The focus here is on the battle of Shiloh, along the Tennessee River about 10 miles North of the Mississippi State Line. It was the first big battle in the Western Theater of the Civil War (basically, anything happening west of the Appalachian Mountains). The earlier engagements at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson are covered as a kind of prelude to the main focus of the novel.The book focuses on several actual participants, including the generals (Sherman, Grant, Johnston, Beauregard, etc.) and some lower-ranking officers, such as Nathan Bedford Forrest; but it also gives us the experience of the common soldier. Though all facts are carefully researched, and all characters historical, we are privy to dialogue and inner thoughts that cause the author himself to label his book a novel, rather than a history. Shaara warns the reader that for a thorough look at the course of the battle, one must seek elsewhere. This is the drama of the battle and its effect on several participants, not a detailed history of all movements, engagements and strategies.This was thoroughly enjoyable, and I look forward to the next two books in this Western Theater trilogy. This book is fascinating. It is an account of the The Battle of Shiloh in the Civil War. Written like a novel with an extraordinary attention to detail (complete with maps, the author gives you a real feel for what it was like.) You can almost smell the smells, he describes it so well. You almost feel like your are there. Keep in mind that war in the 1800 was horrendous; bloody, gruesome, dirty, and chaotic. The author manages to convey that in a way that will make you cringe at times. If you have any interest at all in the civil war or American history, this book is a must read. If you want to read a novel about courage, cowardice, military commanders dealing with political ineptness and wrong decisions, then you should check it out also.
