A Blaze of Glory
A Blaze of Glory
is a work of historical fiction. Apart from the well-known actual people, events, and locales that figure in the narrative, all names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to current events or locales, or to living persons, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2012 by Jeffrey M. Shaara
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint
of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
B
ALLANTINE
and colophon are registered
trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Shaara, Jeff.
A blaze of glory: a novel of the Battle of Shiloh / Jeff Shaara.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-345-52737-0
1. Shiloh, Battle of, Tenn., 1862—Fiction. 2. United States—History—Civil War, 1861–1865—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3569.H18B57 2012
813′.54—dc23 2012010107
Jacket design: Dreu Pennington-McNeil
Jacket art: © Robert Hunt
v3.1_r1
The horrible sights that I have witnessed on this field I can never describe. No blaze of glory, that flashes around the magnificent triumphs of war, can ever atone for the unwritten and unutterable horrors of the scene of carnage
.
—BRIGADIER GENERAL JAMES A. GARFIELD
,
U.S. ARMY OF THE OHIO
(twentieth president of the United States)
TO THE READER
T
his is the first of a trilogy that explores the mostly overlooked stories of the Civil War that take place west of the Appalachian Mountains, what is usually referred to as the war in the “West.” This trilogy will focus on three pivotal events: the Battle of Shiloh, the Siege of Vicksburg, and the final chapter of the war in Georgia and the Carolinas.
If you have read any of my books, you know that these stories are driven not by events, but by characters. For me, the points of view of the characters in this story are more appealing than the blow-by-blow facts and figures that are the necessary products of history textbooks. For that reason, I try to find those specific characters who pull me into the story, whose actions affect the history of the event, and whose own points of view will, I hope, bring that story to you in a way you find more intriguing and more personal than what you might have read in high school.
The primary voices in this book include historical figures unique to this story, and others who will remain significant throughout this entire trilogy. Some are well known: William T. Sherman, Albert Sidney Johnston, Nathan Bedford Forrest, Ulysses Grant, among a cast that will eventually include most of the major participants in the war that engulfs the South, from the Mississippi River to the Carolinas. Other characters you will not know at all. In the Civil War trilogy begun by my father with
The Killer Angels
, and through my own bookends to his classic work,
Gods and Generals
and
The Last Full Measure
, the voices came from the top: the generals. As my own work spread out to include World Wars I and II, I realized that generals do not always tell the best story, and certainly not the whole story. For that reason, this series will also focus on the points of view of those men we would now call “grunts.” The search for voices can be challenging (and fun) and my choice of characters will be both obvious and questionable. I receive an enormous amount of email asking why some particular person is overlooked, or ignored altogether. I certainly mean no disrespect to anyone who played a pivotal role in any of these extraordinary chapters of our history. But my goal is not to offer a complete detailed history of the event. If that’s what you seek, then by all means, read Shelby Foote or Jim McPherson.
This book has to be described as a novel because there is dialogue, and you are often inside the thoughts of these characters. But I recognize (and accept) the risk that you might not agree with my interpretations. That’s as it should be. My research is painstaking (and voluminous), and I rely exclusively on original sources, in other words, the accounts of the people who were
there
. I make a strenuous effort to be historically accurate, to get the facts straight. I hope that when all is said and done, you will accept that what I am trying to offer you is a good story. Whether or not you are familiar with this history, I hope you will come to appreciate the diverse cast, whose points of view will carry you through one of the most important, dramatic, and horrific chapters of the Civil War: the Battle of Shiloh.
JEFF SHAARA
APRIL 2012
LIST OF MAPS
Confederate Defensive Line, January 1861
Johnston Abandons Kentucky; the Confederate Army Withdraws Southward to Corinth
Confederate Advance out of Corinth
Colonel Jordan’s “New Plan” of Attack
The Confederate Attack, as Lines Spread Out
Assault on the “Hornet’s Nest” and the Peach Orchard
SOURCES AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
For the considerable assistance I have received in the telling of this story, I must offer my deepest gratitude for those who provided me with original source material, and those who offered their valuable time and resources. This list is not altogether complete, and so, for the following, and for those not mentioned: Thank you to you all!
Stacy Allen, chief ranger, National Park Service, Shiloh National Military Park
Sheila Amdur, West Hartford, Connecticut
Alan Doyle, Memphis, Tennessee
Roy Durrenberg, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Patrick Falci, Rosedale, New York
Colonel Keith Gibson, Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia
Woody Harrell, superintendent, National Park Service, Shiloh National Military Park
Lee Millar, Collierville, Tennessee
Morris Miller, Tallahassee, Florida
Keith Shaver, Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Don Todd, Shiloh National Military Park
The staff of the National Park Service, Shiloh National Military Park