Forest, Farms, and Creeks

In early April 1862, the landscape at Shiloh was defined by about forty farms, an old growth forest, wagon roads, the Tennessee River, and three prominent creeks. Although the farms are gone today, cleared fields remain, the forest still stands though younger and denser, and the river and creeks in the steep-sloped ravines are essentially unchanged. The paved roads of today follow the wagon roads that once linked the river with two nearby railroads. More than 70 log structures, including two churches and numerous farmhouses and barns, once dotted the area, but only one remains. The farming community that lived there, along with its fields and livestock, suffered through the two days of fighting, and the battle's scars remained long afterward. When the battle began, Sibley tents covered the landscape as five division camps for General Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee stretched from Pittsburg Landing past Shiloh Church for more than two and a half miles to the southwest, and the Battle of Shiloh was fought in and around this tented military encampment.

Shiloh, Tennessee · United States