Shiloh - In Hell Before Night

by James Lee McDonough

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.

Genres: Civil War, History, American Civil War, Nonfiction, Military History, Military Fiction, American History

260 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1977

About the author

James Lee McDonough is professor of history at Auburn University.

Reviews

['Aussie Rick' · Rating 3 out of 5]

I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I was prepared for another complex and hard to follow book on this battle and in this case I was wrong. It was straight forward and easy to follow. The maps could have been more detailed but other than that this was a great book on this battle. Maybe not as in depth as Larry Daniel's 'Shiloh' but much easier to read. The author also covers a number of the controversies raised by the handling of this battle by both Federal & Confederate commanders. I am looking forward to reading this author's other books.

[John Mccullough · Rating 4 out of 5]

My great-grandfather, who essentially raised my father, joined the 12th Volunteer Iowa Infantry Regiment (Company K) in November, 1861 as a corporal. By February he had participated in the successful assault on Confederate Fort Donelson. The battle was so fierce for his unit which lost many of its personnel, that he was promoted to 2nd Lt and head of the company. After Fort Donelson Grant moved the troops south to Pittsburgh Landing in Tennessee near a church named "Shiloh" in preparation to attack the Confederate forces later in April. The Confederates had other ideas and attacked the unprepared Union forces on Sunday morning, 6 April 1862. The fighting lasted 2 days until the Rebel forces retreated toward Corinth, Mississippi.

Union leaders ignored obvious signs of Rebel movement and were caught with no real plan of defence as they were planning an offensive. The 12th Iowa was camped in the northern portion of the encampment and were brought into the fight only about 2-5 hours after fighting started (depending on how it is reckoned). The regiment and other related units were placed near a "sunken" road in the middle of the battle line. Confederate forces concentrated its efforts at that point and mustered 8 charges against that point, each open of which was repulsed with horrible carnage. One person claimed that you could walk on bodies across the field from side to side without ever touching the ground, undoubtedly an exaggeration, but quite descriptive. The union position was called "The Hornet's Nest" because of the sharpness of the firing from the Union position. They were told to hold their position at all costs, and the did. Unfortunately, the Union line on their right and left did not hold and eventually they were surrounded and forced to surrender.

The next day the Union forces prevailed because of reinforcements but the combined losses of both sides in that one battle were greater than losses of US forces in all wars fought up to that time. Horrible scenes and descriptions of carnage and death, both rapid and slow, wounded and dying men laying in the woods all night, some with their intestines hanging out, while the rains came down.

I was always curious of what my great-grandfather experienced in this, his second major battle. It was awful. As an officer he was sent to Libbey Prison in Richmond, Va. When repatriated several months later he weighed 76 pounds (height was 5' 10") and his stomach was so shrunk he could only eat a quarter of a sandwich at a time. By March of the next year he and his unit were off on the Vicksburg campaign and more heavy combat, then a siege.

Shiloh was a crucial engagement because it was the South's best chance to cripple the North and humiliate military leaders who would destroy the South over the next few years. There was incompetence and stupidity as well as intelligent decision-making on both sides. There were egos to stroke and honesties to face and reality to confront. McDonough describes these all in appropriate detail.

McDonough's book is a very good overview of the battle and the personal stories of many involved, from drummer boys and buglers to generals and their families. It is well-written and reads rapidly, especially if you skim over the graphic forensic parts. For those who glory in war, who want to "see the elephant," as boys and men of the day called combat, it should be a cautionary tale of what war is like, without the actual sight and smell of blood and brain tissue and intestines and bloated stinking bodies of literally thousands of men. It is also a story of courage on BOTH sides of the engagement. I have heard said that the South lost the war because of lack of courage. That is absolute nonsense.

Good book by a knowledgable scholar. Recommended!!

