Shiloh National Cemetery

After the Battle of Shiloh, Federal details buried the dead of both sides near where they fell because warm weather and the great number of bodies made quick burial necessary. In 1866 the United States Government established this cemetery for the permanent burial of Union soldiers killed at Shiloh and related engagements. Bodies were recovered from the battlefield and reburied here, often in regimental groupings, while the Confederate dead remain in five mass graves on the battlefield. Two-thirds of the 3,500 Civil War soldiers resting here are unknown, and many tombstones bear only a number or the words "U.S. SOLDIER."

Shiloh, Tennessee · United States