Remembering Shiloh

As a resident of Spring Hill, Tennessee, our home is located near a Civil War battlefield. History runs deep here, like roots of an oak tree that anchor into the soil. My great-grandmother was born in Franklin, the county seat of which Spring Hill is a part. Both the Battle of Spring Hill and the Battle of Franklin are stopping points on the trail for Civil War history buffs. As many Americans claim, I had family on both sides of the war. Its an eerie feeling to drive by our local battlefield in Spring Hill and think that hundreds and hundreds of men were strewn out across those grassy knolls, broken, bleeding, suffering and saying their final prayers before meeting their Maker.

Today is a very important day in Civil War history. Exactly 150 years ago on April 6-7, 1862-- a couple of hours west of Nashville, on the way to Memphis in Hardin County--Union forces numbering 65,085 and Confederate troops of 44,968 met at at Pittsburg Landing for what is known as the Battle of Shiloh.  The two day engagement produced more than 23,000 casualties and was the bloodiest battle in American history at its time.  Confederate commanders Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston and Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard pounded the Army of the North, but in the end they were no match for  Union commander Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his stubborn forces.

Its amazing to think that so many were slaughtered there over two days of fighting. There is a small body of water on the battlefield known as Bloody Pond. Many of the wounded and dying crawled to the edge of the pond for one last gulp of cool water, eventually turning it blood-red. Within the nearly 4,000 acre Shiloh National Military Park is the infamous Hornet's Nest (so nicknamed for musket balls and shrapnel that filled the air), and the place where mortally-wounded Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston breathed his last.

The carnage at Shiloh most certainly shocked the nation at the time. Ironically, the battle was named for a tiny wooden church on the killing fields called Shiloh Meeting House--which means "House of Peace."

Two re-enactments are planned in conjunction with the 150th anniversary remembrance, but, out of respect, not on National Park Service grounds. They will involve more than 6,000 participants and more than 100 cannons.