Alerted by Confederate shots fired on his patrol, Major James E. Powell slowly advanced his infantry to this point, and his skirmish line entered Fraley Field just before dawn on April 6, 1862. The first soldiers wounded or killed that day fell here as Powell's men returned the musket volley they received from Major Aaron B. Hardcastle's Mississippi battalion. Hardcastle's battalion, part of the Confederate picket line, was positioned on the high ground where Fraley and Wood's fields meet. The evenly matched firefight in these fields and surrounding woods lasted about an hour before General Albert Sidney Johnston launched his attack and forced Powell to retreat, beginning the battle. During the next 34 hours, nearly 24,000 men would be killed, wounded, or captured in the Battle of Shiloh.

Photo: Bernard Fisher

Shiloh, Tennessee · USA