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The Battle of Shiloh, fought on April 6-7, 1862, in south central Tennessee, was the largest engagement of the Civil War up to its time and remains one of the most important and pivotal in that conflict. The Union Army, commanded by U.S. Grant, defeated an attacking Confederate force let by Albert Sidney Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard. Johnston was killed leading his troops early in the afternoon of April 6. There is a substantial literature about the battle, including book length studies by Sword, Daniel, Cunningham, and McDonough, even if not as extensive as the writing about Gettysburg or a small number of other Civil War engagements.
"Shiloh: Conquer or Perish" (2014) by Timothy Smith is the latest book that studies the battle in detail. Smith, a former Park Ranger at Shiloh, teaches history at the University of Tennessee at Martin. He has written essays and prior studies about Shiloh and the battlefield from which I have learned a great deal. His new book lays claim to becoming the authoritative account of the battle. The book is detailed, closely-written and scholarly. The book includes an extensive bibliography which shows the breadth of the literature about the battle. The book also includes twenty maps which cover specific aspects of the battle together with a good insert of battle-related photographs.
U.S. Grant wrote that no battle of the Civil War had been so misunderstood as Shiloh. Smith's book shows why the battle is difficult to follow and to understand while at the same time he clearly leads the reader through the thicket. Smith emphasizes the critical role the thicket of Shiloh -- or more broadly its tangled geography of hills, underbrush, forests, ravines, rivers, and more -- played in the way the Battle was fought and in its outcome. The April 6 fighting, in terms of the Confederate attack and the subsequent fighting was disjointed and poorly coordinated, largely as a result of geography. Smith discusses separately and at length the actions on the left, center, and right of the Union line early in the battle. He continues this discussion of the separate fronts of the battle as the April 6 action developed. His discussion is helpful in understanding the flow and nature of the fighting in comparison to the other accounts I have read. I found it increased both my strategical and tactical awareness of the way the battle was conceived and fought. Most recent studies of Shiloh, including Smith's earlier work, emphasize the fighting on the right and left of the line and tend to minimize the importance of fighting in the center at the famous Hornet's Nest. Smith's book continues this trend; but, as I understand it, balances some of the recent studies to give back to the stand at the Hornet's Nest some of the importance denied in earlier revisionist studies of Shiloh.
In addition to giving a clear account of the confusing fighting on April 6, Smith's book spends a great deal of time exploring the fighting on April 7. Most prior studies deal in a cursory way with the second day of Shiloh, which resulted in the Confederate retreat from the field. Smith examines April 7 and detail and offers many insights. Most importantly, Smith argues that the battle had not been fully decided by the action on April 6. He argues that Grant carefully prepared on the evening of April 6 for the actions of the following day while Beauregard did little. As a result, the Union recaptured much of the most challenging terrain of the field without a contest. Smith also examines the fighting on April 7 and concludes that the Confederates fought well and aggressively once they were organized. Smith gives much credit to Lew Wallace for his role in turning the flank on April 7. Lew Wallace, frequently maligned for his role at Shiloh, emerges as one of the heroes in Smith's account.
Smith offers his own carefully considered views on issues that will be familiar to students of Shiloh. For example Smith explores thoroughly the extent to which the Union Army and its top leadership was surprised by and unprepared for the Confederate attack on the morning of April 6. His treatment of this question is fair and judicious. Smith explores the relationship between Johnston and Beauregard, the impact of Johnston's death on the subsequent course of the battle, Beauregard's decision to halt the Confederate attack on the evening of April 6, Lew Wallace's tardy arrival on the battlefield, the relative importance of the Hornet's Nest, mentioned above, and more. Late in the book, Smith considers the impact of Johnston's death on the future war fortunes of the Confederacy. He sees Johnston's injunction to his troops to "conquer of perish" emblematic of the battle and of Johnston's and the Confederacy's own fates. The more familiarity a reader brings to Shiloh and to the Civil War, the more the reader will be able to engage with Smith's book.
There are many ways to study history and the American Civil War. Some writers focus on broad political and military trends while others take a smaller area of study and explore it in detail. Smith has taken on the whole the latter course. He is in love with Shiloh and the battlefield and has spent his career exploring and writing about it. He has written an outstanding book for readers interested in Shiloh, the western theater of the Civil War, and the Civil War in its entirety.
