Nine Months To Shiloh:

Illinois Soldiers' Experiences From Enlistment Through Pittsburg Landing

If any battle in the Civil War could be called an Illinois battle, it would be the Battle of Shiloh at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee. Troops and generals from Illinois dominated the Union Army of the Tennessee. Illinois fielded twenty-eight of the forty-eight infantry regiments, ten of nineteen artillery batteries, and six of nine cavalry detachments. Of the 10,162 soldiers killed or wounded in the battle, 3,957, or thirty-nine percent, were from Illinois. On the first day of battle, five divisions of the Army of the Tennessee participated. Four of those five divisions were commanded by generals from Illinois. In addition, the army's commanding general, Major General Ulysses S. Grant, hailed from Illinois.

This paper examines the experiences of Illinois soldiers from those divisions. The tale begins when they each enlist in their home towns throughout the state, follows them as they wait at Cairo, fight at Belmont, or float down the Tennessee River to Fort McHenry. It concludes with those dramatic two days in the woods just west of Pittsburg Landing in southern Tennessee - where a patchwork of men and machines was forged into a fighting army.

If, at any time while you are reading these stories, you have comments or questions about the work or research, please feel free to contact the author.

  Click here to email Van O. Furrh 

Thank you for your interest. I hope you find this reading both enjoyable and edifying. If you find information that you wish to cite, please use the following information:

Furrh, Van O. Nine Months To Shiloh: Illinois Soldiers' Experiences From Enlistment Through Pittsburg Landing. Normal, Illinois: Illinois State University Graduate College, 2005.

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