The Battle of Shiloh recounts the sudden Confederate attack on Ulysses S. Grant’s army near Pittsburg Landing in April 1862. It describes the confused fighting around Shiloh Church and the Hornet’s Nest, the death of Albert Sidney Johnston and the arrival of Union reinforcements during the night.
Grant’s counterattack on the second day forced the Confederates to retreat, but the scale of the casualties shocked both sides. The book places Shiloh within the campaign for the Mississippi Valley and shows how it destroyed early expectations that the Civil War would be brief or comparatively bloodless.
