Shiloh Civil War National Park

Wow, what a terrific day! Though the Shiloh Civil War National Park is much smaller by scale than the Vicksburg Military Park, it was by far our favorite. The monuments were more 'simple' and there were far fewer monuments, however, this park did a good job outlining each area of the Park with "Who" was where; "Where" the Blue/Gray lines were drawn; "Where" the battlefields were and who was killed.

There was a very sobering site halfway through the battlefield. The Shiloh Civil War was the bloodiest battle in the Civil War. More than 2,700 men died that day. More than 1,700 troops that died that day were from the Confederacy. After the one-day battle, many of those in the vicinity had requested to go to the battlefield and find their loved ones to bury them. So General Beauregard sent a messenger to deliver a note to General Grant requesting a temporary truce, in order to bury their dead. Grant responded that it was too late, his troops had already buried them.

The Conferderate forces that died in the battle of Shiloh, were buried in "Mass Graves". Archaeologist have located the largest of these mass burial sites. We took pictures. They simply dug a very long trench, and simply dumped all the dead into the trench and covered it up. More than 700 men were buried in the mass grave marked. It was sobering. Sad. Most of these men and young boys in battle, on both sides, were farmers and the only thing they'd ever tried to shoot were deer and other game. We've learned so much about the Civil War in the last few days, between Vicksburg and Shiloh.

On a brighter note, when we were checking out the Shiloh Church, which existed at that time, and has since been rebuilt at the same location. Using old documents, they built a cabin with the same dimensions. We were walking around the grounds and peeked inside the building and got to visiting with a guy and his wife who were planning to have their wedding vows renewed in that very building. They were joined by friends and the wedding planner.

All of them are quite involved with the re-enactments of the civil war. Now these guys know their history! The one guy set to renew their wedding vows, had a Confederate Hat; Confederate Checkbook hanging out his pocket; a Confederate belt buckle...and on and on. Mark and I thorougly enjoyed talking to these guys. They were a hoot too. Just listening to them talk about what transpired in that area (they parents; grandparents And Great-grandparents all lived in this area). Savannah is in Hardin County, and apparently he was a well known figure during the civil war and afterwards. The stories are too numerous to mention here, but suffice to say we really enjoyed listening to what "actually" happened. We must have stood there talking for at least an hour and would probably still be talking but they had to leave to continue their wedding plans.

The Shiloh Cemetary was much much more impressive as well. You enter through these magnificent gates. Once you enter, there are large monuments representing where Grant had his 'office' while in camp. The cemetary is beautiful. Peaceful. There are several tombstones that indicate "two soldiers buiried here"...with no name. Those actually buried in the cemetary are mostly Union soldiers...the Conferderate soldiers were buried in the mass grave trenches by the Union soldiers.

Though we only spent one full day here, we really enjoyed it. The folks at this RV Park, at the laundry where we did some clothes this evening, were all so friendly. Just good ole' country folk, guess you could say. We leave early tomorrow morning for Pigeon Forge, Tennessee to spend a few days at the Smoky Mountain National Park. We'll probably spend 3 - 4 days in Pigeon Forge before moving on to Chattanooga, our last planned stop in Tennessee.

Well, that's about it for this update. I've downloaded our pictures from today, but haven't had time to upload them so I can put them on the blog. I'll try to do that tomorrow night. Talk to you soon...~