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Essays for the Battle of Shiloh
Essays for the Battle of Shiloh
Essays for the Battle of Shiloh
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Shiloh Book Analysis Summary: The novel, Shiloh, starts out by introducing the Confederate Army soldiers marching through the rain on their way to Pittsburg Landing in Tennessee. They stop for a minute to take orders from General Johnston, who suggested that the only way they might have a chance at winning the future battle is to plan a surprise attack. However, this element of surprise was shortly ruined when a few soldiers test-fired their guns, and again when the lot of them cheered loudly as the sun started to come out. They then continue on as Lieutenant Metcalfe, a 19-year-old “Aide-de-Camp” describes their conditions furthermore. Later on in the story though, Lieutenant Metcalfe is wounded in attempts to retaliate back and his horse
is killed. There are many characters that are involved in their own personal tactics moments before, after, or during the attack. For example, Captain Walter Fountain is mad that he has to carry out a duty that is usually below his rank. While on duty, he decides to write a letter to his wife, whom he hasn’t seen in six months. Turns out, he was one of the first victims of the Confederates’ surprise attack; this was on the Union Army. Again, Private Luther Dade was one of many who aided in the attack on the Union camp. He and many others were badly wounded, including Johnston who suffered fatal wounds. However the story ends with Lt. Metcalfe returning from battle, remembering all his army had lost at the end of those two days.
The novel, “Shiloh” by Shelby Foote is a fictional recreation of the bloody battle. The story begins with the soldiers of the Confederate Army heading towards Pittsburg Landing. The men are marching in terrible conditions. It is pouring down rain and they are dragging their tired legs through the mud. The troops come to a halt so the commanders can talk to General Johnston. General Johnston says the only way they might have a chance is if they plan a surprise attack. As the sergeants hand the men their guns, they are told to check the powder in case it got wet in the rain. A group of soldiers test their guns out on a deer running close by. At the same time the shots were fired, the sun came out and the soldiers started to scream and cheer. These noises combined were more than enough to alert the Union soldiers of the Confederates advance. Palmer remembers what his life was like before going to war. He attended the Louisiana State Military Academy when the Confederacy seceded from the Union. One of his professors predicted the south did not have a chance of winning the war. That night Palmer dreams of holding Sherman at gunpoint making him admit that he was wrong. Prior to the battle, the commanders create a battle plan. Palmer is assigned a part in this process. When the plan fails, Palmer learns that planning a battle is more difficult than it seems because the commanders on the ground face challenges that do not exist on paper.
Stephen W. Sears’ Landscape Turned Red is an account of political and military plans. Especially General Robert E. Lee’s Maryland Campaign as well as the Battle of Antietam. Sears frames his work around the pending support of Great Britain and France to the Confederate cause due to cotton. Landscape Turned Red covers the battle of Antietam. It offers a vivid account of both armies, the soldiers and officers, and the bloody campaign. It analyzes the impact of Antietam on the Civil War as a whole. Sears' use of diaries, dispatches, and letters recreate the Battle of Antietam. You experience the battle not only from its leaders but also by its soldiers, both Union and Confederate. Sears attempts to examine the tactical moves of both Lee and General George McClellan. He also talks about the foolish decisions that troubled both the Federal and Confederate forces. Sears' use of traits, political pursuits, and tactical preferences, explain the thoughts of many. Some of these include President Lincoln, General Halleck and General McClellan, and their subordinates. Stephen Ward Sears is an American historian specializing in the American Civil War. He is a graduate of Oberlin College and an attendant to a journalism seminar at Radcliffe-Harvard. As an author he has concentrated on the military history of the American Civil War. Such as the battles and leaders of the Army of the Potomac. He was an editor for the Educational Department at American Heritage Publishing Company. American Heritage Publishing two of his ten books.
Shaara’s novel Killer Angels shows the battle of Gettysburg through a number of unique viewpoints. Shaara offers a more intimate view of the battle than other Civil War novels. A reader can see the battle through the eyes of both Union and Confederate leaders. Through the novel the reader is able to see why each character is fighting and what they hope to gain from the war. Readers can also see the effect that the war has on the different characters. I will examine the war through the eyes of several different characters from Shaara’s novel.
The novel The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara depicts the story behind one of the bloodiest, and highly significant, battles of the American Civil War, the battle of Gettysburg. The battle consisted of 51,000-casualties between the Union and Confederate army forces. Mainly focused on letters, journal entries, and memoirs, Shaara tells the story of Gettysburg by using characters from both sides of the war. The characters chosen grasp the divergent views regarding the impending days of the war, and countless numbers of those views develop throughout the novel. Such views come from the Confederates own General Lee and General Longstreet, and the Unions own Colonel Chamberlain and soldiers from both sides. From those depicted
Bobbie Ann Mason’s “Shiloh” follows Leroy and Norma Jean Moffitt, a husband and wife, and their struggling marriage. In the beginning they had a typical marriage, and then as bother her and her husband evolve, Norma Jean questions her marriage and who her husband is. Norma Jean finds herself struggling to make sense of her marriage, and Leroy struggles to move beyond his accident. Through plot structure and third person dramatic point of view, Mason explores the issues of evolving and changing gender roles within a marriage.
