Shiloh’s Casualties

Statistics alone do not reveal the magnitude of human suffering and loss at Shiloh. In the battle’s aftermath, the piteous cries of the wounded and dying filled these woods. Everywhere the ground was strewn with bodies. The grotesque appearance of many of the corpses shocked eyewitnesses. Because of the warm weather, General Grant ordered the Federal troops to bury the dead immediately. Many were buried in large trenches, Union and Confederate separately. In the mass grave in front of you the bodies of more than 700 Confederate soldiers were stacked in layers seven deep.

Shiloh, Tennessee · United States