Summary Of 'The Drummer Boy Of Shiloh'

The author, Tim O'Brien, is writing about an experience of a tour in the Vietnam conflict. This short story deals with inner conflicts of some individual soldiers and how they chose to deal with the realities of the Vietnam conflict, each in their own individual way as men, as soldiers.

To begin, the story starts out with a huge debate between the soldiers. One boy had heard a rumor that the regiment would be moving on to fight a battle the next day.

Company Aytch, a memoir written by Sam Watkins, tells the personal tale of a lowly private fighting four long years in the American Civil War. Watkins was from Columbia, Tennessee, and was a part of Company H, 1st Tennessee Infantry. He recounts his military career in chronological order, from before the Battle of Shiloh in 1862 to the day the Confederacy surrendered at Nashville in 1865. Watkins is a humble writer, often reminds the reader that he is not aiming to provide a comprehensive account of the entire war, but rather a collection of personal stories. Military history books often recount the lives of generals and of great strategies, but this book insists that history should not exclude the common men who filled the ranks of the military.

McDonough, James L. War In Kentucky: From Shiloh to Perryville. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1994

Drummer Boys played a valuable role in the war. They supported the troops by: 1) completing camp chores to free the men for more difficult tasks, and 2) They played duty calls and signals to tell the soldiers what to do during combat and played marching music to boost troop morale. 3) They helped sustain order and discipline. The drummer boys were from the thirteen colonies. They were often enlisted by their parents or if they were a slave by their master. Some slaves volunteered so that they could earn their freedom. The drummer boys also enlisted because they were very patriotic. The age range of the drummer boys was sixteen to twenty although there younger drummers who were twelve to fourteen years old.

A little ten year old boy was taken as a prisoner of war. He was snatched out of his life and destined to die while others lived. His death actually happened in history, but also in the novel, My Brother Sam Is Dead. It is the year 1775, the Revolutionary War is just stirring among the people. The narrator is Tim Meeker, the youngest son in a family that runs their tavern in the town of Redding. The Meeker family goes through many sufferings at the cost of war. His older brother, Sam is a Yale student who goes to war to fight the British against his father’s wishes. Through the course of the book, many sufferings arise in Redding. Life gets tougher and the Meekers experience the hard reality of war. The authors are against war because they

The Battle of Shiloh is also called The Battle of Pittsburg Landing and was fought April 6-7, 1862. The battle took place in southwest Tennessee, the western theater. An army known as the Army of Tennessee, lead by Ulysses Grant, advanced into Tennessee territory by route of the Tennessee River. While they were camped deep in Tennessee territory the Confederate Army of Mississippi launched a surprise attack on General Grant and his soldiers. General Albert Sidney Johnston and his second-in-command P. G. T. Beauregard initiated the first assault on the Union troops. Unfortunately General Johnston was mortally wounded. General Beauregard decided not to continue the attack throughout the evening. In the morning Grant’s army having been reinforced

General Lee once remarked, “Without music, there would have been no army” (Kehoe). The New York Herald concurred with Lee in 1862 when a reporter wrote, “All history proves that music is as indispensable to warfare as money; and money has been called the sinews of war. Music is the soul of Mars...” (Bowman). It is evident from these quotes the important role music played in helping soldiers from both armies cope during the war. The Civil War would have been immensely different without the considerable influence that music had on both the Union and Confederate armies. Music played a significant role in motivating soldiers to overcome their hardships in both the Union and the Confederate armies by entertaining and comforting, bringing back memories of home and family, and strengthening the bonds between comrades and helping forge new bonds.

