Ulysses S. Grant was in the American Civil War.
The Battle of Shiloh , also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing , was a major battle in the Western Theater of the American Civil War , fought April 6 -- 7 , 1862 , in southwestern Tennessee . A Union force known as the Army of the Tennessee under Major General Ulysses S. Grant had moved via the Tennessee River deep into Tennessee and was encamped principally at Pittsburg Landing , Tennessee on the west bank of that river , where the Confederate Army of Mississippi , under General Albert Sidney Johnston and second-in-command P. G. T. Beauregard , launched a surprise attack on Grant 's army from its base in Corinth , Mississippi . The Chattanooga Campaign was a series of maneuvers and battles in October and November 1863 , during the American Civil War . Ulysses S. Grant . In 1862 , Grant took control of Kentucky and most of Tennessee , and led Union forces to victory in the Battle of Shiloh , earning a reputation as an aggressive commander .