[Ira Livingston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written book, I read this after visiting the Military Park for the 155th Anniversary of the battle. My brother and I had spent 5 days hiking around Shiloh listening to the historians and rangers lead the tours throughout the actual dates at the actual times, and scattered our off time touring Corinth, Mississippi historical sites that were also influenced by Shiloh.

As you can tell we already had a lot of information and immersed ourselves into the history of the area and the battle.

However, this book did shed insights and taught me some new things that I did not know about the battle.

I would recommend those that want to learn more, but it is a dry read of actual history or nonfiction. Otherwise there are two good narratives, Shaara's and Foote's novels come to mind.

[Tim Armstrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the first modern histories of the seminal Battle of Shiloh, I think this book holds up really well. True, there are more detailed and more modern books looking at Shiloh, but I think this serves as a great introduction to the Battle of Shiloh and would be accessible for anyone looking to learn more about the battle. A solid, informative book.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good book. Though I am a big fan of history I'm not really a wartime history reader. If I was more interested in wartime history I would probably give this book 5 stars. I had heard about the battle at Shiloh in several other books I had read and found it intriguing. This was a major event that greatly affected the outcome of the Civil War. If you are a Civil War enthusiast you have to read this book. I thought it was well written. And unlike the only other wartime book I read, it was easy to follow. The last book I attempted to read about a Civil War battle was mostly about military strategy. Talking about the movements, actions, reasoning and positions of the armies rather than talking about the actual battle itself. This book keeps that to a minimal while presenting the battle, the men involved and the results first and foremost. This book is about the BATTLE at Shiloh. It does not spend a lot of time setting up the event, explaining the aftermath or explaining a lot of things that don't really require explaining. It was a good read and a well written historical account. No beating around the bush... this is the story of Shiloh.

[Dennis Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

With all of the books that have been written about America's Civil War it is almost a tragedy that the battle at Shiloh has been so overlooked. Both Generals Grant and Sherman insisted that this engagement was among the most important battles in the history of the United States. Grant even went as far as to place Shiloh amongst the most important battles in the history of the world.

In this book, James Lee McDonough has given us a long overdue scholarly study of this highly important battle. It is a short account but it's slightly more than two hundred pages are packed with information. The author has spent untold hours studying not only the "Official Record" but numerous personal diaries and regimental histories to put together a fascinating account of this action. Numerous accounts are given from the point of view of the participants from Privates to Generals and these accounts cover everything from the Confederate march to Shiloh to the blood soaked gory scenes on the battlefield after it was all over. McDonough also manages to give the reader an idea of the order of battle without getting so bogged down in details that he leaves the reader dazed and confused. This is truly a well-written and easy to read account of the battle of Shiloh.

Most of the book concentrates on the first day of the battle and the second day is given too little attention. The second day actually gets only about twenty pages of coverage although the author does an excellent job of describing what was happening given that he used so little space. The maps were excellent and for someone not familiar with many Civil War figures the pictures of the various leaders would be helpful. The illustrations are pretty much useless however since it is hard to make out what is depicted.

McDonough goes to great lengths to show just how negligent that Grant and Sherman in particular were in allowing themselves to be so surprised by the Confederate attack. Once the battle started however, they were both jolted back to reality and performed admirably. Had the Confederates smashed the Union army as they well could have at Shiloh the author points out that Grant and Sherman would almost certainly have both been forced out of the army. One can only imagine how differently the war might have turned out if the Union had lost these two fine commanders.

The Confederate commanders also come under the author's scrutiny and many of them come are the target of a good deal of criticism. Even the normally dependable John Breckinridge made his share of mistakes at this battle but it is Braxton Bragg that is McDonough's goat. What chance the badly organized Confederate attack had of success was lost as Bragg wasted the cream of the army in frontal assaults on the sunken road at the Hornet's Nest. Basically this turned into a contest that would be won by the side that made the fewest blunders and the author spends a good deal of time describing most of these numerous mistakes.

