so we're on the corinth pittsburgh landing road having moved up from the hornet's nest capture area and the hornet's nest defensive perimeter to what was the final union position of the day on the first day known ever since as grant's last line. it's the last line of the first day's battle action. this is the line in which the divisions of sherman and mclaren and hurlburt and the remnants of prentiss and will wallace will retire to. this is the line that the hornet's nest members cut off and would have sought safety but weren't able to reach. number of troops present. grant had at least probably 25,000 men effective along the front. on his left flank in the river were the two gun boats, the lexington and tyler. they could fire three miles deep onto the plateau. so that anchored the left firmly at deal branch ravine which lay here in front of us. so this union last line has a huge ravine just immediately to the south of the left flank portion of it and then on the extreme right is that tillman branch that sherman and mclaren backed up over afternoon. he had these two prominent landscape

what the confederates were using showing corinth twice as far east to west than it was north and south from pittsburgh landing? therefore the confederate army maneuvering to a point of assembly would be moving generally from west to east, correct? more than north to south. if you have that impression and as your impression of the world, that's the impression upon which you're basing your judgments. right? terrain governs the formation and direction of battle. that's an inherent military probability. terrain governs the formation and direction of battle. all military commanders have understood that from time tested. practice. therefore, knowledge of terrain should govern the formation and direction of battle plans. see how that linkage is there? so, when johnston overrun prentice's camp in 1862, he will have brought half of his army to bear upon that union division camp, over the course of the first four hours of combat, half of the confederate army, eight of 16 brigades maneuvered to the right-wing of the confederate attacking force and that is what overruns benjamin prentice at 9:00 a.m., four brigad

the confederate perspective corinth is basically twice as far east to west than it is north to south from pittsburg landing. another intriguing thing is, notice where pittsburgh landing is in relationship to lee creek to its south and snake creek to the north. notice the landing area is shown closer to lit creek than it is to snake creek. also notice that shiloh church on the map is positioned basically slightly south but nearly due west of pittsburg landing. this is all the information they had. what's amazing is on april 3rd when beauregard and johnston sat down to discuss the now movement which had already been verbally ordered out by johnston, beauregard sat up all night writing up rough notes for special orders number 8, which was the -- which was the orders for movement and assembly of the army to do battle against grant at pittsburg landing. they didn't have a map present. beauregard had given his map to colonel tom jordan. he took those notes his general had prepared throughout the night and was finishing them off in final form so that it could be distributed amongst the corps commanders. so without a map, beauregard took a pencil and at the desk they