Shiloh

Shiloh is a tactical level simulation of the largest single battle in U.S. military history up to that date. Before the two day battle was ended, elements of three complete armies totaling 100,000 men had participated, as well as elements of the U.S. Navy. At the end of the second day, over 23,000 men were casualties. The battle was launched by the South, hoping that the newly created Army of the Mississippi could decisively defeat the Union Army of the Tennessee before it could link up with the Army of the Ohio. Tactically, the battle was a marginal victory for Union forces, although its strategic implications were much more far-reaching. Had the South succeeded in its attempt, the state of Tennessee would have been recaptured by the Confederacy, and Union offensive power broken in the Western Theater for at least a year. A Confederate thrust into the North would have been by no means improbable. The Union victory at Shiloh, more than any other battle, sealed the Confederacy’s fate in the West.