21: Attend 150th Anniversary Celebrations of the Civil War

Shiloh was beautiful. I thought the place was ironic enough to begin with, as in Hebrew Shiloh means 'place of peace' and it had been anything but, a century and a half ago. We pulled in around 3 or so at the height of the afternoon, the place packed with cars. We got out and began to walk around, the monuments and markers scattered across the place giving it added weight. I realized with a start, looking at the map that we had arrived at this pond, where the Confederates had tried desperately to push back the Union advance on the second day of the battle. They had lasted until about 2PM before being forced back. 2PM. An hour before we arrived.

That thought blew my mind a little bit. We went down to Shiloh Church itself and I was somewhat surprised to find an actual church there- a Methodist one, just like the original had been.

Then we went up to the Hornet's Nest, where Iowans and other Union forces had held the line on that first furious day of fighting- I stared at the markers and stared out into the woods, trying to imagine what that would be like. Firing desperately at oncoming waves of grey, the trees so thick, the vegetation almost choking everything.

Then down the Sunken Road (not actually sunken... not sure why it's called that) and out into The Peach Orchard.

The Peach Orchard was unbelievably beautiful. So peaceful and yet you could see the battle in your mind's eye all too easily, the Blue and the Grey charging across the wide, green field. There was a lone tree standing at the edge of the field- I have no idea what, if any significance it had, but it was a big, huge old tree and it looked beautiful. So we went to check it out.

Then we went up to The Bloody Pond...

...before we headed up to the Visitor's Center to look at the Iowa Monument, the National Cemetary and Pittsburg's Landing itself.

It was amazing to see the battle put into perspective. You can read all the books you want about it, but actually seeing where they fought and understanding how desperate the struggle was and how close the Confederates came to victory that first day almost makes it come alive, in a way. But the main event was the Grand Illumination that night. A small army of volunteers had spread out throughout the park setting up 23,000+ luminaries- one for each casualty of the battle. I shudder to think just how long it took to light them all but the weather held up and they pulled it off. Although they had a set route that once you were on you couldn't get off (which was sort of annoying) there's no denying it was a powerful tribute to the fallen of Shiloh.

Overall, this was an amazing experience. It would have been cool to see a re-enactment of some kind but just going there and seeing the place up close was amazing enough- the Grand Illumination was just the icing on the cake really. The site was amazingly well-preserved and to be honest, I'd like to see more Civil War Battlefields- they're important parts of our history that should never be overlooked.