The first full-length history of this epic Civil War battle in two
decades delivers Homeric gore minus the sweep and poetry. Granted,
Daniel (History/Murray State Univ.) isn't trying to be Homer. His
densely annotated study is a solid, even remarkable piece of
scholarly reconstruction that stresses historical preciseness over
drama, right down to its frequent, often clinical descriptions of
wounds. The human dimension of the first large-scale slaughter of
Americans by Americans remains strangely and unfortunately muted,
buried beneath an avalanche of facts and figures documenting troop
strength and tactical maneuvers. Telling details, like a rebel
soldier's recollection of shivering in his tent on the eve of
battle as a band played "Home Sweet Home" in the nearby Union camp,
are too few and far between. Daniel's explication of the egotism,
self-interest, and insecurity that hindered the judgment of both
Union and Confederate commanders and the politics that guided
staffing and strategy textures the blow-by-blow tactical commentary
with some human interest. The inclusion of so many minor figures,
while confusing, also shorts in-depth analyses of major players
like Union general Ulysses Grant, who remains remote. Daniel's
major accomplishment is that he effectively dramatizes the chaos of
war - the traffic jams, bungled orders, and terror-stricken
confusion that constitute the ragged improvisation of battle. But
Daniel too often fails to rise above that chaos, miring the reader
in it as well. Stepping back more frequently to add analyses to the
description would provide badly needed perspective and scope,
making the account more accessible to novices who don't know a
regiment from a brigade. Though he purports to settle differences
among historians, Daniel's tone is closer to mediation than
finality. Exhaustive but workmanlike, this will be of interest to
academics and hard-core Civil War buffs. (Kirkus Reviews)
The battle of Shiloh, fought in April 1862 in the wilderness of south central Tennessee, marked a savage turning point in the Civil War. In this masterful book, Larry Daniel re-creates the drama and the horror of the battle and discusses in authoritative detail the political and military policies that led to Shiloh, the personalities of those who formulated and executed the battle plans, the fateful misjudgments made on both sides, and the heroism of the small-unit leaders and ordinary soldiers who manned the battlefield.
General
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