Shiloh, Shelby Foote (Random House, 1952)***

 

Many of you are probably familiar with Shelby Foote’s classic three volume set, The Civil War, A Narrative , a highly praised popular history.  Or you may be familiar with him through Ken Burn’s Civil War series on Public TV.   It doesn’t matter.  This little novel stands on its own as a brief, fictionalized account of one of that war’s decisive early battles, near Shiloh Church along the Tennessee River.

 

This  bloody, closely fought battle was the largest in our nation’s history up to that time, involving over 100,000 combatants and both generals Sherman and Grant.  For those of you who aren’t Civil War buffs, I won’t give away who won that battle (neither does Foote until nearly the end).  What I will say is that you won’t want to put this book down until you see how it comes out.

 

The book is especially unique and delightful in that it’s written from the point of view of individual combatants, both enlisted men and officers, and alternates by chapter between Confederate and Union soldiers.  Foote has each account overlap just enough to keep the story line coherent and smooth, using dialogue marvelously to accentuate the differences and add to the authenticity.  It’s a wonderful telling because it puts you right there on the battlefield.  Cannon shells woosh overhead and musket balls and grapeshot buzz around you, ricocheting off trees and bushes, sometimes thudding into an unfortunate comrade.  You feel the terror and the panic.

 

There are heroes (and cowards) on both sides.  Shelby Foote, a southerner through and through, has resisted the temptation to favor the men in gray over the men in blue.  What he has done is to take the essential facts of this battle and written a story that will heighten your appreciation of all the men who fought in that war, as well as the causes for which they fought.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book and hope that you will, too.