May 30, 2024, Ruleville, MS- There is a small mound, in the Shiloh Indian Mounds National Historical Landmark, that indicates the former dwelling place of a family of some status, in the vibrant community that once occupied a large area here, just west of the Tennessee River. On either side of the small mound is a larger mound, used for burials. The westernmost of these was used by the 28th Illinois Infantry Division, as a temporary burial site for its dead, after the Battle of Shiloh, in April,1862. The dead men were later laid to rest at Shiloh National Cemetery.
Shiloh,in Hebrew, means "tranquil; abundance". The place bearing the name, in southwest Tennessee, was once that. In March and April, 1862, that all changed. The Civil War had come to western Tennessee and northern Mississippi. General Ulysses S. Grant had brought his troops int o the area, after a signal victory at Fort Donelson, north of Nashville, Facing them was the Confederate Army of the Mississippi, led by General Albert Sidney Johnston, based in Corinth, a major railroad hub and link between Memphis, Nashville and New Orleans. It was Corinth that was Grant's true target. 23,000 men would die, in the course of this battle, making it the bloodiest episode in the American Civil War. https://npplan.com/parks-by-state/tennessee/shiloh-national-military-park-park-at-a-glance/shiloh-national-military-park-history-of-the-battle-of-shiloh-and-corinth/
Shiloh, prior to the battle, was a humble village of farmers, who had settled the area around 1816, having come by river, from Knoxville and Nashville. Farmers from Savannah, Georgia named the nearby County Seat for their former place of residence. Shiloh was named after a settlement in Samaria that had been referenced in the Bible (Jeremiah, 7:12-15.)
I have long wanted to visit this site, being dissuaded only by its remoteness and other more pressing concerns, when traveling to/from other parts of Tennessee. Today, there was lots of time, so I made three separate loops around the park, focusing somewhat on Pittsburg Landing and on the Shiloh Mounds. Here are some scenes of those loops, as well as of the short trail through the Mounds preserve.
Iowa Infantry Memorial, Shiloh National Military Park
Graves of comrades from Illinois, Shiloh National Cemetery, overlooking the Tennessee River, above Pittsburg Landing
View of Tennessee River, at Pittsburg Landing.
Site of wooden palisade, built by Iroquoian residents of Shiloh area, around 1200 A.D./C.E. It is not known why this wooden wall was built.
Burial Mound, Shiloh
Replica of Shiloh Meeting House (Church), which had served as General Johnston's headquarters during the first parts of the battle
I left, rather shaken, especially after viewing the film about the carnage, Given current tensions in the nation, right now, it is instructive for anyone with a conscience to take time and review what happened, when the idea of enslavement of others became somehow conflated with the notion of preserving freedom. Nationhood is NOT a zero sum game.
Driving south and west, I made a brief visit to Sumner, MS, where the courthouse at which the accused killers of 14-year-ole Emmett Till were acquitted of murder charges. They later admitted having committed the crime. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till
Tallahatchee County Courthouse, where Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam were acquitted of the murder, to which they later confessed.
I had had enough of carnage and injustice, for one day, and have settled in for the night at Ruleville Inn, in the hometown of Civil Rights icon Fannie Lou Hamer. It's a modest, but clean little place- albeit one where guests provide their own towels and wash cloths. The bed is new, though, and the TV works nicely.
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