Wednesday, October 5 (7:30 PM) thru Saturday, October 8 (5 PM)
Headquartered in Corinth, MS
Led by A. Wilson “Will” Greene
Registration Fee: $475.00This tour is dedicated to the Memory of David C. Hinze who loved the Shiloh Battlefield
Like so many engagements in the Civil War, the Battle of Shiloh revolved around a railroad junction. The new city of Corinth, Mississippi sprang up at the point where the Mobile & Ohio Railroad crossed the Memphis & Charleston line. Control of that vital crossroads would be determined in the spring of 1862 by the most sanguinary combat the North American continent had ever witnessed to that point and the jarringly contrasting semi-siege that followed. Four months later, two different armies would clash again around Corinth in a dramatic and bloody contest for control of what the locals call, The Crossroads.
Our tour of the Shiloh Battlefield and the two major military actions at Corinth will take a detailed “boots on the ground” look at one of America’s most pristine military landscapes. The Shiloh National Military Park preserves the vast majority of the battlefield that pitted Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, and Don Carlos Buell against Albert Sidney Johnston, P.G.T. Beauregard and an upstart cavalry officer named Nathan Bedford Forrest. Unlike so many other battlefields fought over nineteenth-century road corridors that have now become interstate highways, Shiloh’s pedigree along the Tennessee River in rural west Tennessee has allowed the area to remain much as it was 149 years ago. We will get out on the battlefield and walk as the soldiers did over the ground they hallowed on April 6 and 7, 1862.
Our itinerary will include retracing the Confederate approach routes to the battlefield, a visit to Union headquarters at Savannah, Tennessee, and a detailed walking tour of the key spots at Shiloh including infamous places such as The Hornet’s Nest, the Bloody Pond, and the Peach Orchard.
We will also spend a day in and around historic Corinth, including a visit to the outstanding Corinth Interpretive Center, operated by the National Park Service. Our route will take us to well-preserved fortifications prepared during May 1862 when Henry W. Halleck methodically compelled Beauregard to abandon Corinth, most of which are hidden away in the woods north of town. We’ll also visit key locales associated with the October 1862 Battle of Corinth, which witnessed some of the most proportionately horrific casualty rates of any Civil War battle in the Western Theater. We’ll also take a peek at some of Corinth’s surviving antebellum homes and sample the unique 21st century attributes of this charming little city.
