Around the turn of the last century, feelings of patriotism, nationalism, and sectional reconciliation swept the United States and led to a nationwide memorialization of American military history in general and the Civil War in particular. The 1894 establishment of the Shiloh National Military Park, for example, grew out of an effort by veterans themselves to preserve and protect the site of one of the Civil War's most important engagements. Returning to the Pittsburg Landing battlefield, Shiloh veterans organized themselves to push the Federal government into establishing a park to honor both the living participants in the battle and those who died there. In a larger sense, these veterans also contributed to the contemporaneous reconciliation of the North and the South by focusing on the honor, courage, and bravery of Civil War soldiers instead of continuing divisive debates on slavery and race. This Great Battlefield of Shiloh tells the story of their efforts from the end of the battle to the park's incorporation within the National Park Service in 1933. The War Department appointed a park commission made up of veterans of the battle. This commission surveyed and mapped the field, purchased land, opened roads, marked troop positions, and established the historical interpretation of the early April 1862 battle. Many aged veterans literally gave the remainder of their lives in the effort to plan, build, and maintain Shiloh National Military Park for all veterans. By studying the establishment and administration of parks such as the one at Shiloh, the modern scholar can learn much about the mindsets of both veterans and their civilian contemporaries regarding the Civil War. This book represents an important addition to the growing body of work on the history of national remembrance.

At the mention of Shiloh, most tend to think of two particularly bloody and crucial days in April 1862. The complete story, however, encompasses much more history than that of the battle itself. While several accounts have taken a comprehensive approach to Shiloh, significant gaps still remain in the collective understanding of the battle and battlefield. In The Untold Story of Shiloh, Timothy B. Smith fills in those gaps, looking beyond two days of battle and offering unique insight into the history of unexplored periods and topics concerning the Battle of Shiloh and the Shiloh National Military Park. This collection of essays, some previously unpublished, tackles a diverse range of subjects, including Shiloh's historiography, the myths about the battle that were created, and the mindsets that were established after the battle. The book reveals neglected military aspects of the battle, such as the naval contribution, the climax of the Shiloh campaign at Corinth, and the soldiers' views of the battle. The essays also focus on the Shiloh National Military Park's establishment and continuation with particular emphasis on those who played key roles in its creation. Taken together, the essays tell the overall story of Shiloh in greater detail than ever before. General readers and historians alike will discover that The Untold Story of Shiloh is an important contribution to their understanding of this crucial episode in the Civil War. Timothy B. Smith is on staff at the Shiloh National Military Park. He is author of Champion Hill: Decisive Battle for Vicksburg and This Great Battlefield of Shiloh: History, Memory, and the Establishment of a Civil War National Military Park.

* Over 30 Large Battlefield Maps * Filled with Photos and Illustrations * Includes Google Map Links to Actual Battlefield Locations * Includes Casualty Charts and Graphs The Battle of Shiloh can be difficult to follow because, well, it was so darned messy! This was not a fight like Gettysburg or Antietam where the armies more or less knew what they were doing. With the exception of a few West Point graduates at the top of the command structure, almost everyone on the field at Shiloh was an amateur at the business of war - mostly local lawyers and politicians leading tens of thousands of their hometown boys into the gates of hell. What's amazing is the amount of damage these amateurs were able and willing to do to each other in just 18 hours or so of active fighting. For those who survived the inferno without running and without losing any important body parts, Shiloh served as an excellent on-the-job training site for many future war leaders. But they certainly left a mess for those of us writers trying to explain the battle a century or so later. For possibly that reason, many books on Shiloh tend to discuss the politics and battles leading up to Shiloh in such depth that it's not until a hundred pages or so that anyone fires a shot at Shiloh. In this book I've confined the political foreplay to the first chapter. After that we get down to the business of discussing the battle itself, in all of its confusion. I've dispensed with footnotes, since this work is not meant to be a scholarly treatise, though I can back up any part of the book with references if needed - almost all of them came from the books listed in the References section. I consider myself a "splainer" not a historian, though I love Civil War history. I admire those historians who came before me and did the in-depth research on the battle, but my object is to synthesize their findings and explain them in an interesting way that readers can understand. A pet peeve of mine with books about battles is that I'm often unsure which, if any, map relates to whatever is being discussed in the text. I hate thumbing through 20 pages to find the map that matches the text! Basically, when I'm reading about a battle, I want a map handy that shows me exactly where that location is on the battlefield, how it relates to the overall battlefield, which way the units were facing, which units were to the left or right, and what the participants looked like if any photos are available. Furthermore I'd like to be able to take those maps and walk the current battlefield, knowing what happened where and when. For that reason I've included maps in almost every chapter, all big enough to be visible from outer space. Since there weren't many photos taken of the Shiloh field after the battle, I've settled for illustrations, which are generously sprinkled throughout the book. For those of you who read this book, my goal is that you'll come away with a better understanding, not only of what happened there, but a better understanding of what it was really like for the men and boys who fought in that terrible battle at Shiloh. Jack Kunkel

A comprehensive history of the Battle of Shiloh, fought in April 1862, in southwestern Tennessee, along with an overview of the units engaged and the movements of each brigade, and losses to the army.

A comprehensive guide to Shiloh, one of the key battlefields of the Civil War, provides precise directions to all the important locations on the battlefield, along with more than forty detailed maps, vivid descriptions of the battle, and an analysis of the events of the engagement, key personalities involved, and the ultimate ramifications of the conflict. Original.

"Attack at Daylight and Whip Them: The Battle of Shiloh, April 6-7, 1862 describes the Civil War battle fought near Pittsburg Landing, and Shiloh Church in Tennessee and is also a guidebook to Shiloh National Military Park. Union army commanders Ulysses S. Grant and Don Carlos Buell defeated Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston. Shiloh was the first battle of the Civil War in which both sides lost more than 10,000 casualties."--Provided by publisher.

“A splendid analysis” of this bloody Civil War battle: “In the tradition of The Killer Angels . . . Shiloh is an excellent read.” —Houston Chronicle 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. “The bloodbath at Shiloh, Tenn. brought an end to any remaining innocence in the Civil War. The combined 23,000 casualties that the two armies inflicted on each other in two days shocked North and South alike . . . a superbly researched volume that will appeal to both the beginning Civil War reader as well as those already familiar with the course of fighting in the wooded terrain bordering the Tennessee River.” —Publishers Weekly “By juxtaposing accounts of fighting along the lines with scenes of political infighting in Washington and Richmond, Daniel shows how the politics of command, personal jealousies, piecemeal intelligence, and the skills of small-unit commanders affected the outcome of the battle.” —Library Journal “Daniel . . . exhibits balanced judgment, thorough research, and the ability to explain strategy well to the lay reader.” —Booklist “A riveting account . . . rich in anecdotal detail.” —The Plain Dealer