Much has been said of the lack of enforcements around William Tecumseh Sherman's and Benjamin Prentiss's camps (these were the two forward divisions of the Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee before the Battle of Shiloh.) Here is Sherman's explanation from his memoirs:

We did not fortify our camps against an attack, because we had no orders to do so, and because such a course would have made our raw men timid. The position was naturally strong, with Snake Creek on our right, a deep, bold stream, with a confluent (Owl Creek) to our right front; and Lick Creek, with a similar confluent, on our left, thus narrowing the space over which we could be attacked to about a mile and a half or two miles.

At a later period of the war, we could have rendered this position impregnable in one night, but at this time we did not do it, and it may be it is well we did not.

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Army of the Tennessee
Battle of Shiloh
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Civil War Encyclopedia >> Documents

Sherman's Memoirs on Shiloh was last changed on - March 14, 2007
Sherman's Memoirs on Shiloh was added in 2005