Corinth, MS Rest Day

Saturday, October 4, 2003
Distance Cycled: 0 miles
Our Total Flat Tires on trip to date: 1

Joan took us to the Shiloh Civil War Battlefield. It was a very interesting tour that took several hours. Ulysses S Grant may have been a defeated general if General Prentiss had not sent out a reconnaissance patrol of 200 men because he suspected that there were confederate troops in the area. As it was, the Union Army was over run and had to abandon their tents, canteens, food, etc. as they fell back to a sunken road that faced an open field. Behind the road was a dense wood where Union troops were able to use the trees and a split rail fence as cover as they fired upon the Confederate Army. For seven hours, the Union troops held off the attacking Confederate troops until a Confederate General Ruggles concentrated 62 field artillery guns from 11 batteries to bombard the Union troops in the sunken road area. The intense fighting was known as the "Hornet's Nest" due to the bullets whizzing by in one concentrated area

This gave Grant the time to build a new defensive position on top of a ridge just before Pittsburg Landing. Most of the Union troops in the sunken road area were able to retreat to the new defensive position but 2,250 Union troops were surrounded and captured. .

That night Buell's army of Ohio reinforced Grant and the next day Grant was able to recapture the entire battlefield lost the previous day. The Confederate Army then had to retreat back to Corinth.

We then visited the Tennessee River Museum in Savannah, Tennessee and the state Park at Pickwick Landing. We then returned to Joan's house, ate a wonderful supper, washed clothes and cleaned our water bottles.