halleck who commanded from st. louis. and he had four field armies maneuvering against the western confederate forces under the supreme western commander in the west for the confederacy, albert sydney johnston. so johnston not only had this federal force encamped, now disembarked at pittsburgh landing in close proximity to his railroad and the corinth junction, but he had three additional union armies pressuring his defenses. he had one in arkansas. he had pope on the river, had just taken new madrid. grant's force here, and don carlos buell of the army of the ohio, which had entered nashville and was maneuvering through middle tennessee. halleck had ordered a concentration of grants force with buell. the plan would be once the two armies were within supporting distance, then halleck would come into the field from st. louis, take command of the whole, and they would carry out the mission of cutting the vital railroads. to the that, they knew they would probably have to contest with the principle army in the west for the c

and he is not going to do that, because halleck was so adamant that they wait, they wait, they wait. 10 the federals totally misread the fact that johnston by the evening of april 5th has roughly 44,000 men positioned to attack the union forces at pittsburgh landing. if the federal picket front had been pushed in slowly over the course of the last two days to where it was in closer proximity to the union front than when it began, the confederate buildup and the union forces were still lulled into a sense of safety, everything was all secure, at least the high command, there were men in the ranks, there were officers in the ranks who were of different opinion. one of them was a brigade commander under benjamin friend tis. his name was colonel everett peabody. on the morning of april 6th, 1862, peabody violates orders and orders out a combat reconnaissance, because he is fearful that there is something in front of them based upon the way he is reading the intelligence, and he is not going to be -- his brigade, his brigade is not going to be caught unawares. and he sends out a combat re