Corinth, Mississippi, as an important railroad hub of the Confederate Army, was heavy fortified. It was the focus of the Union Army led by US Grant who set up camp in the countryside 22 miles north of the town near Shiloh Methodist Church in April 1862. Rather than wait for the Union Army to advance to Corinth General Johnson, the Confederate commander, marched 44,000 men north to ambush them. The surprise attack was foiled when a Union patrol discovered the Confederates early in the morning of April 6. Two days of fighting in the fields and woods resulted in heavy casualties with almost 24,000 Union and Confederate men killed, wounded, or missing. The Confederates retreated to Corinth which fell to the Union in late May 1862.
The park has small visitor center with a 32 minute award-winning interpretive film. A ten mile self-guided driving tour takes visitors through the battlefields and past memorials, cannons, and interpretive signs. The park brochure gives details of the action at each numbered stop. An interpretive trail loops through the mounds of a Native American village that was deserted around 1300 AD. Artifacts found during archeological excavations are displayed at the Tennessee River Museum.
The museum is accessible. The trail through the mounds is narrow and rough and is not accessible.
The parking lot has long RV spaces. Park 35.15134, -88.3218
Thank you, Shiloh has been on my list for some time and you do a really good job of explaining it!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome and thank you too! I try hard to make my summaries of the places that we visit as concise as possible but sometimes I wonder if they still make sense when I leave so much of the story out.
DeleteYou can spend a lot of time following the Civil War. I've always thought that a real Civil War buff could spend years traveling around if they started with the first battle and progressed through time. They'd have to pick one commander and follow him. It would probably still be confusing at times.