In this missive, Ambrose Bierce recounts two days -April 6, and April 7, 1862 - perhaps the two most significant days of his life. He and over 100,000 other combatants have gathered about a small church near the town of Corinth, "a wretched place - the capital of a swamp, two days' march west of the Tennessee River". The church is Shiloh, and it will lend its name to the great battle that is to take place there.