Performed by William Lee Golden, with Chris Golden on guitar and Jenee Fleenor on fiddle. Written by M.G. Smith
Shiloh Hill
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
But there aren’t any hills at Shiloh …
Walk along Riverside Dr. between the Cemetery and Dill Branch, and you’re liable to change your mind.
I recently learned that’s the area referred to as Shiloh Hill.
I’ve biked that route, so can attest to the elevation. Still wouldn’t call it a “hill”—it’s a ravine between two pieces of tableland. And there wasn’t much (if any) fighting there.
I agree with your geographic/topological description.
But, “tableland cut by ravines” is nearly impossible to fit in poetic rhythm, let alone rhyme.
And I believe that’s more or less where Smith’s unit, the 2nd Texas, ended up. Jim Taylor sang an old East Tennessee version that converts the narrator into a Union soldier:
“My uniform of blue was turned into a purple red
When someone on a coming steed did sword me on the head
I sent a bullet to his heart and as he fell away
I saw the face of my dear father dressed in bloody gray”
So, plenty of poetic license in use. No surprise there…
Joan Baez recorded a song called “the Hills of Shiloh” in her typical style.
I haven’t read it yet, but I like how the video is currently adjacent to the ad for Christian McWhirter’s “Battle Hymns.” Shiloh may well have inspired more non-history art than any other battle. I am looking forward to reading that book.
Elton John doesn’t have any Gettysburg songs:-).
The cemetery footage of Golden was actually shot in the McGavock Confederate Cemetery in Franklin. They were out last year and all the guys were really great.
Is there any reason to think this version is sung by a Confederate? I thought that ambiguity was rather the point.