The Civil War fanatic will find that this is among the best works on this important battle. A book five times this long could be written about Shiloh and still not do this battle full justice, but this is a start. The casual student of the Civil War or American history in general will also find this book to be highly informative and useful. McDonough makes no attempt to write over people's heads and in fact writes this book almost as if it were a novel. Make no mistake though, this is history and history at it's finest.

[Chris Becraft · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just finished this book last night. My interest in Shiloh (The Civil War battle) started when I read a biography on US Grant. My son Dylan and I rewatched Ken Burns Civil War and we are determined to go to the battlefield. To prep for our journey, I picked this book up about a year ago and finally got around to reading it. I would only recommend this book to someone who has to write a term paper on Shiloh. It is very detailed and written not as dramatic prose but rather from an academic point of view. That being said, what happened at Shiloh on April 6-7, 1862 was historic and epic, not only to the Civil War but also as a cruel reminder that war sucks. 23,000 men died in 2 days. They didn't "just" die, they suffered inconceivable deaths. Human tragedy at its worst. Grant "won" this war which could have easily been won by the South if it weren't for the ineptness of the Southern Command at Shiloh (notwithstanding Albert Sydney Johnson). Grant won because he had more men and he literally sacrificed them for the victory.
This is not a good read but the subject matter is fascinating, well documented, and worth your own investigation however you find the information.
The more I read my last paragraph, the more I don't like it. This book is ridiculously well researched. When I state that "it isn't a good read", I mean in the classic literary sense. If this is a topic that interests you, all the information you will ever need is contained in this book. It's not To Kill a Mockingbird 🙂

[Read1000books · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well-researched account of the 1862 two-day Battle of Shiloh, one of the major (3400+ killed, 16,400+ wounded) battles in the lesser-known western theater of the American Civil War. The book can be divided into four sections: (1) background of the battle and major personalities, page 3-87; (2) events of the first day, page 88-195; (3) events of the second day, page 196-208; (4) aftermath, page 208-225. My criticisms would include the book's title (one's eternal destiny is nothing to make light of; see quote on page proceeding title page), and the shortness of the Day 2 section (only 13 pages). However, as far as coverage of events as a whole, the author does a very good job, and the text includes the following interesting facts:
*General Grant considered leaving the army both before and after this battle [personal lesson: it's always too soon to quit]
*On the first day of combat, the "Union front line did not contain one regiment that had previously been under fire" (p. 91).
*One of the most amazing events in the military career of Nathan Bedford Forrest took place at Shiloh ( see p.209-210).
* Forrests's son Willie, only fifteen years of age, took part in this battle.
* General William T. Sherman, not usually included among the "fighting generals", was wounded at Shiloh and had three horses killed under him there.
*Survivors of the war who participated in the fighting at Shiloh described it as "the fiercest they ever saw" (p.131).
*This sentence in a letter from Sherman to his wife: "The scenes on this field would have cured anybody of war" (p.116).
*And this amusing assessment on page 78 by the book's author: "The Southern mind has always been peculiarly receptive to oratory". [Humph!]
IMPORTANT NOTE: As this is a chronicle of military conflict, it includes graphic descriptions of combat deaths and injuries that may be disturbing to some readers. That said, this book is not suitable for young people under age thirteen.

[Jenny Karraker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading this book. Unlike other books written in so much detail about different Civil War battles, I didn't get lost and was able to follow what was happening. It was surprising that The Union group was caught so unawares by the Confederate forces. Even today, it's hard to sort out what is rumor, panic, and exaggeration. I supposed a valuable lesson would be not to overtly discount and dismiss information that doesn't agree with my preconceptions and assumptions. It was also interesting to read of the conflicts and petty jealousies between various leaders on both sides. In an ideal world, I guess we'd respect our leadership, work together for the greater cause, etc--but that's just not human nature!

