Shiloh is an unincorporated community in Hardin County, Tennessee. [1]
“Pitts” Tucker founded Pittsburgh Landing, Tennessee by building a tavern and so a town and port was built around that.
Shiloh is of somewhat unknown origins but descendants of the Iroquois settled the area and built the Indian mounds in both Pittsburgh Landing/Shiloh and Savannah, Tennessee. Then, during the Westward Expansion Era, Lewis Wicker bought 400 acres of land in Shiloh/Pittsburgh Landing all the way from at least Perry Field to Downtown Shiloh. He later sold most of the land, only keeping Perry Field, Wicker Field, and the Peach Orchard. Lewis built the infamous “Cabin at Shiloh,“ the only cabin that survived the battle. The Church of Shiloh (shiloh was a Hebrew word meaning "place of peace") had been established beforehand and would later be destroyed in the battle.
The Battle of Shiloh was some of the bloodiest days of the war with more casualties in two days than the American Revolution, The War of 1812, and The Mexican-American War combined in one battle. [2] In the early morning on April 6, 1862, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was getting his troops ready in both nearby Savannah, Tennessee and Adamsville, Tennessee. While Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston was getting his troops ready from both Saltillo, Tennessee and Corinth, Mississippi. The battle that ensued for the next two days would be large with the Confederates winning the first day and the Union winning the second and the battle as a whole.
In the following years until 1885, Shiloh/Pittsburgh Landing were in ruins. It was so bad that Shiloh and Pittsburgh Landing had to merge to stay afloat under the one name Shiloh. James Mansfield George moved the Wicker Cabin and that’s why it’s called the ““Manse” George Cabin,” today. By 1885 Alvis Wicker, son of Lewis Wicker bought the cabin from “Manse” and it was the “Wicker Cabin,” until around 1890 when he moved out and the cabin fell in disrepair.
By 1895, the “Manse” George Cabin’s roof had fallen in and everything was in disrepair until 1901 when Theodore Roosevelt became President of the U.S. after the assassination of William McKinley. Roosevelt created the first few national parks including Shiloh National Military Park. The cabin was restored by 1933 and Downtown Shiloh was rebuilt with modern buildings and the original entrance to the park along a road that no longer exists, and all new monuments were built and a brick visitor center was built at Pittsburgh Landing.
In Spring 1903, a EF3 tornado swept away the visitor center and surrounding woods and monuments.
During this period the Confederate mass burials were marked and 2 new cemeteries were built: The Shiloh Church Cemetery and The Shiloh National Military Park/Pittsburgh Landing Cemetery. Also trails were officially marked for the first time and the infamous “Sunken Road” was modeled to look like a 1860s style farm road. The Military Park expanded greatly during this time.
This period was marked with great expansion and another renovation of the cabin. Also during this time the original entrance was destroyed and a new entrance at Perry Field was built.
The park has expanded much in this time and even by 2021 has at least 5 more tourist stops than 1990.
Shiloh is located along Tennessee State Routes 22 and 142.
The Area along with adjacent Savannah, Tennessee was inhabited by the Iroquois, Cherokee, and Chickasaw Indians that built mounds and mingled with the English families such as the Wicker family.
Lewis Wallace was an American lawyer, Union general in the American Civil War, governor of New Mexico Territory, politician, diplomat, artist, and author from Indiana. Among his novels and biographies, Wallace is best known for his historical adventure story, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1880), a bestselling novel that has been called "the most influential Christian book of the nineteenth century."
Perry County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 8,366, with an average population density of 20.2 persons per square mile, making it the least densely populated county in Tennessee. Its county seat and largest town is Linden. The county is named after American naval commander and War of 1812 hero Oliver Hazard Perry.
Hardin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 26,831. The county seat is Savannah. Hardin County is located north of and along the borders of Mississippi and Alabama. The county was founded in November 1819 and named posthumously for Col. Joseph Hardin, a Revolutionary War soldier and a legislative representative for the Province of North Carolina; the State of Franklin; and the Southwest Territory. Hardin County was the site of the Battle of Shiloh during the Civil War.
Savannah is a city in and the county seat of Hardin County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 7,213 at the 2020 census. Savannah is located along the east side of the Tennessee River.
