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Each episode of Civil War Combat: America's Bloodiest Battles focuses on a single engagement from America's bloodiest war. To bring the human side of the drama to life, each episode, while offering larger strategic commentary, focuses sharply on a single unit that engaged in fighting. Through careful re-enactments, viewers are given a sense of what it was like on the ground for those who fought and died in some of America's most brutal battles. This episode is about the street fight that was the battle of Shiloh. The program details the shooting that surrounded a bit of forest that came to be known as the Hornet's Nest, where a small group of Union soldiers held the line and saved the day for General Grant against a superior Confederate force that was initially operating with the advantage of surprise. Grant's obstinate defense led to his reputation as a commander who was perhaps too willing to spill the blood of his soldiers.