Pickwick Landing State Park, TN and Shiloh National Military Park

The first part of our trip was a beautiful sunny day. We went to Shiloh National Military Park http://www.nps.gov/shil/index.htm, in Shiloh, TN. This was one of the largest battles fought in the civil war in 1862 over a two day period and ended in a major victory for the Union. We took the self guided drive thru tour which enables you to drive thru at your leisure. One of the things that caught our attention was there were individual graves for the Union troops each with their own headstone in a National Cemetary. The Confederate soldiers were buried in a number of mass graves throughout the park. We were told, back at the visitor center, that due to the hot weather, the Union soldiers buried the dead Confederate soldiers in mass graves but the dead Union soldiers were identified, and buried in individual graves with markers. In later years the Federal government came in and built the National Cemetary in the park where the Union soldiers were relocated to their final resting place. The Confederate soldiers remain to this day in their mass graves. When the Confederate troops asked the Union soldiers if they could come back onto the grounds to bury their dead, the Union told them no, that they had already been buried. There were lots of monuments around the park identifying the various battles. I actually saw the grounds where the Mississippi lst Light Artillery Unit fought (see the photo below showing the two cannons in an open field). This was important to me because my great grandfather was a Confederate soldier in that unit. There is a visitor's center with lots of information about the battle and a museum and gift shop as well. A great stop for those civil war history buffs.

We then went to dinner at a local favorite just outside the Shiloh National Park, The Catfish Hotel http://catfishhotel.com/pictures.htm on the Tennessee River. The food was excellent.



Our next stop was a few miles north to McNairy County to visit the Buford Pusser Museum http://sheriffbufordpusser.com/. This was the Sheriff that was depicted in the movie "Walking Tall". We visited his home which is now a museum. Very interesting but a very tragic story.

Our last stop on this trip was an overnight stay at Pickwick Landing State Park lodge http://state.tn.us/environment/parks/PickwickLanding/lodging/index.shtml Our plans were to play golf the next day but the weather would not cooperate. This was a beautiful area on the Pickwick lake. The lodge is right on the water and the accommodations were great. Wish we could have had more time here to enjoy the golf and the lake. This was another fun adventure.