Editing Battle of Shiloh (section)

===Sunken Road and Hornet's Nest===
[[File:BattleOfShilohGrantSituation.png|thumb|upright=1.5|Grant's right and left were pushed back|alt=Grant's situation at noon: right and left pushed back, center holding, Lew Wallace's division absent, Buell's army miles north]]
The Sunken Road was an old wagon track called "an abandoned road" in the only time it was mentioned in the [[Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies|''Official Records'']]. From west to east, it ran from Duncan Field to a peach orchard (eventually known as "the Peach Orchard") at the Hamburg-Savannah Road.<ref name="Cunningham240">{{harvnb|Cunningham|2009|p=240}}</ref> The old wagon track was so worn and washed–over that it had an embankment that ranged from a few inches (7.6&nbsp;cm) to supposedly {{convert|3|ft|m|spell=in}}. This ready-made entrenchment received the name "Sunken Road" in post-war years.<ref name="Daniel203">{{harvnb|Daniel|1997|p=203}}</ref> Some historians doubt that the road was actually sunken. Nothing in the ''Official Records'' mentions it as sunken, and the soldier who wrote in his diary that the road was about three feet deep was in a regiment that was not close enough to the road to see it.<ref name="Cunningham241n">{{harvnb|Cunningham|2009|p=241n}}</ref> When the fighting later became heated in this area—Duncan Field, the Sunken Road, and the woods on the north side of the road—the Confederates began calling it the Hornets Nest.<ref name="Cunningham241">{{harvnb|Cunningham|2009|p=241}}</ref>

At the beginning of the day, Prentiss had 7,545 men present for duty.<ref name="Daniel322"/> By the time he moved back to Barnes Field near the Hamburg-Purdy Road, after casualties and men that ran away, he had only 600 men and portions of two batteries.<ref name="Daniel202-203">{{harvnb|Daniel|1997|pp=202–203}}</ref> He deployed his men near the divisions of W.H.L. Wallace and Hurlbut, along the Sunken Road. Grant reinforced Prentiss with 600 men from the [[23rd Missouri Infantry Regiment]], which had disembarked from Pittsburg Landing a few hours earlier. Grant visited the 1,200-man force, and told Prentiss to "hold at all hazards".<ref name="Daniel202-203"/>

The Union troops along the Sunken Road were protected by hickory and oak trees.<ref name="Cunningham241"/> Some Union troops at this location had modern (for 1862) weapons and fences for shelter, while some of the Confederate attacks were across open ground. These factors combined to make frontal assaults difficult for the Confederate attackers.<ref name="Gudmens26">{{harvnb|Gudmens|Combat Studies Institute (U.S.), Staff Ride Team|2005|p=26}}</ref> One attack was led by Confederate division commander [[Benjamin F. Cheatham]], and his Second Brigade was thoroughly repelled.<ref name="Cunningham246">{{harvnb|Cunningham|2009|p=246}}</ref> Southeast of the Sunken Road, Stuart still held the Union left. The Confederate brigades commanded by brigadier generals James R. Chalmers and [[John K. Jackson]] attacked Stuart's three regiments. The intensity of the fight increased around 11:15{{nbsp}}am, causing most of the [[71st Ohio Infantry Regiment]] to flee to the rear.<ref name="Cunningham211">{{harvnb|Cunningham|2009|p=211}}</ref>{{#tag:ref|Colonel Rodney Mason, commander of the 71st Ohio, fled to the rear, and many of his men followed him. Lieutenant Colonel Barton S. Kyle was killed when he attempted to rally the regiment. After another incident that occurred in August 1862, Mason was [[Cashiering|cashiered]].<ref name="Cunningham211"/>|group=Note}} Stuart repositioned his remaining two regiments, but eventually they began panicking. Although Stuart restored order, he was wounded and command temporarily fell to Lieutenant Colonel [[Oscar Malmborg]].<ref name="Cunningham212">{{harvnb|Cunningham|2009|p=212}}</ref>