Contradiction On The Battle Of Shiloh

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Hardik Lad

TN History 2030

Prof. Derek Frisby

Contradiction on the Battle of Shiloh

The Battle of Shiloh took place on Sunday and Monday, 6th and 7th April 1862. It was considered one of the bloodiest battles during the civil war period. Because of the battle took place during the April month it is also known as bloody April. The Battle of Shiloh was between the Union and the Confederates where Ulysses S. Grant was union leader and Albert S. Johnston was confederates leader. Furthermore, this paper will be based on contradictions of two articles called "Shiloh in Fiction" by Timothy Morris and "The Battle of Shiloh" by John T. Shelton. This paper will also cover what types of sources these articles use.

First of all, the author Morris in his article "Shiloh in Fiction" starts with basic information about the battle and moves to his main point by stating, "In History: Narration-Interpretation-Orientation, Rusen distinguishes four types of historical narration" (283). These four types of historical narration include traditional narrative, exemplary narrative, critical narrative, and genetical narrative. Moreover, author also gives us brief description on each types of historical narration. First, traditional narrative repeats the foundation stories in order to confirm the permanence of a culture’s privileges. Next, exemplary narrative, "draws on the past to guide future conduct; we learn wise courses and eschew foolish or vicious once by looking to past events" (283). In critical narrative, identifies the problems in traditional or standard accounts, improving them to draw contrarian conclusions and to prevent given pattern for identity. And last, in genetical narrative, "seeks to understand how the process of forming memories of the past has shaped those memories" (283). Therefore, author’s main focus in this article will be these four historical narrations.

While on the other hand. In the article "The Battle of Shiloh" author Shelton also starts with basic information about the battle and moves to main point as describing that although battle was fought during two- day period but out of those two days author will be focusing on second day of the battle. Also, in this article author only talks about how battle was found and what types of concepts were used in battle field. For the better understanding of the article author uses three distinct phases. In which phase one is grant transitions to the offense, phase two is Beauregard retrogrades to Shiloh church. And the phase three as Beauregard orders a retreat.

Moving on to the types of sources, the author of "Shiloh in Fiction" uses twenty different types of source in his article. Also, this article is mainly composed of secondary sources of all types and these sources include books, articles, periodicals, and many other types of source and here is the list of those sources. The Gun of Shiloh: A Story of the Great Western Campaign, Long Day at Shiloh, History as Orientation: Rusen on Historical Culture and Narration, Bobbie Ann Mason’s Marriages, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, Roman historique, roman de moeurs, Shiloh, Seeing the Elephant, Journey to Shiloh, The Long Night, Shiloh and Other Stories, Shiloh-In Hell Before Night, Battle Cry of Freedom, Narrative Form as a Cognitive Instrument, Call Each River Jordan, Johnny Shiloh: A Novel of the Civil War, History: Narration-Interpretation-Orientation, The Untold Story of Shiloh, River Run Red: The Fort Pillow Massacre in the American Civil War, and The Shiloh Renewal. Author have basically combined these sources into one article and called it Shiloh in Fiction.

In contrast to the "Shiloh in Fiction," in "The Battle of Shiloh," Shelton has used completely different sources and those sources include Guide to the Battle of Shiloh, Staff Ride Handbook for the Battle of Shiloh, Shiloh: The Battle that Changed the Civil War, and Field Manual (FM). Furthermore, I believe that author has used these sources as his primary source but I was unable to determine for sure that if these sources were primary or not. Because the author used his unique way of describing his article, I determined that author used these sources only to get the idea for Battle of Shiloh. Therefore, unlike author Morris, Shelton did not used direct quotes or paraphrasing in his article.

Moreover, the "Shiloh in Fiction" represents our most compelling inspired attempts to discover just where we were on April 6-7, 1862, and where we have been landed ever since. They also represent some of our most intriguing representations of the abandonment of that quest for orientation (292). Also in this article, Morris has over used his source throughout his article by describing mainly about his sources. Battle of Shiloh was the bloodiest battle in the American History. Because its casualty was well over if we combined all other battles in American History until battle of Shiloh. Therefore this battle is much significant than other battles but Morris describe in his article that mortality in later civil war battles would exceed the toll at Shiloh.

In detail, describe that "Antietam in September 1862 and Gettysburg in July 1863 were bloodier battles, and ultimately more heavily mythologized than Shiloh" (292). But author also states that the Shiloh holds a bigger impact on American culture in major part because it was much early in the civil war.

Despite of Morris article, Shelton has different point of view on the battle of Shiloh. During the phase one in the article, describe that "army of the Tennessee performed a perfect transition from the defense to the offence. This fact is clearly supported by grant’s use of the characteristics of the offense and his understanding of the purpose of the defense" (Shelton 51). Also, Grant’s weakness in this article was the stretching his supply lines and exhausting his troops. Furthermore, the summary is that "Grant was satisfied with the result of the battle of Shiloh, but failing to defeat the enemy is not acceptable in today’s army, and it was not acceptable in the civil war" (Shelton 53).

In Conclusion, even though these two articles had topic of Battle of Shiloh, they had completely different point of view on their topic. In contradictions of these two articles, I found that "Shiloh in Fiction" author have used many sources to make his article while in "The Battle of Shiloh," author describe that various different types of strategy they used in the battle. Also I found that Morris used secondary sources throughout the article while I was confused about the sources for the Shelton article.