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

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O. Edward Cunningham Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862

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The bloody and decisive two-day battle of Shiloh (April 6-7, 1862) changed the entire course of the American Civil War. The stunning Northern victory thrust Union commander Ulysses S. Grant into the national spotlight, claimed the life of Confederate commander Albert S. Johnston, and forever buried the notion that the Civil War would be a short conflict.
The conflagration at Shiloh had its roots in the strong Union advance during the winter of 1861-1862 that resulted in the capture of Forts Henry and Donelson in Tennessee. The offensive collapsed General Albert S. Johnston s advanced line in Kentucky and forced him to withdraw all the way to northern Mississippi. Anxious to attack the enemy, Johnston began concentrating Southern forces at Corinth, a major railroad center just below the Tennessee border. His bold plan called for his Army of the Mississippi to march north and destroy General Grant s Army of the Tennessee before it could link up with another Union army on the way to join him.
On the morning of April 6, Johnston boasted to his subordinates, Tonight we will water our horses in the Tennessee! They nearly did so. Johnston s sweeping attack hit the unsuspecting Federal camps at Pittsburg Landing and routed the enemy from position after position as they fell back toward the Tennessee River. Johnstons sudden death in the Peach Orchard, however, coupled with stubborn Federal resistance, widespread confusion, and Grant s dogged determination to hold the field, saved the Union army from destruction. The arrival of General Don C. Buells reinforcements that night turned the tide of battle. The next day, Grant seized the initiative and attacked the Confederates, driving them from the field. Shiloh was one of the bloodiest battles of the entire war, with nearly 24,000 men killed, wounded, and missing.
Edward Cunningham, a young Ph.D. candidate studying under the legendary T. Harry Williams at Louisiana State University, researched and wrote Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862 in 1966. Although it remained unpublished, many Shiloh experts and park rangers consider it to be the best overall examination of the battle ever written. Indeed, Shiloh historiography is just now catching up with Cunningham, who was decades ahead of modern scholarship.
Western Civil War historians Gary D. Joiner and Timothy B. Smith have resurrected Cunningham s beautifully written and deeply researched manuscript from its undeserved obscurity. Fully edited and richly annotated with updated citations and observations, original maps, and a complete order of battle and table of losses, Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862 will be welcomed by everyone who enjoys battle history at its finest.
About the Authors:
Edward Cunningham, Ph.D., studied under T. Harry Williams at Louisiana State University. He was the author of The Port Hudson Campaign: 1862-1863 (LSU, 1963). Dr. Cunningham died in 1997.
Gary D. Joiner, Ph.D., is the author of One Damn Blunder from Beginning to End: The Red River Campaign of 1864, winner of the 2004 Albert Castel Award and the 2005 A. M. Pate, Jr., Award, and Through the Howling Wilderness: The 1864 Red River Campaign and Union Failure in the West. He lives in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Timothy B. Smith, Ph.D., is author of Champion Hill: Decisive Battle for Vicksburg (winner of the 2004 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Non-fiction Award), The Untold Story of Shiloh: The Battle and the Battlefield, and This Great Battlefield of Shiloh: History, Memory, and the Establishment of a Civil War National Military Park. A former ranger at Shiloh, Tim teaches history at the University of Tennessee.

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2007 2009 by Gary D Joiner and Timothy B Smith Shiloh and the Western - photo 1

2007 2009 by Gary D Joiner and Timothy B Smith Shiloh and the Western - photo 2

2007, 2009 by Gary D. Joiner and Timothy B. Smith

Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America.

Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN 13: 978-1-932714-27-2 (hardcover)

ISBN 13: 978-1-932714-34-0 (paperback)

eISBN: 9781611210231

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

First paperback edition, second printing

Picture 3

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For T. Harry Williams

List of Illustrations

List of Maps

Acknowledgments THE ASSISTANCE OF MANY persons made this project possible but - photo 4

Acknowledgments

THE ASSISTANCE OF MANY persons made this project possible, but the person who conceived and directed this dissertation is Professor T. Harry Williams. Without his guidance, this work would never have been started, let alone brought to fruition.

