Tour Stop 12: A Visit to Shiloh Church

hey welcome everybody uh we've moved a little bit further to the north and sort of west in other words we're moving up and northward up the shiloh battlefield as the union army will eventually be pushed back toward pittsburgh landing and i'm inside shiloh church this is not the original structure but there was a structure here at the time it did not last very long after the battle but eventually one would be reconstructed on the same um on the same ground after there's another church built right next door to here parker might say a little bit more about that but note that shiloh church is right in the middle of the action there's the church there you see the confederate wave the juggernaut rolling over shermans and i think some of mclernon's men as well here so we've got a lot to talk about but we wanted to start inside this church because it lends its name to the entire battlefield i think originally it was probably one of those things where the churches split like so much of the nation over slavery and not and you know one one group came and formed their own church and placed it here shiloh place of peace so let me bring on parker hills who knows so much more about it i can say it in a decidedly more interesting manner than i can parker battle focus tours well we're here in shallow church as gary mentioned uh on the east side of the tennessee river uh the people were anti-slavery uh the west side of the river this was a more of a slave area here all of this land is pretty poor land up here there's not much plantation land up here really not a lot of slaves up in this part of the country the land is just not very good rocky not good soil certainly no cotton plantations nothing like that up here but the shallow church methodist church uh it did survive the battle there some who say it burned that did not i found a nice diary account of grant's dentist who mentioned that the soldiers were carving souvenirs out of this church gosh go figure soldiers carving souvenirs and also remember that lots of civilians came here after the battle and finally they said one soldier leaned his rifle against the side of the church and the whole building collapsed he just barely got out of the way before collapse from all the wood that had been carved away a more modern church was built here at the site of the old church and this church was built uh just about 100 feet or so from the modern church so it's not on the exact spot it couldn't be because there's a modern church there and then of course there's a cemetery here that belongs to the shallow methodist church gary all right good good well i think what we're going to do is we wanted to start in here because you know this is an iconic place and it's a beautiful place to shoot a video but let's follow parker on outside here and let's set up the action uh by way of reminder here we are it is april 6th things are already starting to now go well for the union the confederates despite all of their foibles and please watch your step that's uh chris mikowski behind the camera there um despite all their foibles and miscommunications have managed to get us you know superior forces onto this field overwhelming the union soldiers near fraley field overwhelming and moving you know in a mile wide advance and more as they start to move ever closer not toward their objective which is really to push the union over toward owl creek and whatnot but rather pushing the union army toward pittsburgh landing where they have guns and gun boats and we'll talk about that a little bit later but here we let me just make a game time audible here um parker mentioned the site of the original church this is still an active congregation the shiloh methodist church right there here's the building we were just inside so you can see the relationship between these two structures good and that's the second audible of the day so far and i think now you're seeing the church is active there it is still a cemetery out there you can see it but if you look around too if you caught during the pans you know there's some cannons over there and there's some you know and monumentation over there i look over here and it's right on the battle lines here so what you're seeing is a union line that can't possibly hold there's gonna be fighting here on the sixth and there's gonna be fighting here on the seventh that we haven't even talked about yet so parker make the have this make sense well let's see where yeah oh this one there we go sorry excuse me we are right here uh right here at shiloh church on the battlefield uh we have been uh down to uh to uh fraley field we've been over to shea field uh we've been over to rayfield to phoenicia the 53rd ohio and now we're here uh right here sherman's headquarters was rat cheers my trigonometry point to that so people can know which way we're facing okay so we're this is north going up always on a military map top of the map is north good and north is that way okay good so we're going toward pittsburgh landing over there absolutely so now uh the the confederates are now swinging around and they're trying their best to push the federals this away and so as the the confederate line attacks are swinging around and sherman's line is is beginning to collapse all along the shallow church line here lying here on the 6th of april 1862. now the tennesseans are off here on the confederate left flank they're attacking in the very vicinity of shallow church now here's something that's kind of interesting the confederates have brigade artillery the attack the artillery is attached to the brigades uh the federals have done something unusual here they have devoted division artillery and the division artillery uh is is is much more uh a large a loss of principle of mass that allows for it to be in the direction of one commander so you have unity of command there you've got the principle of mass two of the nine principles of war uh very important here the confederate horse trailer will play a very small role here because they're or are attached to brigades they're often off in the woods behind the trees it's a wooded area so uh we will see over here just in front of shallow church right off over here barrett's battery that will play havoc on the tennessee troops is they're coming up out of shallow branch right through here this line will eventually collapse and fall back towards the hornets nest line we'll see later on on the seventh day of april the next day on monday morning this will be the federal troops will be counterattacking and it will be here uh that uh that beauregard will be be told uh as he's saying the the uh the john donne calls his mules fresh troops are coming in here attacking remember grant says he didn't need mule well again if you believe that uh that's fine but uh uh belgrade will be told we're like a sugar cube that's soaked with water we're just about to dissolve and so beauregard will order a retreat they will fall back sherman at the crossroads which is only about a third of a mile to the north of us here he will come up with one of the 24-pounder howitzers