A Book Report Shiloh A Novel by Shelby Foote Essay Example

A Book Report: Shiloh: A Novel by Shelby Foote Essay With Shiloh: A Novel, Shelby Foote has written a very interesting novel that uses several interesting devices. Instead of choosing a particular character as hero and following him throughout the battle as one might expect, Foote uses the Battle of Shiloh, known by the Confederacy as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, itself as the hero, [t]he hero of this novel is a battle, Bloody Shiloh (Foote flyleaf). Foote does not discuss the battle in terms of which side won the battle or how many casualties there were, but more as a single complex unit not made up of sides, or armies, or military units, but made up of thousands of individuals from throughout the United States and the Confederate States of America. From the perspective of the individuals in the battle these statistics do not matter. What matters to each of the individuals in the battle is what happened to them personally during the battle. Foote tells the story of the battle by looking through the eyes of men who fought there. The book is written in seven chapters. Each chapter focuses on what happens to a particular individual during the battle. Foote balances the account by spending a similar amount of time with members of the both Confederate and Union Armies. The first chapter is told through the eyes of Lieutenant Palmer Metcalfe, an Aide-de-Camp, for General Sidney Johnston, commander of Confederate troops in the West. Metcalfe ha turned nineteen just two weeks prior to the April 1962 Battle of Shiloh. The chapter begins during the Confederate armys march from Corinth, Mississippi northward toward Pittsburg Landing where the Union Army was camped between two creeks with its back to river [Tennessee River] with hopes of trapping the Union Army against the water where they would be unable to retreat. Metcalfe and his immediate superior, Colonel Jordan had written the marching order. Metcalfe was particularly proud of the order, which was based on the opening section of Napoleons Battle of Waterloo (Foote 11). Ironically, Metcalfe appears not to realize that Napoleon lost the Battle of Waterloo. The Confederate Army arrives on April 5 and camped, ready to attack the next morning. Ultimately the battle would be fought over two days, April 6 -7 (Foote 4-30). At the first sounds of gunfire, Metcalfe hears General Johnston say, [t]he battle has opened, gentlemen, . . . [i]t is too late to change our dispositions.   As Johnston mounts his horse and starts toward the frontline he says, [t]onight we will water our horses in the Tennessee River (Foote 30). We will write a custom essay sample on A Book Report: Shiloh: A Novel by Shelby Foote specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on A Book Report: Shiloh: A Novel by Shelby Foote specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on A Book Report: Shiloh: A Novel by Shelby Foote specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The next chapter is told from the point of view of Captain Walter Fountain, an adjutant to Colonel Appler in the 53rd Ohio Infantry. His position as a junior officer is similar to Metcalfes in Chapter 1. His story begins early on the morning of the first while Fountain is serving as Officer of the Day (OD). Even though the Union Army is poised to begin the battle it is quiet this early in the morning so Fountain is writing his wife a letter with the Regiment mascot, a redbone hound named Bango to tell her about his recent experiences. He points out that the Tennessee River and the two creeks the army is camped between are flooding. The Tennessee is located down a hundred foot bluff that prevents easy escape for the army even if the river were able to be forded. Both Fountain and his wife have known General Ulysses S. Grant for years. For the last twenty years he was known as Useless Grant because he failed at everything he had done. He failed as a farmer, storekeeper, and in his firs t efforts in the Army because he took to drinking. At the time of the Battle of Shiloh Grant had reentered the army and placed in charge because he was popular with the men and was not afraid to fight until the battle was decided. This was in strong contrast to many of the other Union generals who were reluctant to commit their soldiers into battle (Foote 31-60). As the day breaks Fountain finishes his letter and looks across the field when he hears the sound of cannon fire. I saw the skirmishers come through. They looked tall and lean . . . they carried their rifles slantwise across their bodies (Foote 60). Foote continues throughout the book progressing chronologically through the battle by switching back and forth between characters and changes the point of view from the Confederate to the Union and back again. The last chapter is once again told from the perspective of Palmer Metcalfe who is, at the end of the Battle of Shiloh, unattached since General Johnston was killed during the battle. This use of Metcalfe to close out the book is very effective. Since he is unattached he is able to represent the unattached Confederate Army that has lost its commander. Foote makes clever use of a device by having characters reappear later in the book. They are viewed through the eyes of the current chapters main character who sees them in their post-battle condition. For example, Captain Fountain and the dog Bango, featured in chapter two, reappear in chapter four after the end of the first day of the battle. Private Otto Flickner appears while hiding at the base of the hundred-foot cliff. He me ets an unnamed private from Captain Fountains unit who has Bango with him. This soldier tells the story about Bango and Captain Fountain. Fountain had been hit directly by a cannon round and killed by the explosion of the shell. It blew cuts all over the dog, scared him so bad he wasn’t [sic] even howling—he was just laying there making little whimpering sounds . . . (Foote 101-102). Similarly, Private Luther Dade, the Confederate rifleman featured in chapter 3 where he was wounded in the arm and was unable to lift it no higher than this (Foote 85). Dade reappears in chapter 5 where Sergeant Jefferson Polly encounters a tow-headed boy wearing a homespun shirt . . . his left arm across his stomach . . . (Foote 141). Dade reappears in the last chapter where Metcalfe sees him. Dades arm has been removed and he mumbles to himself over and over [i]t don’t hurt much, Captain; I just cant life it (Foote 196) and finally on the last page of the novel where he asks Lieut enant Metcalfe Lieutenant—did we get whupped (Foote 222)?   This device is very effective in providing a thread of continuity throughout the book and adds interest for the reader when later recognizes a character from the distance of a third person observation instead of the first person narrative used when he initially met the character. Shelby Foote is extremely well qualified to write a novel about the Civil War. Foote is a well known as a writer and historian. In the 1960s and 70s he wrote a three volume history of the Civil War that has received wide acceptance. When Ken Burns produced his series The Civil War for the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) he was regularly both for his knowledge of the facts of the war as well as his extensive inventory of anecdotes and stories of the time period. Shiloh: A Novel is a very unusual and interesting book. Instead of writing a novel that features the carnage and fighting during the war with lots of statistics, Foote has focused on the Battle of Shiloh as an individual. Instead of listing lots of casualty figures Shiloh: A Novel tells what happened in during the battle. He tells what happened to individuals and how the back and forth fighting and the flow of the battle affected not only the outcome of the battle and the Civil War, but shows how individuals were affected. Not only does the reader learn about Johnstons death, but also he learns about the fate of Lieutenant Metcalfe, Private Dade and Bango the mascot redbone hound. Instead of providing the reader with a box score of the battle, Foote provides intimate portraits of those involved.