surrendered both on the mainland and at Island No 10, with the formal ceremonies April 8. Perhaps 7,000 men including Brig Gen W.W. Mackall, 25 field guns, the artillery in the batteries, small arms, and considerable ammunition and other supplies were captured. Confederate defense had not been outstanding, but the Federal victory, considering the obstacles of nature, was ably achieved. Pope, his men, the Navy, all had done well and, briefly, the North had a new hero from the West. Unfortunately the focus of the nation was on Shiloh and Virginia, and Pope’s record soon would be marred by defeat. But the Federal victory at Island No 10 was another serious break in the Confederate defense of the Mississippi River, opening the river, with only Fort Pillow in the way, to undefended Memphis and beyond. Gunboats and combined operations had again recorded an achievement that deserves rank with the major events of the Civil War.
After surrender of Island No. 10, U.S.S. Mound City, under Commander Augustus H. Kilty, seized Confederate ship Red Rover, which had been damaged by mortar fire. Temporarily repaired, Red Rover was moved to Cairo where she was converted to the Navy's first hospital ship. She joined the river fleet under Commander Pennock, on 10 June and shortly received her first patients. Red Rover was officially transferred to the Navy on 1 October 1862 and commissioned 26 December.
U.S.S. Pensacola, commanded by Captain Morris, and U.S.S. Mississippi, under Commander M. Smith, were successfully brought over the bar at the Passes and into the Mississippi River after several previous attempts to do so had met with failure. These were the two heaviest vessels ever to enter the river and figured prominently in the attack on New Orleans. "Now," Flag Officer Farragut wrote, "we are all right."
Commander Semmes' log of C.S.S. Sumter recorded: "Received a telegram from Mr. Mason [J. M. Mason, Confederate Commissioner in London] ordering me to lay the Sumter up and to permit the officers and such of the crew as prefer it to return to the Confederate States." This action in large measure was caused by a serious breakdown of Sumter's boilers at Gibraltar.
Much lesser action continued these days. In Virginia McClellan was preparing his siege lines around Yorktown to the consternation of Washington and the Administration. There was an affair at St Andrew’s Bay, Florida; a skirmish at Foy’s Plantation, North Carolina; and a small Federal expedition near Newport, North Carolina. In the Federal Congress a House committee on emancipation and colonization of Negroes was appointed. The United States signed a treaty with Great Britain for more efficient suppression of the illegal slave trade.
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