The combined Confederate forces under Beauregard and Johnston surprise Grant's unprepared Army of West Tennessee with a massive dawn assault at Pittsburg Landing in the Battle of Shiloh on April 6.

In the first day of the battle, the Confederate onslaught drives Grant back against the Tennessee but cannot defeat him.

Johnston is mortally wounded leading an infantry charge on this day; he is considered by Jefferson Davis to be the most effective general in the Confederacy at this time.

Grant, supported by Buell's Army of the Ohio and a division under Major General Lewis “Lew” Wallace, defeats Confederate forces under General Beauregard at Shiloh (Pittsburg Landing), Tennessee, in the struggle for control of the Upper Mississippi.

On the second day of the Battle of Shiloh, April 7, Grant receives reinforcements from Buell and launched a counterattack that drives back the Confederates.

Grant fails to pursue the retreating enemy and will receive enormous criticism for this and for the great loss of life—more casualties (almost twenty-four thousand) than all previous American battles combined on the Battle of Shiloh.

Although the 61,681 Union troops far outnumbered the 40,335 Confederates, the casualties on both sides are relatively equal.

The Union ranks suffer 1,754 killed, 8,408 wounded, and 2,885 missing, while the Confederates list 1,773 killed, 8,012 wounded, and 959 missing.

Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Major General Lew Wallace is published on November 12, 1880 by Harper & Brothers.

It is the best-selling American novel from the time of its publication, superseding Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852).

It will remain at the top until the publication of Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind (1936).

Following release of the 1959 MGM film adaptation of Ben-Hur, which will be seen by tens of millions and win eleven Academy Awards in 1960, book sales will surpass those of Gone with the Wind.

Blessed by Pope Leo XIII, the novel is the first work of fiction to be so honored.

Wallace had resigned from the Union army on November 30, 1865 and, after war's end, had continued to try to help the Mexican army expel the French, and was offered a major general's commission in the Mexican army.

Multiple promises by the Mexicans were never delivered upon, forcing Wallace into deep financial debt.

Wallace holds a number of important political posts during the 1870s and 1880s.

He serves as the appointed governor of New Mexico Territory from 1878 to 1881, during a time of violence and political corruption.