Bjorn Skaptason on The Battle of Shiloh 

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 At the outset of the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862, the Confederates had high hopes for an important strategic victory. They aimed to block the Union advance into Mississippi, and early in the battle, it seemed that they might succeed. 

As night fell on the first day of battle, General Pierre G. T. Beauregard, who took command after General Albert Sidney Johnston was shot and died, believed his army was victorious. In what might have been his fatal error, he called a halt to the attacks as darkness approached. 

What he didn’t know was that, during the night, thousands of additional Union troops arrived to reinforce Ulysses S. Grant’s battered army. By daybreak, Federal forces numbered nearly 54,000 men near Pittsburg Landing, an advantage of 24,000 men over Beauregard’s army. The greater numbers, and the tactical advantage they provided, proved to be decisive. 

Bjorn Skaptason holds degrees from the University of Kansas and Loyola University Chicago. He worked as a seasonal ranger at the National Park Service's Shiloh National Military Park and Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center for two summers while studying history at Loyola. Bjorn has published essays on Ambrose Bierce at Shiloh for the Ambrose Bierce Project Journal, on the United States Colored Troops in the campaign and battle of Brice's Crossroads for the West Tennessee Historical Society Papers, and 2 

in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society on The Chicago Light Artillery. A dealer in antiquarian books, Bjorn produced and guest hosted "A House Divided," a live book discussion program webcast from Abraham Lincoln Book Shop in Chicago.