Shiloh breaks early-war assumptions about survival

The deaths of Peabody, Powell, and other prominent men leading from the front help explain why Shiloh caused such alarm at home. At this early stage of the Civil War, many civilians still imagined that intelligence, hard work, or social standing might carry a capable officer safely through battle. Battlefield death disregards those qualities and often turns on position and luck. Shiloh was therefore a cultural shock as well as a military event.