Photos

All was very quiet on this little brick path running through the cemetery at Shiloh National Military Park. The Park is located in the U.S. state of Tennessee on the site of the American civil war battle of Shiloh fought in April 1862. The battle lasted two days and was a victory for the Union, under the command of General Ulysses S. Grant. It resulted in the death of Confederate General Albert Sydney Johnston, the Supreme commander of the Confederate forces in the western theater at the time.

The cemetary is situated on the banks of the Tennessee River from which Grant's troops had made a landing. While these awaited reinforcement by troops under General Don Carlos Buell, Johnston decided to attack before the two union forces could combine. In the first day of fighting, the confederates drove the Union troops back to the river but were unable to destroy them. During the night, Buell's forces arrived and the union counterattacked the next day. Johnston was killed and the confederates, now under the command of General P.G.T. Beauregard, were forced to retreat to nearby Corinth, Mississippi. Johnston's loss was a serious one for the confederacy.

Combined union and confederate losses in the battle of Shiloh were 23,746 killed, wounded or missing. This was more casualties than America had suffered in all previous wars combined. People began to realize that the war was going to be longer and much more terrible than they previously imagined.

I visited near dusk on an overcast day late in October. I was the only the person around.
I used my camera's "dusk/dawn" setting.