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good accounting of the 2 day battle of Shiloh, a bloody battle of sacrifices. Describes the many mistakes made by both the Union and Confederate leaders which left both armies confused and broken. The battle outcome could have gone either way had better organization, preparation, and execution been done. Brings to light the roles of the generals involved. The Union's unpreparedness for the confederate attack, the cowardice of the green Union troops in the heat of the battle created an opening for a Confederate victory. But the disorganization of the Confederate attack led to confusion, and the misleadership and poor decisions by the southern generals created a loss of a chance for victory for the Confederate army. Overall, a very good read.

[Nicholas Kokolakis · Rating 3 out of 5]

While Civil War history has never been my forte or area of interest, I found this book throughly enjoyable, especially after my trip to Corinth and Shiloh. Having stood in the peach orchard and the sunken road and the hornets nest gave me that much more perspective as to the intensity of the fighting. I found the recounting of Grant, Sherman, and Bauriguard’s failings an interesting and developmental insight into the cost of teaching a general how to fight a war. Also, Grant’s comment, yes. lick em tomorrow though” may be one of the most savage statements ever.

[Anthony Bracciante · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent scholarly overview of the 2 day Battle of Shiloh, a major turning point in the western war. The South could have won the victory on the first day destroying Grant's Army of the Tennessee. Instead on the second day Grant aided by the Buell's reinforcing Army of the Ohio defeated the southern forces maintaining control of most of the state of Tennessee in Union hands; and leading to eventual control of the entire Mississippi River with the fall of Vicksburg on July 4th a year later.

[William Olenick · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of a set Western Theater books by the author. Although older and a general history it is a good read. The few maps are basic and based on the divisional positions. The illustrations and later photos are supportive of the text.
The author does well in describing the ramp up to the battle, the first day's battle is well discussed. The decisions made by Beauregard and the result are described before the second day ends the book. Great book and recommended!
Looking forward to additional books by the author.

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read like a text book with names, facts and places. However, was not to dull that I could not get through it. The beginning was a little slow. As the battle starts, the book picks up more.
I also read it as prework to visiting the battlefield. Which was helpful to bring perspective to a war 150+ years ago. It would also be beneficial to read during or post visit.

[Binston Birchill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good overview of the battle and the controversies surrounding it. A short quick easy read that doesn't go into that much detail about the actual positions and movements... serves well as a beginners guide for the uninitiated.

[Eric Mayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book on the details of the battle. Very good at giving evidence as to why some of the decisions were made that cost the South the battle, and very good in explaining how the South caught the North off guard at the beginning of the battle.

[Lance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best book I’ve read on the battle of Shiloh. Easy read as well, so anyone starting out in the history genre can follow and enjoy this book. I read this for a college course and it only took me around 4 hours total of reading time to finish. I really enjoyed the book and it’s in depth detail of Shiloh.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half. McDonough's account of the pivotal U.S. Civil War battle at Shiloh is well researched, clearly presented, thoughtful, comprehensive, and interesting. His sources range from soldier's letters and other primary archival documents, to maps, to Civil War anthologies and records. McDonough theorizes about Union and Confederate strategic assets and liabilities, while tempering some of the unrealistic accounts and hyperbole that filtered out from this battle.

[Darrell E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, this was a pretty good book. It is succinct but conveys the battle well and I felt it was one of the most balanced historical analyses I've read. The author doesn't side with the Rebs or the Yanks and provides criticism for all sides. I doesn't have much knowledge of the battle to analyze his narrative, but it seems well done.

[Blake Baehner · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid, succinct primer on Shiloh. Not necessarily a grand narrative; there are no “characters” per se, but a good place to start after having a general knowledge of the war and its characters. Reads well too; the author has a nice voice.

[Avis Black · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-written, but his analysis is weak. Read Wiley Sword's book on Shiloh instead for a more thoughtful account.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great account of the battle. I often felt like I was there. I would highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys Civil War history.

[Sean Chick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good overview with fair analysis of the situations and the personalities, but by no means a definitive account.

[Mary Follis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good account of the Battle of Shiloh in the Civil War. The battlefield can be seen in Tennessee.