Shiloh Battlefield Tour

Iowa State Monument

At seventy-five feet tall with a bronze eagle and globe overhead, this is the largest monument at Shiloh, dedicated in 1906 to honor the thousands of Iowans who withstood the battle's shock. Walking its base reveals an inscription honoring the "twice five thousand men" who fought here.

Grant's Last Line

Standing among the six monuments here puts you exactly where roughly eighty cannons held a desperate final line as darkness fell on April 6th. That thin margin of survival gave Buell's reinforcements time to arrive overnight by steamboat and reverse the entire battle by dawn.

Sherman's Headquarters

A quiet walk into the woods here leads to a pyramid of stacked cannonballs marking where Sherman, having dismissed every warning of attack, rode straight into the crossfire to rally his men after being shot through the hand. Three horses were shot from beneath him before his icy composure saved the Union right flank.

Shiloh Church

This replica log structure marks the epicenter of the first morning's chaos, where Confederate troops overran the site and converted the sanctuary into a field hospital. The name Shiloh means "place of peace" in Hebrew, a bitter irony given what happened here.

Hornet's Nest

Walking into this dense thicket puts you inside the sunken road where Union troops under Prentiss and Wallace held off eight Confederate charges over six hours, the incoming fire sounding like swarming hornets. Sixty-two Confederate cannons finally broke the position late in the afternoon

Peach Orchard and William Manse George Cabin

Step toward the reconstructed cabin and you'll see bullet holes still riddling the logs, while the field around it once saw pink peach blossoms drift down over the dead. The sunken road behind the cabin gave Union defenders yet another natural trench to hold.

Bloody Pond

Standing at the water's edge, it's hard to reconcile this peaceful, shallow pool with what happened here, as wounded men and dying horses turned the water a deep crimson. Delirious soldiers still crawled to it for relief, making this one of the most sobering stops on the walk.

Davis Wheat Field

This nineteen-acre clearing saw what Union General Thomas Crittenden called the fiercest fighting of his entire Civil War experience, including a bayonet charge that briefly captured the Washington Artillery of New Orleans. Private Samuel B. Todd, brother of Mary Todd Lincoln, died in this field.

Hazen's Brigade Monument

The monuments here sit at the far side of the field, and the walk is worth it to stand where Colonel Hazen led a desperate bayonet charge that stalled the Confederate momentum long enough for Union units to regroup.

Jones Field

This ground flipped twice in two days, falling to Confederates by the afternoon of April 6th before Lew Wallace's fresh troops drove them all the way back to Shiloh Church by mid-morning the next day

Pittsburg Landing

Your walk ends on the bluffs above the Tennessee River, where steamboats once delivered desperately needed reinforcements while thousands of demoralized soldiers huddled below, marking the beginning and the heavy conclusion of the Shiloh story.