Do you mean Tilghman Branch? It's a creek/ravine...
What if the Confederates are able to take Tilghman Bridge during the first day of Shiloh? If they do they could continue the attack, pushing Sherman and McClernand back further; possibly even forcing the Union from the field?
Do you mean Tilghman Branch? It's a creek/ravine...
There are a number of different actions the rebels could have taken at Shiloh; probably the best know is WP Johnston's
A Lost Opportunity at Shiloh concept, which called for a final assault at dusk on April 6, but there are others...
The problem, of course, is that Civil War armies were resilient; in almost every case, a force could manage a fighting withdrawal at better speed and with more coherence than the same sized force could manage an advance, much less an attack, certainly after the initial clash.
And given that, the foundational issue at Shiloh is Grant's Army of the Tennessee, on the defensive, outnumbered Johnston's Army of Tennessee by 49,000 to 45,000, and even by sundown on April 6, L. Wallace's 3rd Division (~7,600 strong) had barely been engaged and was fresh ... and the leading elements of Buell's detachment of the Army of the Ohio, ~18,000 strong, was moving onto the field the same evening.
By dawn on April 7, Grant and Buell were (as historically) capable of moving forward and sweeping what was left of the rebel army under Beauregard off the field, quite sucessfully.
Total casualties for the rebels were almost 11,000; total for the US forces were almost 13,000 ... the difference being that by the end of the day, the combined US force had some 54,000 troops; the remaining rebel force was 34,000.
If Johnston had attacked Grant sooner, before Buell was in range to reinforce, he might have done better on the battlefield, but "better" is still relative ... the US could afford to sustain losses, the rebellion could not.
Best,