Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862

[J_Man0507]

I must say that it is a shame that Dr. O.E. Cunningham's work has remained unpublished for the fast forty years. I just finished this book today, which was his doctoral dissertation, and was thoroughly impressed with it. Now, I have unfortunately not been able to read half of the serious modern studies of Shiloh, and there being only four (which is a shame) that leaves two more to go. Having read Larry Daniel's a year ago, I was amazed at how modern Cunningham's study actually is. He makes some assertions that really did not appear until the modern school of Shiloh studies appeared in the last decade or so. He also seems to not hold to some of the common Shiloh "myths" that have been purported over the years, such as Forrest using a Union soldier as a human shield, and his assertion that the Sunken Road wasn't truly a sunken road as seen at places such as Antietam and Fredericksburg.

This is probably the definitive study on the campaign that very nearly ended Grant's career and was a severe blow to the Confederacy with the loss of General A.S. Johnston. It has been edited and cleared up (only a little here and there, with typos and such corrected). If you are a student of the Western theatre of the War, then I highly recommend it. It really doesn't get much better. I do have to read Sword's and McDonough's still, but this one seems to be the best by far. If you can get a hold of a copy, do so. This work needs to be in any student of the Civil War's library.