SHILDON, a market town in the Bishop Auckland parliamentary division of Durham, England, 9 m. N.W. from Darlington by a branch of the North Eastern railway. Pop. of urban district of Shildon and East Thickley (1901) 11,759. At New Shildon or East Thickley are extensive railway engine and wagon works belonging to the railway company. A large coal traffic is handled here, as there are Collieries and foundries in the vicinity.
SHILLETO, RICHARD (1809–1876), English classical scholar,
was born at Ulleskelf in Yorkshire on the 2 5th of November 1809.
He was educated at Repton and Shrewsbury schools, and Trinity
College, Cambridge, and in 1867 was elected a fellow of Peterhouse.
His whole life was spent in Cambridge, where he died on
the 24th of September 1876. Shilleto was one of the greatest
Greek scholars that England has produced, in addition, he had
an intimate acquaintance with the Latin and English languages
and literature. He published little, being obliged to devote the
best years of his life to private tuition. He was the most famous
classical “ coach ” of his day, and almost all the best men passed
through his hands. His edition of the De falsa legalioue of
Demosthenes will always remain a standard work, but his first two
books of Thucydides (an instalment of a long-contemplated
edition) hardly came up to expectation. His pamphlet Thucydides
or Grote? excited a considerable amount of feeling. While it undoubtedly
damaged Grote’s reputation as a scholar, it was felt
that it showed a want of appreciation of the special greatness of
the historian. Shilleto’s powers as a translator from English
into Greek (especially prose) and Latin were unrivalled; a
selection of his versions was published in 1901.
See B. H. Kennedy in Cambridge Journal of Philolagy (1877).
SHILLING, an English silver coin of the value of twelve pence.
The origin of the word is somewhat obscure. There was an Anglo-Saxon
coin termed scilling, or scylling, worth about five pence,
which is said to be derived from a Teutonic root, skil, to divide,
+ling on the analogy of farthing (q.v.). The silver shilling was
first struck in 1504, in the reign of Henry VII. In Charles II.’s
reign shillings were first issued with milled edges. In George IV.’s
reign were issued the so-called “lion shillings,” bearing the
royal crest, a crowned lion on a crown, a design reverted to in the
coinage of Edward VII. A shilling is token money merely, it is
nominally in value the one-twentieth of a pound, but one troy
pound of silver is coined into sixty-six shillings, the standard
weight of each shilling being 87·27 grains.
SHILLONG, a town of British India, in the Khasi Hills district
of Eastern Bengal and Assam. It is situated in 25° 34′ N. and
91° 53′ E., on a plateau 4978 ft. above the sea, 63 m. by cartroad
S. of Gauhati, on the Brahmaputra. Pop. (1901) 8384.
Shillong practically dates from 1864, when the district headquarters
were transferred from Cherrapunji. It was chosen as the
seat of government in 1874, when the province of Assam was
constituted. Every one of the public buildings and houses that
quickly grew up was levelled to the ground by the great earthquake
of the 12th of June 1897, but they have since been rebuilt.
Cantonments are provided for a battalion of Gurkhas with two
guns, and Shillong is the headquarters of the Assam brigade of
the 8th division of the Northern army. There are a government
high school and a training school for masters. The Welsh
Presbyterian mission is active in promoting education. Since
1905, when Dacca became the capital of the new province of
Eastern Bengal and Assam, Shillong has declined in importance;
but it is still the summer residence of the government and the
headquarters of the district.
SHILLUH, or Shlūh (“vagabonds”), the name given by the Arabized Moors to the Berber peoples of southern Morocco.
They occupy-chiefly the province of Sus. The name is said to
be a corruption of áshlūh (pl. íshláh), a camel-hair tent. They
are of fine physique, strong and wiry, and true Berbers in features
and fairness. They are as a rule shorter than the Berbers of
Algeria (see Berbers and Morocco).
