Day 156 Visiting Shiloh

John booked the marina courtesy car for 8am so we could visit Shiloh Battlefield and Cemetary. Since we are both interested in the Civil War, it was a fascinating day trip. We started our exploration of Shiloh at the visitors center where they show a very well done, informative movie about the battle - no politics, no philosophizing, just 50 minutes of facts and tragedy. It's overwhelming to even try to comprehend what took place on this hollow ground. Since the Confederates retreated on the second day, the Union soldiers were left with the duty of disposing of the dead. Shiloh is a national cemetary now, but the majority of the graves belong to Union soldiers who died there. In a couple other areas of the "park" are mass burial trenches of Confederate soldiers. One trench that we walked to contains the remains of over 1,700 fallen Rebels. It's scenic, still and serene wandering around on the fields where skirmishes took place, but it's not pleasureable somehow - more troublesome. Ironic that the bloodiest battle of the Civil War was fought in a place named after a little Methodist gathering hall or church - nothing holy happened at Shiloh. We saw a majestic buck beyond some cannons. Life goes on. Headed back to the marina and watched some football, planned more of our trip. Later sat on the dock talking to some Loopers we recently met and more and more boaters joined us. Suddenly a docktail party broke out. Met a lot more Loopers here - nice people from all over the country. Many are heading south for the winter. Tomorrow we are moseying down the Tenn Tom to an anchorage in Bay Spring Lake.