AllMovie

One of America's first successful "feature" films, the still extant The Battle of Shiloh was produced in 1913 by the Philadelphia-based Lubin company to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Civil War. Partially filmed on what today is Valley Forge National Park, the four-reel extravaganza told a not-too-revolutionary story of a Southern woman (Nell Craig) spying on General Grant (John Smiley), who is using her home as his headquarters. The reenactment of the battle was the film's great set piece, however, and the studio reportedly spent 21,000 dollars on these sequences alone.