Great entry level civil war book.
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If one is looking for a detailed treatment of the battle, this is not the book. Although it does cover the first day's action, albeit in a general sense, much time is spent in presenting the career of Grant prior to the battle, even going as far back as his youth. Other main characters are treated similarly though not as exhaustively. Curiously, this approach generates an easy-to-read opus that presents the scope and importance of the battle rather nicely but refrains from being pedantic or boring. Though not for the serious historian, it makes a fine introduction to the the strategy and major players in the Western Theater in 1862. ( )

I was attracted to this book due to my interest in the US Civil War and a delightful extended road trip across most of the eastern (north of Virginia) and the western battle sites. Shiloh and Fort Donelson haunted me. The terrain at Shiloh was surely antithetical to combat, hemmed in, hilly and rugged and the terrifying ‘Hornet’s Nest’ dense bush, we were treated to a whole day walking through it in the company of an amazingly knowledgeable guide. Fort Donelson is nearby, also in Tennessee, then referred to as the west, and haunted me for its beauty. It is on the banks of the Cumberland.

I believe the causalities at Shiloh were more than double in the war then to date - and that included Manassas, or Bull Run, depending on one’s sympathies.

Shiloh, or Pittsburgh Landing, was and is still isolated and likely why so well preserved.

This is good book but not great. I have recently read some military history books, around the Pacific campaign in WWII, that were truly wonderful and emotionally gut wrenching. This was, ‘merely’, good. But well worth it.

There are interesting characters that served on those terrible two days at Shiloh - the Welshman Henry Morton Stanley, a lowly Confederate infantryman, who discovered Dr Livingston in modern day Tanzania and the Union general Lew Wallace who wrote ‘Ben Hur’ purportedly based partly on Shiloh.

It’s interesting for me to surmise that while this cataclysm was happening in the ‘united’ States my own adopted country was close to its creation - as a Confederation but remaining a British dominion. I am sure that our key founder, the redoubtable Sir John A, also like USS Grant, a prodigious drinker - liked south and recognized that we, Canada, needed a different form of government. A strong centralized one.

Excuse, my sentimental rambles.

Oh, and visit Shiloh and Donelson. ( )

There was much that I found to enjoy in this book. The author tells a great story using many primary sources to give the reader a good idea of what it was like for the men who fought in the battle of Shiloh. He particularly focuses on the letters and diaries of enlisted men who were in the thick of the fighting.
Shiloh was a very significant battle and much has been written about it. The author points out that there were more casualties in this battle than in the American Revolution, the War of 1812 and the Mexican War combined. The book is about 400 pages and the narrative of the battle starts about one-half way through the book. The introduction to the battle is very helpful to understanding why it was such an important event. One of the stories in the book I enjoyed concerned Grant during the Mexican War. This incident is in Grant's memoirs and told about Grant riding Indian style on the side of a horse as he races through the streets of a small town in Mexico to get ammunition for his men.
In writing about the battle the author emphasizes the lack of training the soldiers had, particularly the Southern soldiers. Many of them had only been in the army a matter of weeks and the fight between the two armies quickly became a "soldier's battle". It resembled a rugby scrum with very little use of battle formations. The Northern soldiers may have had a little more experience but the Confederates made up for it with their experience using a rifle and their savage fighting style.
The Southern commanding general was killed in the afternoon of the first day of the battle. Grant was all over the field that day on the Northern side trying to keep his army together while he was waiting for reinforcements. By the afternoon of the second day the Southern army was described by one of their officers as a wet pile of sugar ready to fall apart. P. G. T. Beauregard, who took command of the Southern army made a decision to take his army off of the field. The description of the battlefield littered with the bodies of dead and wounded men was realistically graphic.
The book was well written and covered many aspects of military life during the Civil War. On the negative side I felt there were some glaring mistakes that make it hard for me to recommend it. The one example that sticks in my mind involves Lincoln's suspension of the writ of habeas corpus during the war. The author wrote that Lincoln suspended the Bill of Rights. I find it hard to understand how a mistake like that made it through to publication. There is a lot of difference between the Bill of Rights and the writ of habeas corpus. There were other similar mistakes that make it difficult for me to rely on the rest of what the author wrote and recommend this as a history book. There were statements made by the author that I felt were exaggerated to puff up the importance of the book. The academic world is very competitive and maybe the author tried just a little too hard to make his book attractive to the reader. Maybe I am being too picky. You are welcome to read the book and decide. ( )

A very readable and well organized narrative of one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. Well documented and researched. Especially readable due to using written accounts of participants as key vehicles.

I will be visiting this battlefield in just over a month. Reading this work will give me perspective and insight. ( )