#OTD April 7, 1862 the Battle of Shiloh ends. Late on the afternoon of April 6 the first elements of Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio join Grant’s battered army, taking their place on thr army’s left.

Over the course of that rainy, miserable evening, an additional 15,000 of Buell’s army will land at Pittsburg Landing; in the morning US forces will total approx 45,000 men. Winnowed by the previous day’s heavy casualties, the Army of the MS is reduced to approx 20,000 men.

Preempting Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard own plans to continue the previous day’s assault’s (he was ignorant of Buell’s arrival), thr combined armies of Grant and Buell counterattack along the entire length of the line.

Foremost in the attack on April 7 were divisions of Wm. “Bull” Nelson (his men had taken their place on Grant’s left beginning the previous afternoon), Thos. L. Crittenden, and Alexander McD. McCook, advancing from the left of the Federal line.

The battered elements of Grant’s forces attack on the Federal right, independent of the Army of the Ohio. Only Gen. Lee Wallace’s division of Grant’s army is comparatively fresh, having spent the precious day on a circuitous march to the battlefield.

The fighting quickly reached the intensity of April 6, with Beauregard’s army proving to be every bit as stubborn on the defensive as Grant’s had been the previous day. A price of the previous day’s frenetic pace of the battle had left Rebel forces badly disorganized.

Struggling to restore unit cohesion, CS regiments were organized together ad hoc, often under unfamiliar commanders, a result of the previous day’s heavy losses among men and officers.

Nonetheless, by mid-morning Beauregard had solidified his own hard-pressed lines.

A concern for Beauregard was to maintain the security of his line of communication with Corinth. Counterattacking around Shiloh Church, the Rebels make good their tenuous hold of the Corinth Road.

Meantime, US gains on both flanks prove decisive.

With his left flank divisions pushed to the south and the divisions on his right having been prised from their hard-fought gains of Day One, Beauregard decided to begin withdrawing from the field.

The map below shows the final disposition of the Rebel forces, with a small covering force (approx 5,000 men) under Breckinridge guarding the army’s withdrawal around 5pm that evening.

Buell desires a pursuit; Grant, citing losses & exhaustion of the troops, objects.