Mrs. Hilda B. Cunningham, my mother, performed many secretarial duties connected with this work. Mr. Jerry L. Schober, Supervisory Park Historian at Shiloh National Military Park, helped me locate many disputed locations, while Mr. Edwin Bearss, Park Historian of Vicksburg National Military Park, Mr. Fred Benton, Jr. and Mr. Charles East, of Baton Rouge, courteously allowed me to use valuable materials. Mr. Ray Smith of the Chicago Industrial Institute generously permitted me to use his index to the Confederate Veteran . The staffs of numerous archival depositories aided me in my research work, but Mr. E. L. Bedsole of the Department of Archives, Louisiana State University, was especially helpful. Mr. Maurice duQuesnay read the manuscript, making many valuable suggestions. To all these people I wish to extend my heartfelt thanks for their aid.

Edward Cunningham

In addition to Dr. Cunninghams 1966 acknowledgments, we the editors would like to thank a few people who have aided in the process of publishing this book. Chief among them is Dr. Cunninghams family, especially Mrs. Iris Cunningham and Vicki Gully.

The good people at Savas Beatie LLC worked hard to make this book a reality. Managing Director Theodore P. Savas warmed immediately to the idea of publishing this dissertation and shepherded the book through the complicated publishing process. Lee Merideth helped lay out the book and produced its index.

The staff of Precision Cartographics in Shreveport, Louisiana, aided greatly with the map work. We would also like to thank Karen Peters for her able assistance in converting the battlefield maps for publication.

The staff at Shiloh National Military Park, particularly Stacy Allen and Bjorn Skaptason, offered insights into some of Dr. Cunninghams conclusions and minor errors.

Last but certainly not least, our wives, Marilyn and Kelly, supported and loved us through the entire process. We thank them for making life so much more pleasurablejust by their presence in our lives.

Gary D. Joiner and Timothy B. Smith

Introduction

CIVIL WAR BOOKS CONTINUE to be published at an astounding clip on nearly every topic imaginable. Campaign and battle studies, especially those eschewing social history and take a more traditional military approach, remain very popular with students of the war. Some combats, like the fighting at Gettysburg in the summer of 1863, attract hundreds of writers on every imaginable aspect of the fighting. Others, like the horrific early-war battle of Shiloh, catch the attention of far fewer scribes. Given the latter battles complexity, fascinating cast of characters, and obvious importance to the course of the war, it is difficult to account fully for this lopsided disparity.

Some readers will likely inquire (and with some justification) what makes the publication of a forty-year-old dissertation on the subject of Shiloh worthwhile? And what could possibly be inside a decades-old document that can be touted as new material?

There are good reasons behind the decision to publish Dr. Cunninghams Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862 . For starters, Shiloh is the exception to the rule mentioned above. It has been the recipient of only four scholarly book-length battle studies. Only three of these are academically modern: Wiley Swords Shiloh: Bloody April (1974), James Lee McDonoughs ShilohIn Hell Before Night (1977), and Larry J. Daniels Shiloh: The Battle That Changed the Civil War (1997). The fourth entry to this rather exclusive group was the first to appear in print more than a century ago, David W. Reeds The Battle of Shiloh and the Organizations Engaged (1902). There is definitely plenty of elbow room available for another book on the subject.

We also firmly believe Dr. Cunninghams work is the best overall account of the Shiloh battle. Reeds study has an early familiarity with the subject seldom seen elsewhere, but it is in no way comprehensive. Swords book is the best tactical study of the four. McDonoughs account makes for good reading, but offers little tactical detail. Daniels work breaks ground with his new military history slant. Each of these books has its strengths and weaknesses, just as all books do. We believe Dr. Cunninghams dissertation offers the strengths of each of these works without their associated weaknessesa feat he managed to accomplish before three of these authors ever put pen to paper.

Writing in 1989, revered and long-time Shiloh Chief Ranger George Reaves observed that Cunninghams unpublished dissertation is the most detailed analysis of the campaign and the battle. It is also an extremely well written piece of scholarship (which is not the case with the vast majority of dissertations). His work might be described as a significantly expanded and in-depth version of McDonoughs work. Cunningham, however, finished his study more than a decade before McDonoughs book appeared.

Perhaps most important, Dr. Cunninghams dissertation deserves publication because the passage of forty years has not, as some might initially believe, dated his efforts. Indeed, readers will quickly discover it is still a fresh and vivid player in Shiloh historiography.

Dr. Cunningham espoused in his 1960s-era dissertation many new ideas about the fighting that were not widely accepted (or even seriously considered) until very recently. Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862 was forty years (an eternity in Civil War historiography) ahead of its time. It is not, therefore, simply an older treatment of the battle dusted off and repackaged for a wider audience. Shiloh historiography is just now catching up with Cunningham.

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