The Union troops of the Army of the Tennessee, under the overall command of Major General Ulysses S. Grant, were camped by division in the area between Pittsburg Landing and Shiloh Church.
Second Division was commanded by Brigadier General W. H. L. Wallace, and was composed of the Colonel James M. Tuttle's First Brigade, Brigadier General John McAurther's Second Brigade, Colonel T. W. Sweeney's Third Brigade, and several accompanying artillery and cavalry units.
Third Division, under the command of Major General Lewis Wallace, was encamped several miles to the N at Crump's Landing.
Fourth Division was commanded by Brigadier General S. A. Hurlbut, and was composed of the Colonel N. G. Williams' First Brigade, Colonel James C. Veatch's Second Brigade, Brigadier General J. G. Lauman's Third Brigade, and several accompanying artillery and cavalry units.
Fifth Division was commanded by Brigadier General William T. Sherman, and was composed of the Colonel J. A. McDowell's First Brigade, Colonel David Stuart's Second Brigade, Colonel J. Hildebrand's Third Brigade, and several accompanying artillery and cavalry units.
Sherman's brigades were the first to be deployed at Pittsburg Landing. They were situated to cover the three primary approaches to the area, accounting for the separated locales for the three brigades: Stuart's Brigade 1 1/2 miles south of the landing along the Hamburg-Savannah Road, with picketts a mile farther SE to cover the Lick Creek ford. The division's other two brigades camped 1 1/2 miles W, around Shiloh Church, to cover the Corinth-Pittsburg Landing Road and the Hamburg-Purdy Road bridge over Owl Creek.
Sixth Division was commanded by Brigadier General Benjamin M. Prentiss, and was composed of the Colonel Everett Peabody's First Brigade, Colonel Madison Miller's Second Brigade, and several accompanying infantry, artillery and cavalry units.
Prentiss's brigades situated themselves between the eastern and western positions of Sherman's Fifth Division, leaving gaps to these units of several hundred yards at each end of their encampment. With respect to the presummed location of the nearest Confederate troops, Prentiss's Sixth division occupied the most advanced position of all the Union camps at Pittsburg Landing.