We decided to take the kids to Shiloh National Military Park for Memorial Day weekend. It was surprising to me that I have lived in Tennessee all my life and did not realize where this park was located or the history that it entails. If you are interested in the history of the civil war at all, I would recommend this park. I would also recommend a half a day dedicated to it, especially if you want to drive the 13 mile driving loop that has 20 stops along the way.
Shiloh Visitor’s Center is the first stop of the day, this is where you will pick up your map. Also, inside there is a museum and a 45 minute video that depicts the Battle of Shiloh. I highly recommend this video, they do such a good job re-enacting the battle and making you feel like you are really there with those soldiers.Right inside the visitor’s center, there is a place for the kids to dress like a soldier from the civil war. It is a great learning experience for the parents and the kids.This is actually a small scale of the battle that is located in the Visitor’s Center. The battle of Shiloh took place on April 6th and 7th, 1862.The bookstore is located to the right of the Visitor’s Center. The park is open daily from 8am-5pm.This will be the first thing that catches your eye driving up to the Visitor’s Center and it is also stop #1 on the driving tour. This is the Iowa State Monument.The Eagle on top of the Iowa State Monument, the statue is 75 feet tall.This is also on the Iowa State Monument. The Battle of Shiloh had 11 Iowa regiments that totaled 6,664 soldiers. Of those soldiers 2,409 were killed, wounded, or missing. This was the greatest loss of Iowans in any battle of any war.The second stop on the driving tour is the Confederate Monument. This monument was dedicated by the Daughters of the Confederacy in memory of all southern troops that fought in the battle.Ruggle’s Battery is where the Confederates had 11 batteries of artillery which overtook General Prentiss and nearly 2,100 Union troops.Shiloh Church is a log Methodist Church and is actually how the battle got it’s name. The area at the time was known as Pittsburg Landing.The is a pullover and a small hike to Rhea Field. This is where the 6th Mississippi Infantry had a 70 percent casualty loss.At the end of the hike at Rhea’s Field, there is a monument for the Confederates that died in the trenches.This is located at Fraley Field where the battle began at 4:55am on Aprial 6th, 1862.This is the Minnesota Monument that is honored for the First Minnesota Independent Battery.The Tennessee Monument is called “Passing of Honor” and it shows a Confederate sergeant taking the flag from a dying soldier while another soldier stands guard.General Albert Sidney Johnston was the highest ranking officer killed in the civil war and that happened on the first day of Battle of Shiloh. He was shot in the back of the knee, hitting a major artery and died within 20 minutes. He was the General of the Confederate Army.This is the cabin that sat in the Peach Orchard where intense fighting took place on Sunday. The Manse George family farmed this land and had to flee when the fighting started. This is not the actual cabin of the Manse George family, but one that was moved from a different area of the battlefield to depict where their cabin would have set.The Peach Orchard is where the Confederates won on day one, but on the second day the Union won this ground back.Shiloh Battlefield is not only the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the civil war, it is also the largest surviving prehistoric site in the Tennessee River Valley. Some 900 years ago, Indians lived on this very land in a 1.1 mile loop. The name of the Indian tribe is unknown.Along this 1.1 mile hiking loop there are mounds that show where the homes were located of the Indians that inhabited this land.You can hike up stairs to get on top of one of the Indian mounds and this is the view from the top. A gorgeous view of the Tennessee River. The Indians fled and burned their town to the ground and no one knows why. Some think they spread out and joined other Tennessee tribes like the Cherokee and the Choctaw.You end the driving tour back at the Visitor’s Center and the cemetery. These are the gates to enter the cemetery.This cemetery was establish in 1866 and there are 3,892 soldiers buried here, from all wars. This gravestone was interesting to us because it is a soldier from the Revolutionary War.3,584 civil war soldiers are buried here with 2,359 of them being Unknown.Shiloh is one of the most well-known battles of the civil war and it was fought right here in our own backyard. It is hard to imagine 110,000 Americans fighting each other and in this battle alone 23,746 of those American Soldiers died.
I am so glad that I got to share this history with my kids. I learned so much about the Battle of Shiloh in the few hours that we spent here. We feel that for our kids to really understand what went on during those 2 days in April, we need to bring them here and show them, as well as, let them read it from a history book so they can grasp the reality of the Battle of Shiloh and the Civil War.
