Surrender in the Thicket

Surrender in the Thicket. . The thicket in front to your right and topping the ridge to your far right contains part of the battlefield location named the "Hornets' Nest” by Confederate survivors. Here, for eight hours on the first day of battle, Union infantry and artillery thwarted several piecemeal Confederate frontal assaults, inflicting heavy çasualties. Eventually, the Confederates brought cannons from eleven field batteries to pound the thicket while their infantry pressed its flanks. When the Union's left and right wings retired to form a new defensive line, troops defending the thicket became exposed to encirclement. As Confederate forces converged, firing from all directions, many of the Union defenders escaped the closing trap, but more than 2,250 men were forced to surrender. Walk down the trail in front of you to visit the surrender site., Although we had surrendered, we were not free from rebel bullets, for troops coming in sight of us, even at long distance, would fire shots and sometimes volleys at us, and a number of men were killed and wounded here. , Sergeant Benjamin F. Thomas , Co. G, 14th lowa Infantry, (captions) , General Benjamin Prentiss was among the Union soldiers captured in the Hornets' Nest., 1 . Confederate forces surround and capture General Prentiss and more than 2,250 Union troops. , 2 . The bulk of Grant's army retires north to form a new defensive line extending west from Pittsburg Landing.