Journey to Shiloh doesn’t spend a lot of time setting up the premise, throwing the viewer into the story with a quick, jaunty theme song for exposition. Seven young cowboys ride out from Concho County Texas, seeking to join up with the Texas Brigade led by Confederate general Hood in Virginia. Led by Buck Burnett (James Caan), the septet quickly makes their way across Texas. Outlaws from the beginning, the frontiersmen unwittingly set up camp on a rancher’s land. After a short confrontation with the Rancher’s sons, the Concho County Comaches find themselves at an antebellum cotillion.
The rancher Mr. Claiborne (Chet Stratton), among other party guests, is offended by the cowboy’s condition and has them escorted from the house. Only the self-titled Alabama patriot, Airybelle Sumner (Trisha Stirling) acts in the way they expected confederates would treat soon-to-be soldiers. This interaction is enough to keep the young men inspired as they trek to the front lines, though their resolve and beliefs are chiseled away slowly and surely by their experiences across the rest of the South.
At first glance, Journey to Shiloh seems like a work of Confederate apologia. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. The journey of the Concho County Comanches is a loss of innocence, fraught with misplaced faith, lies, and manipulation. From the first interaction with the Clairborne family, it’s obvious that these boys have been sold a counterfeit bag of goods: Support for the war and the confederacy vary greatly from individual to individual. They view themselves as valiant soldiers, defenders of the homeland, but the affluent and the authorities often view the cowboys as uneducated vagabonds looking to stir up trouble or pawns in their personal schemes. This dissonance wears on the boy’s faith.
Racial tensions and violence are portrayed several times throughout the film and should be considered in recommendations to patrons. One such instance is Albert Popwell’s tragic portrayal of the runaway slave Samuel who ends up hanged because of the Concho County boy’s misplaced trust. The brutality of the Civil War is portrayed with gusto towards the end of the film. This is not a typical Western and is highly recommended for public library collections.