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- Apr 8, 2018
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In order to fight away boredom today I decided to watch the old History Channel's "Battlefield Detectives" episode covering Shiloh. Being someone who is not the most well read on Shiloh I kind of watched it with interest.
I think they had several things wrong, some obvious, others not so obvious:
1. Hornet's Nest archaeology
I found their conclusions on the Hornet's Nest and it being a myth very interesting. But as someone who loves to sit down and listen to stories from old timers, their basing so much on the bullet finds seemed to be something that should be approached with caution as back in the good old days people could, and did go metal detecting on CW battlefields. Thus making their golden egg of evidence seem a little flawed to me on the service.
I'm not disputing their conclusions on the Hornet's Nest, I just think the show could have been a little more thorough in their explanations.
2. Bloody Pond
They spoke in the program as if every soldier after the first day's fight converged on that pond, which I think folly to even think of. The battle was fought right beside the Tennessee River and had creeks in several places. Plus I've always heard Bloody Pond didn't exist as some might think.
3. The Food/Calories aspect of the show
I found this to be very interesting and full of good points, however I also think there was a ton of flaws. First off I think their apparent selection of a test subject was WAY off for their calculations as the guy looked like a body builder, something no soldier on either side of the CW were. I would think that would be basing calculations on a test subject different from the historical soldiers and would consequently be out there, but its a show. Plus their espousing that almost every Confederate solder, (1 in 6) was suffering from scurvy seemed a little out there for many reasons.
Also their saying there was no fruit for Confederates because of people eating it all up in the Fall or it would go bad was equally laughable for many many reasons, biggest one to my mind, cellars. It would also be a double edged sword because that would mean the Union Army would be as ate up with Scurvy and thus in the same condition.
I'm curious what everyone else thinks, I could go on and on, but as I said I'm not the most well read on Shiloh.
I think they had several things wrong, some obvious, others not so obvious:
1. Hornet's Nest archaeology
I found their conclusions on the Hornet's Nest and it being a myth very interesting. But as someone who loves to sit down and listen to stories from old timers, their basing so much on the bullet finds seemed to be something that should be approached with caution as back in the good old days people could, and did go metal detecting on CW battlefields. Thus making their golden egg of evidence seem a little flawed to me on the service.
I'm not disputing their conclusions on the Hornet's Nest, I just think the show could have been a little more thorough in their explanations.
2. Bloody Pond
They spoke in the program as if every soldier after the first day's fight converged on that pond, which I think folly to even think of. The battle was fought right beside the Tennessee River and had creeks in several places. Plus I've always heard Bloody Pond didn't exist as some might think.
3. The Food/Calories aspect of the show
I found this to be very interesting and full of good points, however I also think there was a ton of flaws. First off I think their apparent selection of a test subject was WAY off for their calculations as the guy looked like a body builder, something no soldier on either side of the CW were. I would think that would be basing calculations on a test subject different from the historical soldiers and would consequently be out there, but its a show. Plus their espousing that almost every Confederate solder, (1 in 6) was suffering from scurvy seemed a little out there for many reasons.
Also their saying there was no fruit for Confederates because of people eating it all up in the Fall or it would go bad was equally laughable for many many reasons, biggest one to my mind, cellars. It would also be a double edged sword because that would mean the Union Army would be as ate up with Scurvy and thus in the same condition.
I'm curious what everyone else thinks, I could go on and on, but as I said I'm not the most well read on Shiloh.
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