Colorful, dramatic, blundering, and tragic - these are some of the
adjectives that have been applied to the two-day engagement at
Shiloh. This battle, which bears the biblical name meaning "place
of peace," was one of the bloodiest encounters of the Civil War.
The Union colonel, whose words give the present book its title,
foretold the losses when he told his men: "Fill your canteens Boys!
Some of you will be in hell before night...." Fought in the early
spring of 1862 on the west bank of the Mississippi state line,
Shiloh was, up to that time, the biggest battle of American
history. One hundred thousand men were involved, and major Civil
War commanders such as Grant, Sherman, Johnston, Beauregard, Bragg,
and Forrest participated. The battle took the life of Johnston and
it left a lasting impact on the reputation of other commanders.
More-over, it played a significant role in the campaign for control
of the Mississippi Valley. Although hundreds of books have been
written about the Civil War and its battle, questions about the
disorganized struggle at Shiloh have continued to perplex
historians. Why was Grant absent when his army was attacked? Why
did Grant and Sherman apparently ignore evidence of a Confederate
advance? What happened to Lew Wallace that he never got his
division into the fight on the first day of battle? Why did it take
the Rebels so long to make their way from Corinth to the
battlefield? Did the Rebels really have a distinct opportunity to
win the battle, as it seems in retrospect, or were they doomed from
the start? Were Johnston and Beauregard working at cross-purposes?
Shiloh-In Hell Before Night provides answers or clues to answers of
clues to answers for these and other questions arising from this
controversial engagement. The author tells his story by placing
Shiloh in the larger context of the war and by exploring the very
personal side of the conflict through the words of the Union and
Confederate participants, officers and common soldiers alike.
Touches of humor and even or romance are revealed in the midst of
the carnage, but the overriding element is the specter of death.
Among those who survived, the soldiers who had been eager to "see
the elephant," as they commonly referred to combat, could never
again feel so eager for a fight. James Lee McDonough is professor
of history at Auburn University, and the author of Stones River -
Bloody Winter in Tennessee, Chattanooga - A Death Grip on the
Confederacy, and the co-author of Five Tragic Hours: The Battle of
Franklin.
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