The Confederate attack was splendidly gallant and at first pushed
home regardless of loss. The ground was confusing to both sides:
a bewilderment of ups and downs, of underbrush, woods, fields,
and clumps of trees, criss-cross paths, small creeks, ravines,
and swamps, without a single commanding height or any outstanding
features except the two big creeks, the river, and the Pittsburg
Landing.

At the first signs of a big battle Grant hurried to the field,
first sending a note to Buell, whom he was to have met at
Savannah, then touching at Crump's Landing on the way, to see Lew
Wallace and make sure whether this, and not the Pittsburg
Landing, was the point of attack. Arrived on the field of Shiloh,
calm and determined as ever, he was reassured by finding how well
Sherman was holding his raw troops in hand at the extremely
important point of Shiloh itself, next to Owl Creek.

But elsewhere the prospect was not encouraging, though the men
got under arms very fast and most of them fought very well. The
eager gray lines kept pressing on like the rising tide of an
angry sea, dashing in fury against all obstructing fronts and
swirling round the disconnecting flanks. The blue lines, for the
most part, resisted till the swift gray tide threatened to cut
them off. Half of Prentiss's remaining men were in fact cut off
that afternoon and forced to surrender with their chief, whose
conduct, like their own, was worthy of all praise. Back and still
back the blue lines went before the encroaching gray, each losing
heavily by sheer hard fighting at the front and streams of
stragglers running towards the rear.