Shiloh. In Hebrew it means 'place of peace'. An apt name for a tiny Methodist chapel close to the banks of the Tennessee river. It has borne witness to christenings, weddings, and funerals. Its parishioners are thankful for their peace. Peace, that is, until Grant's Union army arrives to take up every available space in and around the church and on all of the community's farmland. Within his camps are soldiers that are simple, scared, green, boastful, veteran, and foolish, all hoping that they do not shirk their sworn oaths. They are full of hope that soon they will sally forth and give battle to their enemy, thirty-four miles away. Or so they think. Battle is less than a few miles away as another army of green and untried soldiers is marching, stealing up upon the Union army's encampment with the Tennessee river at its back and no hope of immediate reinforcement. These Confederates are full of hope too, hope that they will not shrink from their oaths when the fire is the most intense and their friends are falling left and right. Battles are planned by the generals, but they are fought by the soldiers; the simple, the scared, the green, the boastful, the veteran, and the foolish. They Met at Shiloh is a civil war historical novel. In the tradition of Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels and All Quiet on the Western Front, you'll smell the powder and suffer the anguish of loss and understand why soldiers above all else prefer peace to war.
