Covering the period of Shiloh to the prelude to Vicksburg, Volume 5 of this distinguished series converges on the many dramatic changes taking place in Grant’s military career.

The bloody two-day battle of Shiloh, the dominating event covered in this volume, shocked both North and South, caused public opinion to run against Grant, placed his career at a low point, and tested his will to remain in service. The period, therefore, is significant for the portrait emerging of Grant meeting a variety of problems ranging from grand strategy to mundane detail. The volume is particu­larly rich also in unpublished letters and documents from some twenty-two institu­tions and nine private collections here opened for the first time.

John Y. Simon is Executive Director of the Ulysses S. Grant Association and Pro­fessor of History at Southern Illinois Uni­versity Carbondale.

Volume 5 was edited with the assistance of Thomas G. Alex­ander, Professor of History and Assistant Director of the Charles Read Center for Western Studies, Brigham Young Uni­versity.