of mcallister's battery and fire one and then finally he says it's the final shot of the battle of shallow well you know how that goes but it's nice to say it went there and i always liked that story because mcallister's battery he will resign after this this battle and it will be turned over to henry rogers who will take that battery to the vicksburg campaign we see them at the battle of raymond the battle of champion hill and at vicksburg military park so uh that will happen right here also beuwild's men will be opened fire through here on the seventh day on the monday the seventh day of april 18 16 62. another thing that's interesting and we'll see this in a few minutes the markers here are very unusual in this park we have rectangular markers for day one you want to walk over there and show them real quick we should do it so as we walk over maybe you can explain that we've got different shapes and different colors yes for different armies and different games right of course the blue is the federal army the red is confederate army but you get a third color introduced here yellow and the yellow has four and i'm sure they don't like this no soldier for the army a little howl for buel's army so uh so if you see a yellow marker then that represents buell's army of ohio and you see them here the blue the red and the yellow now notice this plaque here that explains it all if you see an oval yellow marker that's day two army the ohio and almost all the markers in this park are oval for the army of ohio because remember they they just get into the fight at the end of sunday the 6th of april there are only a couple of markers that are rectangular for the army of ohio uh the the red and the blue oval markers are of course the army of the tennessee and and then the the army of mississippi a red marker for for day two so this makes it easy easier to understand the action here easy to see if you see an oval marker you know this is day two action here this is pretty unique to this park it's very unique to this park and it would be of course for a lot of battles didn't have but one day but if you had something like this that battles multiple day battles such as gettysburg or uh it would be it would be a great deal of help for looking at it as gary mentioned uh there's no real standardization around and so you have to sort of play it by ear from parks park apart and again this is why you need to come on american battlefield trust events go with battle focus get yourself a licensed battlefield guide these are some we can help untangle those things you're with the american battlefield trust we're at the shiloh national military park with chris mikowski behind the camera that's parker hills who just left the view and i got a few things i want to say which i know surprises you first of all this is a confusing place so let me just say it again generally that is north okay and pittsburgh landing will be to the north and a little bit over to the right the confederates are trying to move in a direction where they can push the union army over in that direction but the terrain and everything is really starting to move a lot of the confederate army off in that direction pushing the union army toward pittsburgh landing and some of the protection of their gun boats over there it's not the first time that this would happen in the civil war so keep this in mind that's all on the sixth on the seventh grant will establish a line he's going to hold he's going to get reinforcements and do a massive movement against a really tired and soon to be crumbling confederate army so keep those a couple of things in mind while you're doing it another thing i wanted to say was parker's really good comments about the artillery early in the war there were a lot of these mixed units legions and whatnot we have infantry some cavalry and some artillery and they're working together as sort of mini multi-branch brigades of some sort and then as the war went on some of the largest armies not all like the parks today there is no consistency between the armies on exactly how they're going to do it but they're going to start assigning artillery to larger commands he already mentioned division artillery sometimes there's core artillery so that a core commander or a division commander could really mask their batteries and then you've also got i think it's about to get loud here um and then you've also got armies establishing artillery reserves so under a chief of artillery or under um the army commander somebody could mask 30 40 50 60 cannons at once to really achieve converging fire or to have really artillery dominance in a particular spot so the organization of the armies is absolutely fascinating and last one coming and since we haven't said it because we throw around some things you know if we hear us talk about the 26 wisconsin or the 15th mississippi those are regiments three 400 soldiers from the same county town or state or part of a state regiments make brigades brigades makes to make divisions divisions make core and core make armies now here here at at shiloh the union doesn't even have any core they only have divisions and so there are no hard and fast rules but i thought that might be helpful so here we are in this clearing parker anything else to add no yeah we will uh we'll be heading in and showing some other spots on the battlefield we'll take you around and show you where brigadier general natalie gladden will will be mortally wounded and see some uh some property that the uh trust is working on right now at the very moment very excited about it good i want to address one other thing by the way because you know chris especially chris and i come on here we're all excited great to be here and parker's telling some jokes and making us laugh and stuff i want to free you from any idea that you know veterans came here um and were all somber and seriously the entire time that's not how soldiers are that's not how veterans are they had fun on these battlefields they use the battlefields as bathrooms you know so we encourage people to engage with battlefields sometimes you're somber sometimes you're reverent sometimes you're enjoying yourself sometimes you're engaging with nature so i just in case anybody watches these and thinks we're a little bit too excited that's probably good advice sometimes especially chris and i get a little bit worked up and this is after lunch so that says a lot um you know i just want to give you leave to you know interact with your battlefield experience the way that feels right to you as long as it's legal so thanks to chris behind the camera thanks to parker again and we have so much more to see thanks for joining us share this with your friends go to battlefields.org and um get inspired there at battlefields.org thank you so much for watching you

Channel: American Battlefield Trust

Views: 15,672

Keywords: American Battlefield Trust, Civil War Trust, shiloh church tour, shiloh video tour, shiloh battlefield tour, civil war tennessee tour

Id: L96E6HX5exE

Length: 14min 23sec (863 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 10 2021