Hey everyone, welcome to episode 112 of our Civil War Podcast.

My name is Rich.

And I'm Tracy. Hello y'all. Thanks for tuning into the podcast. With the last show,

we started to set the stage for the Battle of Shiloh, which took place in April 1862

along the banks of the Tennessee River at Pittsburgh Landing, some 23 miles north of the

strategic rail hub at Corinth, Mississippi.

By April 1862, Victoria's Union forces had driven the Confederates from Kentucky and

most of central and western Tennessee, had raided up the Tennessee River to Florence,

Alabama, and were preparing a conquest of the Mississippi. Meanwhile, stung by defeats

at Mill Springs and at Fort Henry and Donaldson, by the loss of Nashville and by the evacuation

of the strong point at Columbus, Kentucky, Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston was determined

to reverse the steady string of losses in the West by engaging and defeating the Federals

in a decisive battle. To that end, he called up reinforcements from across the lower south

and he and PGT Boregard ordered a concentration of Confederate forces at Corinth in northeastern

Mississippi.

Johnston and Boregard managed to gather about 42,000 Confederate troops at Corinth, but

with two federal armies, each roughly as big as his own, moving south and aiming to

link up and then march on the vital rail hub, Albert Sidney Johnston knew that his best

chance for victory was to strike first before the two enemy forces united and outnumbered

him by two to one. If Johnston simply sat passively at Corinth, waiting for the federal

juggernaut to arrive outside the town, then it was likely the Yankees would use their superior

numbers to cut the Memphis and Charleston railroad, both east and west of Corinth, and

...