The bloody, two-day Battle of Shiloh in 1862 is often
considered to be the first major battle of the Civil War. Here along the Tennessee River, Confederate
forces were unsuccessful in preventing a Union advance into the Mississippi Valley. What I found to be most interesting about
Shiloh, however, was not the battle itself, but some of the stories. Here, for example, Federal surgeons set up one
of the first field hospitals of the Civil War. By focusing medical services on the
battlefield, patient care was vastly improved and the death rate was lowered. It was also at Shiloh that John Wesley
Powell, who would go on to explore the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon,
lost his right arm.
Like many of the other Civil War parks throughout the
country, Shiloh offers a battlefield tour, through the major sites of the
battle. We drove the tour route where we
saw the many monuments erected by the states that participated in the battle.
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| Confederate Memorial |
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| Iowa Monument in the Background |
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| Mortuary Monument to Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston, Who Was Struck by a Stray Bullet |
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| Smaller Monument Are Scattered Throughout the Battlefield |
The visitor center at Shiloh also has the distinction of showing
the oldest orientation film at a national park. Produced in 1956, the film is a bit dated, to
say the least, even if it was an award-winning production in its time. National Park Service interpretation has come
a long way, and a new film will soon be offered at Shiloh.
We ended our tour with a catfish lunch before making our
way even farther south into Mississippi.
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| Visiting a Battlefield and Eating Catfish Along the Tennessee River |
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