if you have time, on your way back to memphis from murphreesboro, take the senic route and stop at Shiloh National Millitary Park. The walk down the Hornets Nest to the Bloody Pond is a sobering one. Shiloh National Military Park was established in 1894 to preserve the scene of the first major battle in the Western theater of the Civil War. The two-day battle, April 6 and 7, 1862, involved about 65,000 Union and 44,000 Confederate troops. This battle resulted in nearly 24,000 killed, wounded, and missing. It proved to be a decisive victory for the federal forces when they advanced on and seized control of the Confederate railway system at Corinth, Mississippi. The battlefield contains about 4,000 acres at Shiloh and an interpretive center at Corinth, Mississippi. The park has within its boundaries the Shiloh National Cemetery along with the well preserved prehistoric Indian mounds that are listed as a historic landmark. The Shiloh battlefield is located in Hardin County, Tennessee, on the west bank of the Tennessee River nine miles southwest of Savannah, Tennessee, with an additional park unit located in the city of Corinth, Mississippi, twenty-three miles southwest of Shiloh.
