Shiloh--In Hell before Night

Shiloh-In Hell Before Night is a wonderful book about a nightmare battle. I finished this book in about five days, it was an extremely easy read despite how confused this battle was. The author did a great job describing how ferocious the fighting was, which I might add was mind-blowing. He also did an outstanding job of addressing the issues that have been second guessed over the years, from Bragg's assault on the Hornet's Nest, to Wallace's lost division. While doing all of this he did not forget the human aspect of the battle, there were touching stories throughout. I would consider myself a novice at this point when it comes to Civil War history and this book never lost me or bored me, I would recommend it to anyone looking to read about the great battle at Shiloh.

This is a comprehensive, easy to follow and exact telling of the battle of Shiloh. It is a pleasure to read compared to Larry J. Daniel's manuscript. Whether the reader is a Civil War novice or an expert, this book provides an accurate storytelling of this great battle. The only negative is the maps. They don't correspond to the narrative pages. The reader has to either look back or forward in the book to match the maps with the written word. But this is a GREAT book

McDonough's work on Shiloh is an easy to read, solid account of the battle. His book is indepth enough to allow a good understanding of what took place and why but not overpowering with details that often make accounts of battles uninteresting. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a good general understanding of the overall battle and the events thereof.

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 fan

After having read many Civil War histories, this book about Shiloh is by far one of the most readable and interesting that I have encountered. The story grabs you as if it were a piece of fiction-----but it isn't. One of my favorite history books of all time.