Our morning started out very foggy again. Several boats had planned to head out early this morning, but the fog was so bad they couldn’t leave until 10. This is one of the boats heading out at 10, with a thin layer of fog still hanging over the water. It cleared up completely soon after, and we heard they all had a safe trip down the river.

We headed into Corinth MS with a marina courtesy truck in the late morning to pick up a rental car for a couple of days. I took care of some banking and post office errands and found it strange to be driving again!

After a quick lunch back at the boat we headed out to the Shiloh National Military Park, which is about 20 miles away. We stopped at the visitor center to watch a 30 minute film about the battle that occurred there before driving through the park. The film was very well done and really helped us to have a better sense of the enormity of what happened there. It still was very hard to imagine tens of thousands of men battling over this immense area. There are tablets everywhere describing where troops were at various times.

Throughout the park were monuments to various regiments. Some were quite large and listed several regiments, like the Iowa one, and some had smaller ones for individual regiments. This Indiana one was one of three in a row for the state.

     

This plaque and map explain why this was such an important location for the Union to control. This was a major supply route for the confederacy, so they thought if they could cut off this route that would be the end of the war.

     

     

The photo on the left shows the place on the Tennessee River where Union gunboats provided protection for Beull’s troops to cross over and join Grant on the battlefield. The photo on the right is Pittsburg Landing.

Located within the park is the Shiloh Indian Mounds National Historic Landmark. This site was inhabited around 1000 CE by Woodland/late Woodland people and later by Early Mississippian people until about 1350 CE. It was getting late in the day so we didn’t get to really explore this area, but I had to at least get a photo for my son.

     

We ended the tour at the National Cemetary, where the Union soldiers were eventually buried. Nearly 3600 soldiers are buried here, but only one third are identified by name. The remaining two thirds are simply marked with a rectangular stone column with a number on the top.

We weren’t sure of the significance of the coins on the top of this gravestone. We’re familiar with the Jewish tradition of putting stones on top, but have never seen money on top. Anybody out there know why coins are there?

     

It was amazing to us how well documented exact locations for various events seemed to be, as well as times when events occurred. Did anyone really pull out a pocket watch and jot down the time when troops advanced or retreated? And how do they know the exact ravine in which Gen. Johnston died?

As we were driving out of the park, Rich stopped the car and said “Armadillo!” There, just a few feet off the road, digging for some tasty morsel, was indeed an armadillo. That wasn’t really on my bucket list, but it still was cool to see.

We stopped for an early dinner on the way back to the marina and a full moon was already rising by 6:20 (photo on left). By 6:45 it was really dark and the moon cast this great reflection on the water.