"Shiloh, Antietam and Chickamauga" Topic

I just finished two very good books about Shiloh and Atietam-Bloody April by Wiley Sword and Landscape Turned Red by Stephen Sears. I would highly recommend both. What other books could I read on these two battles that are comparable in depth to the two books I just finished.

Are there any maps of the Shiloh battlefield showing detailed terrain contours on the web? I have found lots of maps but only very generalized terrain contours.

Finally, what would be a good book on the battle of Chickamauga? Again, looking for lots of detail and good maps.

Thanks in advance!

PS:

Are there any good miniatures scenarios online concerning Shiloh?

"Are there any maps of the Shiloh battlefield showing detailed terrain contours on the web? I have found lots of maps but only very generalized terrain contours."

I think the important thing about the Shiloh battlefield is not the contours, but the fact that it was heavily wooded.

Gleam of Bayonets by Murfin (sp)on Antietam.

Jagger
Try the McElfresh Map. I think it may be what you're seeking.

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A plug for my favorite Antietam book. Antietam: A Soldier's Battle. Excellent minute by minute account of each regiment.

As for Shiloh, I use the Talonsoft game for scenarios. Don't know of anything online.

For Antietam, you will want to check out the Carmen-Cope maps – regimental detail, hour by hour, with contour lines. You can find them at aotw.org (the originals are on the American Memory site from the Library of Congress). I also recommend Gleam of Bayonets.

For Shiloh, you may want to purchase Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862 by Edward Cunningham, Gary Joiner, and Timothy B. Smith, just released in paperback. This is a classic study updated by current park historians and is filled with good maps as it is from Savas-Beattie.

Mike is probably right about Shiloh. The main contours you will want to model are the ravines, if any.

HEre's the link to the American Memory Civil War Maps section: link

Great stuff here – just search on the battle and check out the maps. You can copy and pasted into a graphics program to modify and print them.

The best book that I have read on Chickamauga is "This Terrible Sound" by Peter Cozzens. Some of the best battle narrative I have read and superbly detailed maps.

Agree on Cozzens for "This Terrible Sound." You might want to get the Army War College Guides to each of these battles if they are still available. They are made for walking the battlefields. I've walked each of them with the respective guides and the experience is quite enlightening.

John Michael Priest wrote two excellent books about the Antietem campaign. One is "Before Antietem, the Battle for South Mountain" and the other is simply "Antietem". Highly recommended, Priest takes things down to the brigade level and his detailed maps indicate where every regiment is and what they are doing. these books are goldmines for wargaming scenarios in addition to being good books to read.

A second vote for the Cozzens book. You will probably want to read the other two books in the trilogy as well that cover Stones River and the Chattanooga campaign.

Der Alte Fritz wrote it all before I could so ditto recommendation.

An older book, but still an excellent read, is Glenn Tucker's "Chickamauga: Bloody Battle in the West." Many excellent situation maps, mostly showing brigade movements. Lots of background color.

Hello Jagger,

Go to the CWPT page on Shiloh at:

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Click on the CWPT Battle Maps to go to a map of Shiloh. The map has contour lines that should be detailed enough to suit your purpose.

I agree with Cozzens for Chickamauga.

Ryan

I second Jeffersonian's recommendation for Tucker. I bought it wondering if it would be dated, by found it to be an excellent read also.

By the way, their are several historical trails of 10+ miles that transect the Chickamauga battlefield. The terrain never made much sense until I did these with my family (when the boys were Cub Scouts).

Rick

Thanks all! Lots of good stuff to dig through here. Cozzens and Priest both sound interesting. I also really liked the Chickamauga virtual tour page-excellent work. I think I have enough to keep my occupied for the moment.

I've got the maps up for the morning of Sept. 19th at Jay's Mill, about 2 PM. I'm working on the maps for the rest of the day and should have them up in a few weeks. Then its on to the modern day pictures. Then finishing the Confederate OOB for the 19th. Working hard every day!

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Cozzen's This Terrible Sound was the first ACW book I ever owned, back when it was first published. The book is beside me now and looks it!

Glen Tucker: "Chickamauga: Bloody Battle in the West" is good.

My recommendations in support that others have made are:

Shiloh – Edward Cunningham, Gary Joiner, and Timothy B. Smith

Antietam – Michael Priest

Chickamauga – Peter Cozzens

I particularly like Priest's work for designing scenarios for miniatures games. I've tracked his footnotes in some cases and found his interpretation of his sources to be the most thoughtful and thorough of the narratives I've read on the subject. However, his writing can get tedious if you are just looking for a good readible story. Cozzens is much better for that.

Mark

Cleburn, very good work on your Maps and descriptions for the Battle of Chickamauga. I have gone through all your maps through 2PM. Here are two suggestions for consideration. It would be helpful to have a map scale on each map. The maps are very detailed and having something to get a sense of distance would be very useful. I also noticed that the map legend doesn't include the symbols for fields, swamps, etc. I can guess but others may have difficulty. Those two minor points aside, your work is absolutely excellent. I really enjoyed seeing how the battle developed.

When will you do a virtual tour for Shiloh?

Cozzen's book on Chickamauga is very detailed, if a bit dry. I met him once at the San Diego CW Roundtable. He was actually living in Mexico when he wrote that. Don't know how he managed to research it from down there. (I asked, but he just laughed off the question.)

I definitely second the mention of Murfin's book on Antietam -- I've read both it and Sears' book (tho years apart). I liked Murfin's best, but perhaps that's because I read it first.

For Shiloh, there's Shiloh: In Hell before Night, by James Lee McDonough, and there's Shelby Foote's novel, Shiloh, which impressed me years ago. For a broader, strategic, view, there's From Fort Henry to Corinth by (general) M. F. Force, part of the Campaigns of the Civil War series, published in the 1880s, I believe.

Jagger, I had a "duh" moment this weekend and remembered about map scales too. A bit tedious, but I can go back and fix the maps easily enough. I've actually finished all the maps for the 19th and will have the whole day up in a few weeks.

Thanks for the tips!

Shiloh is on my list, but probably a few years away. Pickett's Mill is next. After that its either Chattanooga, Stone's River, or Shiloh. I haven't decided.

I received Peter Cozzen's, "Chickamauga" and Sear's, "Chancellersville". I have made it through the first three chapters of Chickamauga and a page turner so far.

Bragg and The Army of the Tennessee command are a quite a crew. Bragg appears to have been a combination of the worst elements of Pope, Hooker and Burnside all rolled together. And the upper echelon command infighting and backstabbing makes the Army of the Potomac look like a bunch of nuns. Amazing that army didn't simply fall apart.

Rosecrans sounds reasonably competent but then he was fighting Bragg. It was probably fairly difficult to look bad against Bragg.

Cleburne, keep us updated on your progress. I will probably use some of your maps and OOB's for scenarios.