The book Outlaw Platoon written by Sean Parnell is a soldiers’ tale of his platoon in one of the most dangerous places on earth. This book is a non-fiction riveting work that tells the story of a platoon that spent sixteen months on an operating base in the Bermel Valley, the border of Pakistan. This mission the men were sent on was part of a mission called Operation Enduring Freedom. This book is extremely relevant to the war that we are still fighting in Afghanistan and the humanitarian work that continues. We still have men in this area fighting and losing their lives everyday. It is the focus of ongoing political debates and the purpose of our involvement there is an ongoing question in the minds of many Americans. In writing this book, Parnell makes it clear in his author’s notes that he indeed was not trying to pursue one political agenda over another. His goal as not to speak of all members of the platoon and expose their identities and the types of soldiers they were but instead to showcase some of the men’s bravery and abilities during the war. Parnell believed that he owed it to the men to write something that would show the world what these men go through during combat in an honest and raw account. Another purpose of Parnell’s in writing this book is an attempt at making sure these men are given a place in American war history.
Dennis Covington writes about a unique method of worship—snake handling, in his memoir, Salvation on Sand Mountain. He begins as a journalist, looking in on this foreign way of life; however, as time progresses he increasing starts to feel a part of this lifestyle. As a result loses his journalistic approach, resulting in his memoir, detailing his own spiritual journey. Upon the conclusion of his stay in this world, Covington realizes the significance of this journey, and argues in his memoir that we cannot entirely know ourselves until we step outside of our comfort zone and separate ourselves from our norm.
Bobbie Ann Mason 's, Shiloh, told a story of a married couple torn apart by the injury to one, and the stress to the other. The story begins by describing the lives of the couple. Leroy, a truck driver, was injured in the leg in an accident on the highway four months before the author places us in the couple 's lives. Norma Jean, Leroy 's wife, started working out and is attending a body building class, and a night class subjected on English.
This type of novel is recommended for anyone interested in the Civil War. Not too many books explore the southern battles, especially from a Confederates soldier’s point of view. Bahr does an excellent job at capturing the essence of the Civil War and its affects on the people involved. The novel was nominated for several awards, earning the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Gettysburg College, won the Book-of-the-Month Club, and was a New York Times Notable Book. The book showed some popularity and sold 10,000 copies, but was heavily overshadowed by another...
“All up and down the lines the men blinked at one another, unable to realize that the hour they had waited for so long was actually at hand. There was a truce…” Bruce Catton’s Pulitzer prize winning book A Stillness at Appomattox chronicles the final year of the American Civil War. This book taught me a lot more about the Civil War than I ever learned through the public school system. Bruce Catton brought to life the real day to day life of the soldiers and the generals who led them into battle.
One of the main characters in this book is General James Longstreet of the Confederate Army. Longstreet graduated from West Point in a period when the soldiers were taught to practice defensive warfare. He is also a stubborn man, which makes it hard to convince him to try any type of war other than a defensive one. Because of how he was taught, he thinks the invasion into Pennsylvania is a mistake and is continually trying to get Lee to go on the defensive during the battle. However, like a strong commander would do, he doesn't mention this to the soldiers under his command until the conflict is settled. He shows this part of himself by telling one of the men under his command that he has, "been arguing against any attack at all," but still tells the officer, "we have our orders [to attack]" (201). With these words, he sends the men into a battle that he feels will fail. The men...
A true war story blurs the line between fact and fiction, where it is neither true nor false at the same time. What is true and what is not depends on how much you believe it to be. In the chapter “How to Tell a True War Story” from the novel “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, the author provides various definitions to how the validity of a war story can be judged. The entire chapter is a collection of definitions that describe the various truths to what a true war story is. Unlike O’Brien, who is a novelist and storyteller, David Finkel, the author of “The Good Soldiers”, is a journalist whose job is to report the facts. Yet in the selection that we read, chapter nine, Finkel uses the convention of storytelling, which relies heavily on the stories the combat troops tell each other or him personally. Finkel attempts to give an unbiased view of the Iraq war through the stories of the soldiers but in doing so, Finkel forfeits the use of his own experiences and his own opinions. From O’Brien’s views on what a true war story is combined with my own definitions, I believe that Finkel provides a certain truth to his war stories but not the entire truth.
The characters’ actions in the short story,“The Drummer Boy of Shiloh” support the generalization that people responded to the Civil War with hope. During war, there is usually a great increase in patriotism and endurance. At first, Joby is fearful of the next day during the battle. He knew that he was going to die tomorrow. He responded by giving up all aspiration that he would survive the battle, but his ambition came back when he spoke to the General. If Joby was still cowardly after talking to the General, he might have run away from the army, neglecting his duties. Thus, meaning that a person’s character does indeed affect their actions. In the beginning of the story, Joby is introduced as a young boy in the army during the Civil War.“Me,
The story, “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh,” by Ray Bradbury, has many ways of showing symbolism. Some ways of symbolism in this story is the peach blossom, the general, and the drum.
In this story Bradbury tells about a drummer boy on the night before Th the Battle of Shiloh in the Civil War. His name is Joby, the main character in the story.