Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862 by O. Edward Cunningham

Edited by Gary D. Joiner and Timothy B. Smith
Illustrated, maps, appendices, bibliography, index, 476 pp., 2007. Savas Beatie, LLC, P.O. Box 4527, El Dorado Hills, CA 95762, $34.95 plus shipping.

Reviewer: Robert L. Durham
Robert L. Durham is a computer specialist. A longtime Civil War buff, he is also interested in Old West history and has written articles and book reviews for Alamo Journal, True West, Journal of the Alamo Battlefield Association, and Alamo de Parras web site at www.flash.net/~alamo3

Review:
Dr. O. Edward Cunningham wrote Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862 in 1966 as a doctoral dissertation. After 40 years, it has finally been published, with the able editorial skills of Gary D. Joiner and Timothy B. Smith. Joiner also added many excellent battlefield maps to the volume.

Although it started life as a dissertation, don't expect a dry treatment of the battle. Cunningham's combat descriptions are among the most exciting I've read.

A little over a third of Shiloh provides a strategic background to the battle. The Cumberland, Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers provided major avenues for Union invasion, which had to be defended against. The border state of Kentucky was an important source for men and materiel to both North and South and had to be held if possible.

These factors led inexorably to the first major Confederate losses in the Western Theater, at Forts Henry and Donelson. All of which set the stage for the battle of Shiloh.

Cunningham did an exhaustive amount of research, much of which finds its way into these pages. Nearly every paragraph is jammed with personal accounts, which help the narrative come alive.

In this book, Shiloh is not merely a battle of tactical movements, but a battle where men, many of them ordinary men, were forced to become more than they ever thought possible.

Perhaps some quotes from the book will illustrate this more than I'm able to:

"Private Perry Murrell, Company K, was the first casualty and the first man killed in the Fifth [Tennessee] Regiment, dropping from artillery fire. As the Fifth pushed toward Buckland's position, a projectile cut the colors in the hands of the color bearer, William Sims, who managed to catch them as they fell, tying the flag back to the staff with his canteen strap."

"One James shell burst between the legs of Lieutenant Levi S. Brown, killing him and Privates Thomas Bladon and Thomas Cameron. The Louisianans began to falter and Sergeant John Leonard, Company I, ran out in front to encourage the wavering Eleventh [Louisiana]. He received a Minie ball through his head for his trouble."

Cunningham does not spend a lot of time analyzing the many controversial aspects of the battle of Shiloh. The editors provide some analysis in some of their footnotes, but don't expect to find pages of argument on why Gen. Lew Wallace chose the road to the battlefield he did or what the results would have been had he taken a different path.

Dr. Cunningham is content for the most part to just tell the story of the battle and he does that well.

There is enough material crowded into the pages of this book to make it an indispensable reference work on the battle of Shiloh. This book is a "must-have" for the shelves of every Civil War buff.