SHILLUK, a Negro race of the upper Nile valley, occupying
the lands west of the White Nile from the Sobat northward for
about 360 m., and stretching westward to the territory of the
Baggara tribes. They are the most numerous of the Negro tribes
of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, and form one great family with
the Alur and Acholi (q.v.) and others in the south. Formerly
extending as far north as Khartum and constituting powerful
Negro kingdom, they are now decadent. They are the only race
on the upper Nile recognizing one chief as ruler of all the tribes, the
chief ship passing invariably to the sister’s child or some other
relative on the female side. The Shilluk towns on the Nile bank
are usually placed near to one another. They own large herds of
cattle. In physique the Shilluks are typical Negroes and jet black.
The men used to wear nothing, the women a calf-skin attached
to their girdle, but with the establishment of Anglo-Egyptian
control, c. 1900, they gradually adopted clothes. The poorer
people smear themselves with ashes. They ornament the hair
with grass and feathers in fantastic forms such as a halo, helmet,
or even a broad-brimmed hat. When they saw Schweinfurth
wearing a broad felt hat they thought him one of them, and were
amazed when he took it off. They are skilful as hunters, and
especially as fishermen, spearing fish while wading or from
ambach rafts. Their arms are spears, shields and clubs. Their
religion is a kind of ancestor and nature worship.
See G. A. Schweinfurth, Heart of Africa (1874); W. Junker, Travels in Africa, Eng. ed. (London, 1890–1892); The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, edited by Count Gleichen (London, 1905).
SHILOH, BATTLE OF. This, the second great battle in the American Civil War, also called the battle of Pittsburg Landing,
was fought on the 6th-7th of April 1862 between the Union forces
under Grant and Buell and the Confederates under A. S. Johnston
and Beauregard. In view of operations against Corinth, Mississippi,
Grant’s army had ascended the Tennessee to Pittsburg
Landing and there disembarked, while the co-operating army
under Buell moved across country from Nashville to join it.
The Confederates concentrated above 40,000 men at Corinth
and advanced on Pittsburg Landing with a view to beating
Grant before Buell’s arrival, but their concentration had left
them only a narrow margin of time, and the advance was further
delayed by the wretched condition of the roads. Beauregard
advised Johnston to give up the enterprise, but on account of
the bad effect a retreat would have on his raw troops Johnston
resolved to continue his advance. Grant meantime had disposed
his divisions in camps around the Landing rather with a view to
their comfort than in accordance with any tactical scheme. No
entrenchments were made; Halleck, the Union commanding
general in the West, was equally over-confident, and allowed Buell
to march in leisurely fashion. Even so, more by chance than
intentionally, Buell’s leading division was opposite the Landing,
awaiting only a ferry, on the evening before the battle;
Grant, however, declined to allow it to cross, as he thought that
there would be no fighting for some days. At 6 A.M. on the 6th
of April, near Shiloh Church (2 m. from Pittsburg Landing), the
Confederate army deployed in line of battle, and advancing
directly on the Landing, surprised and broke up a brigade of the
most advanced Union division (Prentiss’s) which had been sent
forward from camp to reconnoitre. The various Union divisions
hurriedly prepared to defend themselves, but they were dispersed
in several camps which were out of sight of one another, and thus
the Confederate army lapped round the flanks of each local
defence as it encountered it. The two advanced divisions were
swiftly driven in on the others, who were given a little time to
prepare themselves by the fact that in the woods the Confederate
leaders were unable to control or manoeuvre their excited troops.
But the rear Union divisions, though ready, were not connected,
and each in turn was isolated and forced back, fighting hard,
towards the Landing. The remnant of Prentiss’s division was
cut off and forced to surrender. Another division had its commander,
W. H. L. Wallace, killed. But on the other side the
disorder became greater and greater, many regiments were used
up, and Johnston himself killed in vainly attacking on a point
of Wallace’s line called the Hornet’s Nest. The day passed in
confused and savage scuffles between the raw enthusiasts of
either side, but by 5.30 P.M. Grant had formed a last (and now a
connected) line of defence with Buell’s leading division (Nelson’s)
and all of his own infantry that he could rally. This line was