The second phase of the Battle of Shiloh starts as reinforcements from General Buell’s Army of the Ohio and a unit of Grant’s own reserve division joined the Union Army now positioned at Pittsburg Landing. These reinforcements added over 22,500 men to the Union lines13 bringing the total number of Union forces to over 45,000, which is more than they had on 6 April, the first day of fighting.14 On April 7, General Grant renewed the fighting with an aggressive counteract.15 Greatly outnumbered (Confederate forces now around 25,000) and disorganized the Confederate forces now under General Beauregard fought hard but eventually had to retreat to back Corinth.16 The second phase of the Battle of Shiloh was won by General Grant and his Union forces due to two main reasons. The first, Union troop numbers greatly outnumbered their enemy, over 45,000 to 25,000 respectively. And secondly, the reinforcements received by General Grant had not fought the day before and were fresh and excited to fight, unlike the exhausted remaining Confederate troops.17 This was the bloodiest battle fought on American soil up to that point, with 23,746 casualties (Union: 13,047; Confederate: 10,699).18 The Union lost more men but claimed the victory because the Confederate Army retreated back to Corinth, Mississippi.

In “Company Aytch,” Sam R. Watkins first wrote this book to describe his experience at the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee, in 1864. As a soldier in Company H of the First Tennessee Volunteer Infantry Regiment, CSA, Watkins witnessed the panorama of war in grand scale as he marched and fought with the hard luck Confederate Army of Tennessee across the Western Theater. His honest, vivid, and dramatic memoir, published in the 1880s, is a classic that conveys the horrors, humor, and realism of the Civil War, and the firsthand experience of being in this war

Jean Fritz tells a compelling story of Thomas Stonewall Jackson. She describes the humble beginnings of this great military figure. The reader gets a sense of the passions and feelings of General Jackson. Not only is Stonewall Jackson reflected on as a military leader, he is also

During the bloody massacre there was a legend of a drummer boy named Johnny Clem. He ran away from home to join the army against the confederates. On the night of the tale the boy turned 14 in a peach field. when a confederate attacked his unit Johnny shot and killed him. Johnny

In the short story “Shiloh”, written by Bobbie Ann Mason, symbolism is widely used. The story has several different messages behind the symbols used throughout the story. The log cabin, the Civil War battle of Shiloh, the dust ruffle and a flock of birds are all similes used to foreshadow and help readers further understand. Although the symbols have different messages, they all tie together to produce the conclusion of the whole story.

In the year 1931, all nine of the Scottsboro boys Haywood Patterson, Charles Weems, Clarence Norris, Andy Wright, Ozzie Powell, Olen Montgomery, Eugene Williams, Willie Roberson, and Roy Wright are arrested and tried on charges of assault from fighting white boys on a train. Along with accusations made by Victoria Price and Ruby Bates that the boys raped them. Their trial begins April 6, 1931. All of the boys except for Roy Wright are tired and convicted, with the result of the death sentence, Roy Wright’s trial ends in a mistrial. Later the NAACP and International Labor Defense, fight to represent the boys. Even though there was no proof that the boys committed these crimes they

“Shiloh” is a short story written by Bobbie Ann Mason in 1982. The story is very detailed and includes many arguments of the era’s expectations that relate to the story. Many of us may question “Was Leroy and Norma Jean’s marriage actually secure love and did it seem like love in the 1980’s anymore and why did it all change? Did Norma Jean just reject Leroy’s creativity and love? The character’s marriage is what ties everything together but is also destroyed within time. In the story Norma Jean, wife of Leroy, starts to grow but leaves Leroy behind. Due to Norma Jean’s pregnancy they were married at a young age and stayed married with fading love. It was miraculous to Leroy that there marriage was still united since the death of their first and only child 15 years ago, since most marriages had a higher risk of getting divorce upon the death of a son or daughter. However, Leroy and Norma Jean didn’t divorce because they ignored and hid reality in the deepest parts of their hearts. Norma Jean’s leaving in the marriage, was predictable but surprising. Norma Jean expressed fatigue and annoyment in her marriage with Leroy however she then felt empowerment to fulfill her life as an independent woman by basically erasing Leroy out of the picture. If Norma Jean was able to leave everything she ever had their must of have been factors to influence her decision and certainly a reason because Norma Jean knew she was the only thing Leroy had left to count on.