Reading Recommendations for Cyclists Who Ride to Learn Civil War History
Explore our Shiloh reading recommendations—trusted books that explain the April 1862 battle in southwest Tennessee with depth and clarity.
Civil War Context
In April 6–7 1862, Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant defeated Albert Sidney Johnston’s army at the Battle of Shiloh, Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee. Johnston’s battlefield death gravely impacted Confederate morale, already suffering their surrender of Forts Henry and Donelson. The Union armies were advancing into the Mississippi Valley and threatening to take its rivers, railroads, and roads. Shiloh marked a turning point in the U.S. Civil War, both for Union success in the western theater and for the extreme number of casualties, nearly 24,000 men in two days of fighting.
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Shiloh Reading Recommendations
I. The Battle of Shiloh
Allen, Stacy D. The Campaign and Battle of Shiloh; Blue and Gray Magazine. Columbus, OH: Blue and Gray Enterprises, 2018.
Cunningham, O. Edward. Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862 (paid link). Edited by Gary D. Joiner and Timothy B. Smith. New York: Savas Beatie, 2007.
Daniel, Larry J. The Battle of Shiloh; Civil War Series (paid link). With cartography by George Skoch. Washington, DC: National Park Service, 1998.
———. Shiloh: The Battle that Changed the Civil War (paid link). New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997.
Luvaas, Jay, Stephen Bowman, and Leonard Fullenkamp, eds. Guide to the Battle of Shiloh; U.S. Army War College Guides to Civil War Battles (paid link). Lawrence: University of Kansas, 1996.
McDonough, James Lee. Shiloh—In Hell Before Night (paid link). Knoxville: University of Tennessee, 1977, 1997.
McElfresh Map Company. Shiloh Battlefield, Tennessee 1862; A Civil War Watercolor Map Series (paid link). Olean, NY: McElfresh Map Co., 1993, 1997.
Mertz, Gregory A. Attack at Daylight and Whip Them: The Battle of Shiloh, April 6–7, 1862; Emerging Civil War Series (paid link). El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2019.
Smith, Timothy B. Shiloh: Conquer or Perish; Modern War Studies (paid link). Lawrence: University of Kansas, 2014.
———. The Untold Story of Shiloh: The Battle and the Battlefield (paid link). Knoxville: University of Tennessee, 2006.
Sword, Wiley. Shiloh: Bloody April (paid link). New York: William Morrow and Company, 1974.
Time-Life Books, eds. The Road to Shiloh: Early Battles in the West (paid link). Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1983.
———. Shiloh: Voices of the Civil War (paid link). Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1996.
Woodworth, Steven E., ed. The Shiloh Campaign; Civil War Campaigns in the West (paid link). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University, 2009.
Shiloh. National Park Service Historical Handbook Series, no. 10 (paid link). 1961.
II. Shiloh National Military Park
Dillahunty, Albert. Shiloh National Military Park, Tennessee (paid link). N.p.: National Park Service, 1961.
McCutchen, Brian K. and Timothy B. Smith. Images of America: Shiloh National Military Park (paid link). Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2012.
Reaves, Stacy W. A History and Guide to the Monuments of Shiloh National Military Park (paid link). Charleston, SC: History Press, 2012.
Sedore, Timothy S. “Shiloh National Military Park: Witness and Testimony.” Chap. 1 in Tennessee Civil War Monuments: An Illustrated Field Guide (paid link). Bloomington: Indiana University, 2020.
Smith, Timothy B. This Great Battlefield of Shiloh: History, Memory, and the Establishment of a Civil War National Military Park; Modern War Studies (paid link). Knoxville: University of Tennessee, 2004.
III. Mississippi Valley in the Civil War
Brazelton, B.G. A History of Hardin County, Tennessee (paid link). Nashville, TN: Cumberland Presbyterian Publishing House, 1885.
Hess, Earl J. The Civil War in the West: Victory and Defeat from the Appalachians to the Mississippi (paid link). Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 2012.
Woodworth, Steven E. Decision in the Heartland: The Civil War in the West (paid link). Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 2008.
IV. Tourism
Auto Tours
Grimsley, Mark, and Steven E. Woodworth. Shiloh: A Battlefield Guide (paid link). With cartography by Christopher L. Brest. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006.
Moore, Wayne C. A Path Divided: Tennessee’s Civil War Heritage Trail (paid link). Nashville: Tennessee Wars Commission, 2016.
Tennessee Agriculture and Commerce Department. Tennessee Civil War Trails Map Guide. N.p.: State of Tennessee, 2016.
Hiking & Biking
Roark, Kelley and Stuart Carroll. “Shiloh Monuments Hike at Shiloh National Military Park.” Chap. 3 in Hiking Tennessee: A guide to the State’s Greatest Hiking Adventures (paid link). Guildford, CT: Falcon Guides, 2016.
Trailhead Graphics. Battlefield America: Shiloh Battlefield; Civil War Map Series. Revised, Aurora, CO: Trailhead Graphics, 2012.
For U.S. Civil War reading recommendations, click here.
For Antietam and C&O Canal reading recommendations, click here.
For Chickamauga reading recommendations, click here.
For Gettysburg reading recommendations, click here.