Shelby Foote. Shiloh. 1952; Vintage, 1980.

I was browsing in a book store the other day and noticed this book. I knew playwright Horton Foote, Shelby’s brother, and I knew Shelby from the Ken Burns PBS series on the Civil War, but I had never read anything by Shelby. As I started reading this novel, it was easy to imagine it being read aloud in the gentlemanly drawl of its author.

As one can tell from the title, Shiloh is a novel which describes in effective detail the April 1862 two-day Battle of Shiloh. It is seven chapters, each told by a different person involved in the battle. Both sides are included. Chapters one and seven bookend the story as told by young aide to General A. S. Johnston. We learn something of Johnston’s background, as well as a kind of military history of the times. Johnston, like many Civil War senior officers, was a veteran of the Mexican War. This was after he had fought for Texas independence against Mexico.

Our fictional aide-de-camp was a student at the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy when the war began. Its superintendent had been General W. T. Sherman, so we get the background of one of the key Union officers at Shiloh as well. (We learned from other sources that the Louisiana Seminary was the precursor of Louisiana State University.)

Another chapter is narrated by a Union Army captain who grew up in Grant’s hometown. We get a flavor of the ups and downs of Grant’s career. There are hints that General Halleck, known more as a paper pusher than a fighter today, had it in for General Grant, his subordinate. Still, Halleck could not argue with Grant’s success in the Western Theater where Halleck was Commander until he was promoted to Army Chief of Staff two months after Shiloh.

We also get the perspective of an infantryman from Mississippi, an artilleryman from Minnesota, a scout for Nathan Bedford Forrest, and the testimonies of a dozen men who formed a squad from Indiana. It is a novel, and it reads like one. Foote notes that all of the quotations from actual historical figures like Grant, Johnston, and Forrest are genuine. Perhaps the most prophetic are those from General Sherman, written when he resigned from his Louisiana position after that state seceded. Our aide to Johnston resented what Sherman had said back then, but his words proved to be true.¹

Like many battles of the Civil War, Shiloh was brutal. We get a sense of the brutality of the fighting as well as the conditions under which men of both sides fought. In brief, the first day of battle went to the Confederacy. However, the Confederates had some poor intelligence and were not aware that General Buell would come with reinforcements overnight, resulting in a rout. In some ways it was the opposite of First Bull Run where the Union had the advantage until General Joe Johnston (no relation to the Shiloh general) came with reinforcements.

Here we also meet General Beauregard and General Lew Wallace who each figure in the battle. Like Forrest Gump, Shiloh credits Col. Forrest (he was not yet a general) with much cleverness and courage. His exploits here seem larger than life, but they are historical even if the scout who describes him is fictional. Beauregard comes across as a realistic thinker. I once heard discussion in which Civil War buffs argued who was better, Lee or Beauregard.

Perhaps the most effective piece is by our aide to Johnston. Johnston’s death in the battle is described by a couple of different observers, but aide Lieutenant Palmer is impressed with the battle plan. The Confederacy was having much success early in the war. The plan seemed to be easy, simple, and foolproof. But, as is often the case, once the fighting begins, the battle plans go out the window.

As the reader can see from the cast, we get perspectives from both North and South, officer and enlisted. Also, one of the men retreats before the battle begins. At first he gives a kind pseudo-psychological explanation, but then he admits that he was simply scared.

All in all, this is a tightly written piece. Because it is a novel about a historical battle, some readers might think of comparing it to the works of the Shaaras. Shiloh is much more focused. Yes, we do get some background of the main figures in the battle, but this novel is simply about the two days’ battle with some pointed and tight reflections.

I may have picked up this book out of curiosity, but I am glad to have read it. It tells a good story and gives us a sense of the history of the battle, the war, and the times. Interestingly, the book is dedicated to Walker Percy, a Southern fiction writer of a different ilk. There was clearly some mutual respect.

Note
¹Here is, in part, what Sherman said. It really proved to be true, if not prophetic. Portions are quoted in Shiloh:

You people speak so lightly of war. You don’t know what you’re talking about. War is a terrible thing. I know you are a brave, fighting people, but for every day of actual fighting, there are months of marching, exposure, and suffering. More men die in war from sickness than are killed in battle. At best war is a frightful loss of life and property, and worse still is the demoralization of the people….

You mistake, too, the people of the North. They are a peaceable people, but an earnest people and will fight too, and they are not going to let this country be destroyed without a mighty effort to save it.

Besides, where are your men and appliances of war to contend against them? The Northern people not only greatly outnumber the whites at the South, but they are a mechanical people with manufactures of every kind, while you are only agriculturists–a sparse population covering a large extent of territory, and in all history no nation of mere agriculturists ever made successful war against a nation of mechanics….

The North can make a steam-engine, locomotive or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical and determined people on earth–right at your doors. You are bound to fail. Only in your spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with.

At first you will make headway, but as your limited resources begin to fail, and shut out from the markets of Europe by blockade as you will be, your cause will begin to wane…if your people would but stop and think, they must see that in the end you will surely fail.

“W. T. Sherman Warns the South.” Civil War Talk, 20 Feb. 2005. https://civilwartalk.com/threads/william-t-sherman-warns-the-south.95202/. Accessed 26 July 2021.