By April 1862, both the Union and the Confederacy had realized that the war would not be a single, glorious battle. The Union’s Army of the Tennessee, under General Ulysses S. Grant, had captured Forts Henry and Donelson, driving deep into Confederate territory. Grant’s army was a collection of eager but raw regiments; many soldiers had never fired a weapon in combat. On the Confederate side, General Albert Sidney Johnston gathered a motley force at Corinth, Mississippi, composed of units from across the South—many of whom were equally inexperienced. These men were “desperate” not only because they faced annihilation, but because they were amateurs in the most literal sense: they lacked drill, discipline, and the psychological hardening required to withstand massed artillery and rifled musket fire.
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