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Book Reviews These are some reviews from a recent issue of
The Civil War News:
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“Seeing the Elephant” Raw Recruits at the Battle of Shiloh
by Joseph Allen Frank and George A. Reaves.
Illustrated, maps, softcover, notes, bibliography, index, 215 pp., 2003 reprint. University of Illinois Press, 1325 South Oak St., Champaign, IL 61820-6903, $17.95 plus shipping.
Seeing the Elephant, a reprint of a 1989 Greenwood Press publication by Joseph Allen Frank and the late George A. Reaves, is a statistical study of green soldiers’ motivations and experiences in their first battle. It makes use of the reminiscences of approximately 450 common soldiers and low-grade officers, from 160 regiments, who saw their baptism of fire on the bloody fields of Shiloh. This volume assumes some knowledge of statistical analysis on the part of the reader; just see one of the notes for example: “Chi-square yielded 11.22 with a probability of chance of only 0.01 percent and one degree of freedom. ... A parametric score with phi yielded 0.59 and a non-parametric score of 0.51 (contingency coefficient).” Before everyone digs out their old college statistics textbooks to find what the values of chi-square and phi signify, I should make it clear that there are extremely few instances in this volume where this would be necessary. The vast majority of Seeing the Elephant can be understood on its own merits. Another caveat, Seeing the Elephant does not presume to present a history of the battle of Shiloh. Knowledge of the battle is not necessary for an appreciation of this work but, if you are not already familiar with the battle, I would recommend perusing a campaign history before reading this. The two volumes the authors suggest are Shiloh—in Hell Before Night by James Lee McDonough and Shiloh: Bloody April by Wiley Sword. Frank and Reaves split their work into six chapters: Mobilization, “The Tented Field,” Campaigning, “Seeing the Elephant,” Tactical Reappraisals, and Strategic and Political Assessment. Under each chapter are subchapters; such as, in the chapter on Mobilization, Becoming a Soldier, Why They Joined, and Styles and Tools of War. As an example, one of the reasons they gave for why the men became soldiers is being “swept up by patriotic fervor.” They then provide the following quotation from a Northern volunteer: Perhaps the best way to give potential readers an idea of what to expect from Seeing the Elephant are a few more examples: “Cohesion was strengthened because Shiloh’s volunteers realized that when they eventually returned to the bosom of their friends and family, they would be held accountable for any lapses at the front. ... Prior to going into battle, a soldier-correspondent promised the people back home ‘I will send you a list of all the names of the men and officers of Co. G, 49th O.V.I. and what they are doing and who has deserted…exposing them to the public.’ “The battle was characterized, above all, by its unremitting intensity. ... The matrix of the battle of Shiloh was small for the size of the forces engaged, so that in this narrow space ‘the horrors of a battle was here demonstrated in its fullest sense.’ “The dilemma between civilian prohibitions against killing and a military ethos demanding the contrary is closely related to combat motivations of Shiloh’s soldiers. Whenever possible the soldiers preferred to avoid coming to grips with the dilemma. ‘I do not now have any conclusive knowledge that during my entire term of service I ever killed, or wounded, a single man,’ reminisced an Illinois soldier years later. ‘It is more than probable that some of my shots were fatal, but I don’t know, and am thankful for the ignorance.’”
Robert L. Durham
Robert L. Durham is a computer specialist. A longtime Civil War buff, he is also interested in Old West history and has written articles and book reviews for Alamo Journal, True West, Journal of the Alamo Battlefield Association, and Alamo de Parras web site at www.flash.net/~alamo3/
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