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The Battle of Shiloh Comes to the Emerging Civil War Series

8/31/2021

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Attack at Daylight and Whip Them: The Battle of Shiloh April 6-7, 1862
Gregory A. Mertz
Savas Beatie, 2019, 192 pgs., $14.95
ISBN: 978-1-61121-313-3
Image courtesy of amazon.com         
 
The Emerging Civil War Series has always brought great additions to the series in means of major battlefield topics, or even lesser known pieces of history.  Today, we’re looking at the former.  Attack at Daylight and Whip Them chronicles the Battle of Shiloh, and just like other books in the series, details the battlefield as you see it today.  For someone who has been surrounded by the battlefield most of his life, Gregory A. Mertz takes us on this tour through the narrative, and literally on a tour at the same time.  

            Gregory A. Mertz has spent over three decades working for the National Park Service and is the Supervisory Historian at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.  He has his degree in park administration and a masters in public administration from Shippensburg University.  He has written articles for Blue and Gray magazine in the past and is the former vice president of the Brandy Station Foundation.  He is also the founding president of the Rappahannock Valley Civil War Round Table.

            Attack at Daylight and Whip Them handles the subject of Shiloh from the angle of both the tour that is within the book, and being the first major sight of bloodshed for the American people.  They had heard of the other battles before, but the casualty rate for Shiloh brought a reality to the war most hadn’t thought of before.  The book opens with the steps to get to the battlefield, and details all the roads that got them there.  From that point on, the battle begins, and Mertz’s narrative is properly accompanied by photographs of the field today, along with period pictures as well.  Each moment of the battle is properly shown here, and given the right amount of attention that is makes it easy for the reader to understand what’s happening.  I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, The Emerging Civil War Series is perfect for those who want to get into the study of the Civil War, and Mertz does a fantastic job of that here.
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            I highly recommend this book to anyone getting into the Civil War, along with anyone who is interested in the Battle of Shiloh.  This is a great starting point, and there is also enough here for those who know about the battle to learn something new.  I look forward to what else Mertz will be writing in the future!  Highly Recommended!


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The Eleventh Corps 2nd Volume!

8/31/2021

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Under the Crescent Moon with the XI Corps in the Civil War: Volume 2: From Gettysburg to Victory, 1863-1865
James S. Pula
Savas Beatie, 2018, 370 pgs., $34.95
ISBN: 978-1-61121-390-4
Image courtesy of amazon.com         
 
I’ve always been fascinated with the Eleventh Corps performance during the height of the American Civil War, especially during their performances during the Chancellorsville and Gettysburg campaigns.  For years, they’ve been criticized, even to the point where I once heard a battlefield guide call them “Howard’s Cowards” at Gettysburg.  Under the Crescent Moon Volume 2 handles the remainder of their time during the war, and as before, James Pula takes great care in writing on the subject with great authority.  For once, there is a work out there that analyzes the actions of the Eleventh Corps instead of finding their faults, and for that, I can already tell you that this work is greatly appreciated.  

            James S. Pula is the author of Under the Crescent Moon with the Eleventh Corps in the Civil War, Volume I, which detailed their beginnings up until the Chancellorsville campaign.  He is also a history professor at Purdue University Northwest and has written many books on immigration and the American Civil War.  He has also written The Sigel Regiment: A History of the 26th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, 1862-1865, of which he won the Gambrinus Prize in History from the Milwaukee County Historical Society, and For Liberty and Justice: A Biography of Brig. Gen. Wlodzimierz B. Krzyzanowski.  

            The second volume of this collection begins with the Battle of Gettysburg, the opening chapter being labeled as July 1st, 1863.  While other works on the battle as a whole often cite the actions of the Eleventh Corps as blundering their way through defending the city and then pulling back, Pula talks of their actions and how they were put into a situation where difficulties were abound.  If there’s any way to describe the narrative at this point, it would be intensity.  The action moves quickly, almost making part of this book feel like a novel instead of non-fiction.  While I could sit here and talk about the excellence of coverage for the Gettysburg Campaign in this book, I would be ignoring the other half of the research.  This moves throughout the rest of the war, and while the bulk of the book goes until November of 1863, there is a chapter dedicated to the rest of the war.  Pula details the consolidation of the Eleventh and Twelfth Corps into the Twentieth of the Army of the Cumberland, and the aftermath of the action.  One of the points that makes the Eleventh Corps so interesting to me as a reader is the German presence in the force.  And for those who learn more about the German presence in the corps, they learn more about what was happening back home.  That’s what has always made this corps fascinating to me.
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            I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the American Civil War, especially those who are interested in Gettysburg, and the Immigrant presence in the war.  Pula’s narrative shows the importance of their actions during the battles in the second half of the war, and paired with the first volume, this is almost essential for Gettysburg historians.  Highly recommended!
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