Shiloh National Military Park

Shiloh National Military Park preserves the American Civil War Shiloh and Corinth battlefields. The main section of the park is in the unincorporated town of Shiloh, about 9 miles (14 km) south of Savannah, Tennessee, with an additional area located in the city of Corinth, Mississippi, 23 miles (37 km) southwest of Shiloh. The Battle of Shiloh began a six-month struggle for the key railroad junction at Corinth. Afterwards, Union forces marched from Pittsburg Landing to take Corinth in a May siege, then withstood an October Confederate counter-attack.

Shiloh battlefield

The Battle of Shiloh was one of the first major battles in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. The two-day battle, April 6 and April 7, 1862, involved about 65,000 Union troops under Ulysses S. Grant and Don Carlos Buell and 44,000 Confederates under Albert Sidney Johnston (killed in the battle) and P.G.T. Beauregard. The battle resulted in nearly 24,000 killed, wounded, and missing. The two days of fighting did not end in a decisive tactical victory for either side—the Union held the battlefield but failed to pursue the withdrawing Confederate forces. Strategically, however, it was a decisive defeat for the Confederate forces that had concentrated to oppose Grant's and Buell's invasion through Tennessee.

The National Military Park was established on December 27, 1894. This was due to the request of local farmers, who were tired of their pigs rooting up the remains of soldiers that fell during the battle, and requested that the federal government do something about it. It was transferred from the War Department to the National Park Service on August 10, 1933. As with all historic areas administered by the National Park Service, the military park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.

Total area: 3996.64 acres (16.173 km²)
Federal area: 3941.64 acres (15.951 km²)
Nonfederal area: 55 acres (0.22 km²)

Corinth battlefield

After the Battle of Shiloh, the Union forces proceeded eventually to capture Corinth and the critical railroad junction there. On September 22, 2000, sites associated with the Corinth battlefield (see First and Second Battles of Corinth) were added to the park. Siege and Battle of Corinth Sites was designated a National Historic Landmark on May 6, 1991.

Shiloh cemetery

Shiloh National Cemetery is within the park. Union dead — 3584, of whom 2357 are unknown — reinterred in 1866; Confederate dead – 2. Transferred from War Dept. August 10, 1933.

Area: 20.09 acres (0.813 km²)

Shiloh Indian Mounds Site

The Shiloh battlefield has within its boundaries the well preserved prehistoric Shiloh Indian Mounds Site, which is a National Historic Landmark. The site was inhabited by a late Woodland or early Mississippian culture until it was abandoned sometime in the period from 1200 to 1300 CE.

Reference

The National Parks: Index 2001-2003. Washington: U.S. Department of the Interior.

External links