The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the American Civil War fought on April 6–7, 1862. The fighting took place in southwestern Tennessee, which was part of the war's Western Theater. The battlefield is located between a small, undistinguished church named Shiloh and Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River. Two Union armies combined to defeat the Confederate Army of Mississippi. Major General Ulysses S. Grant was the Union commander, while General Albert Sidney Johnston was the Confederate commander until his battlefield death, when he was replaced by his second-in-command, General P. G. T. Beauregard.
Shiloh is the name of six places in the State of Tennessee in the United States of America:
The Army of the Tennessee was a Union army in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, named for the Tennessee River. A 2005 study of the army states that it "was present at most of the great battles that became turning points of the war—Fort Donelson, Vicksburg, and Atlanta" and "won the decisive battles in the decisive theater of the war."
Leonard Ray Blanton was an American businessman and politician who served as the 44th governor of Tennessee from 1975 to 1979. He also served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, from 1967 to 1973. Though he initiated a number of government reforms and was instrumental in bringing foreign investment to Tennessee, his term as governor was marred by scandal over the selling of pardons and liquor licenses.
Shiloh National Military Park preserves the American Civil War Shiloh and Corinth battlefields. The main section of the park is in the unincorporated town of Shiloh, about nine miles (14 km) south of Savannah, Tennessee, with an additional area located in the city of Corinth, Mississippi, 23 miles (37 km) southwest of Shiloh. The Battle of Shiloh began a six-month struggle for the key railroad junction at Corinth. Afterward, Union forces marched from Pittsburg Landing to take Corinth in a May siege, then withstood an October Confederate counter-attack.
Charles Ferguson Smith was an American military officer who served in United States Army during the Mexican–American War and the Utah War; and as a Union Army major general in the American Civil War. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1825 and served as an instructor at the academy beginning in 1829 and as Commandant of Cadets from 1838 to 1843. During the American Civil War, he served under Ulysses S. Grant who was a student of his at the military academy. Smith was instrumental in Grant's victory at the Battle of Fort Donelson but died in 1862 due to infection of a non-combat leg injury and subsequent dysentery.
Louis Powell Harvey was an American politician and the seventh Governor of Wisconsin. He was the first Wisconsin Governor to die in office.
Shiloh Indian Mounds Site (40HR7) is an archaeological site of the South Appalachian Mississippian culture. It is located beside the Tennessee River on the grounds of the Shiloh National Military Park, in Hardin County of southwestern Tennessee. A National Historic Landmark, it is one of the largest Woodland era sites in the southeastern United States.
Pittsburg Landing is a river landing on the west bank of the Tennessee River in Hardin County, Tennessee. It was named for "Pitts" Tucker who operated a tavern at the site in the years preceding the Civil War. The landing helped connect the west side of the river to a road on the east that went back to Savannah. The landing was home to many families of settlers that migrated from about 1840 to 1860. It is located at latitude 35.15222 and longitude -88.32278 with an elevation of 482 feet (147 m). The aforementioned tavern was on the site that is now Shiloh National Military Park Visitor Center and Shiloh National Military Park/Pittsburg Landing Graveyard.
The 41st Ohio Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The 9th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment was a volunteer infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It was organized on April 22, 1861, for three-months' service in Indianapolis. After being reorganized for three years' service in late August and early September 1861, the 9th took part in many major battles, including Shiloh, Stones River, Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Kennesaw Mountain and the Siege of Atlanta.
Cherry Mansion is a historic antebellum house in Savannah, Tennessee, located on a bluff overlooking the east bank of the Tennessee River. It has historical significance for its role as General Ulysses S. Grant's headquarters at the time of the Civil War Battle of Shiloh.
Benjamin Lewis Hodge was a Confederate politician who commanded the 19th Louisiana Infantry Regiment during the early stages of the American Civil War, including during the Battle of Shiloh.
The 5th Ohio Cavalry Regiment was a regiment of Union cavalry raised in seven counties in southwestern Ohio for service during the American Civil War. It primarily served in the Western Theater in several major campaigns of the Army of the Tennessee.
Sanders Dewees Bruce (1825–1902) was a Union Army colonel during the American Civil War and an expert on horse breeding. He authored the American Stud Book and The Horse-breeder's Guide and Handbook.
The Civil War Trust's Civil War Discovery Trail is a heritage tourism program that links more than 600 U.S. Civil War sites in more than 30 states. The program is one of the White House Millennium Council's sixteen flagship National Millennium Trails. Sites on the trail include battlefields, museums, historic sites, forts and cemeteries.