"If you want to know what it was like to be caught up in a confused Civil War battle complete with a 100,000-man cast, inept generals, missed opportunities, and grim humor amid suffering and death, here is your chance. McDonough has done a fine job of research which, for all that, recaptures the agony of Shiloh ("A place of peace") in twelve highly readable chapters ... The author's special skill, however, is his use of revealing, perceptive quotes from the mouths of the participants so as to make this controversial slaughter come alive over a century later."-- The Virginia Quarterly Review.

Includes maps of: Western Theater, Spring 1862; Battlefield of Shiloh; Confederate Advance on Pittsburg Landing; Confederate Advance on Federal Positions, 5-8 A.M., April 6; Front Line at Shiloh, 8-9 A.M., April 6; Development of the Hornet's Nest, 9-12 A.M., April 6; Assault on the Hornets' nest, 10:30 A.M., April 6; Federals Give Ground, 12-2 P.M., April 6; Isolation of the Hornets' nest, 2-5 P.M., April 6; Collapse of the hornets' Nest, 5-6 P.M., April 6; Grant's Last Line, 6-7 P.M., April 6; Union Advance, Noon, April 7.

A Gathering of "Armies" --Napoleon Is Not among Them -- God and Beauregard -- We Attack at Daylight -- Bad Luck All Around -- In Hell before Night -- Thar' Ain't No Good Way -- Bayonets and Blunders -- Lick 'em Tomorrow, Though -- A Night So Long, So Hideous -- Glory Cannot Atone -- Never Smile Again -- Organization of the Union Army at the Battle of Shiloh -- Organization of the Confederate Army at the Battle of Shiloh.