Shiloh Campaign: March-April 1862

Great Campaigns

by David G. Martin

The battle of Shiloh on April 6-7 1862 was the biggest battle of the Civil War up to that date; the gallant stand of the then-unknown Union General Ulysses S. Grant created a new national hero and was the turning point in the career of the Civil War's eventual victor.

Genres: History, Civil War, American Civil War, Military History, Civil War Western Theater, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published June 21, 1987

Reviews

[Sean Chick]

For what it does, this is a good introduction to Shiloh. I especially liked the tables and the sidebars.

[Jeffrey Williams]

This is a good basic overview to the Battle of Shiloh. It is especially geared towards the novice as the set up covers the first half of the book, the two day battle encompasses the next 3/8 with the final 1/8 handling the aftermath. It is a pretty balanced layout with additional sidebar stories, photographs and maps designed to break up the text while conveying additional information.

The problem I had with this was not in the simplicity of the book but rather in the sloppiness of the editing. There were several occasions where words were misspelled, which may not have been the author's responsibility, but the overall quality suffered because of it. There were a few grammatical errors that were the author's responsibility, but weren't as noticeable as the misspelled words. Only someone who has been a writer or spent time as a copy editor would really have noticed those (as I have), so they really didn't detract from the enjoyment of this book.

It is an older book now so the material can be considered dated, as there has been a lot more historical research done on Shiloh since this was written, but the gist of the narrative hasn't changed. This book is just as valuable today as it was when it was published 30 years ago. I still give it three-stars for not being a bad book. I just feel that with a little bit more research, he could have written a more dynamic book instead of one that just barely scratched the surface and gave us another narrative largely through the eyes of the generals.

[Kendrick Hughes]

excellent review of te Shiloh campaign

[Curtiss]

This description of the campaign which culminated in the Battle of Shiloh, is a little bit of a struggle to wade through, but is full of charts, maps, and side-bar entrees on various topics.