Shiloh

(Apologies: This is a bit long. Relatives on my father's side of the family may find this of most interest. Other of you dear readers may wish to skip through some of the text to the possibly most interesting part near the end.)

In my prior posting about our recent trip to New Orleans, I mentioned that I would write separately about our stop at the Shiloh National Military Park (operated by the National Park Service) in southwest Tennessee and near Corinth, Mississippi. I enjoy reading histories and have a special interest in books about the Civil War, including biographies, battle accounts, and other topics. When I worked in Washington, DC, years ago, I really enjoyed visiting the many battlefields in that area: Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, Manassas, and others. These represent much, though not all, of the eastern part of the war. I had read accounts of the war in the west too––at that time, the western front involved the states bordering the Mississippi River as well as Texas. The western front battles at Shiloh and Vicksburg were especially interesting to me because of their significance related to control of the Mississippi River and the emergence of U.S. Grant as the most eventually successful of the Union generals. Also, in my genealogical studies, I had learned of a family member who died fighting at Shiloh. So, when our trip to New Orleans arose, Kathie suggested that we include stops at Shiloh and Vicksburg in our plans.

The battle at Shiloh preceded the one at Vicksburg. After the Union army won at Shiloh, Grant proceeded south and west to eventually take Vicksburg and secure control of the Mississippi River for the Union. The Shiloh battlefield lies along the Tennessee River and is about 110 miles directly east of Memphis. The state of Mississippi is just to the south; indeed, the city of Corinth, MS was the location from which the Confederate army came to Shiloh. Corinth was an important railroad hub for the south and so was one of the objectives for the Union army.

Today's National Military Park at Shiloh is, in spite of the horrors of war once witnessed there, a very pretty destination. At the visitor's center, one can view a well-done film describing the fighting that took place April 6-7, 1862. After that, a self-guided driving tour through the park has twenty stops where one can see the locations where important things occurred during the battle and relate them back to scenes in the film. Names have been given to some of these locations: Hornet's Nest, Bloody Pond, and the Peach Orchard. There is also Shiloh Church and Pittsburgh Landing. The map below comes from the National Park Service's Shiloh guide.

Pittsburgh Landing is the name of the spot along the Tennessee River where 42,000 Union soldiers disembarked from over 180 steamboats and over 10 gunboats. The river is still navigable today. We saw one tugboat and set of barges pass by while we were visiting. Part of Grant's strategy was to quickly amass troops in the area by having them travel up the river rather than engaging in a long forced march, perhaps with fighting and losses along the way.

The battle took on the name Shiloh because of the involvement of a tiny Methodist church, Shiloh Church, that lies within the park's boundaries. An active congregation still exists in a new church at the site and has a church cemetery nearby. A model of the church that played a role during the battle is also nearby––at different times in the battle, soldiers from both sides rendezvoused or sought cover at the church.

Artillery played a major role in the battle, as they typically did in most Civil War battles. Fighting took place in both heavily wooded areas and in open fields.

Many of the important Civil War battle sites in the United States are decorated with monuments and plaques. Typically, each state that contributed soldiers to the battle will have a special monument, and then other state monuments will appear at locations on the battlefield where particular regiments fought. This is Iowa's general state monument at the Shiloh military park.

Adjacent to the park visitor's center is the Shiloh National Cemetery. Among the 23,746 casualties (killed, wounded or missing) were 3,482 dead. Because the Union army won the battle and drove the Confederate army south, Confederate soldiers were perhaps not easily identified and were laid to rest in burial trenches at several locations in the park. Union troops were, for the most part, identified and buried in individually marked graves. The organization of former Union and Confederate participants who many years later helped to establish the park and cemetery chose to leave the burial trenches alone, but many graves were relocated to this new National Cemetery, including some from other skirmishes and battles all along this region of the Tennessee River.

It was at this point that my visit to the Shiloh park became personal and, honestly, somewhat more emotional. The first question I asked when I entered the visitor's center was whether or not they had a record of the persons buried in the cemetery. They did and were able to tell me precisely where one of my ancestors was buried. Here is the entrance to the cemetery.

I took this panoramic shot of a portion of the cemetery.

There are several plaques, like the one shown here, with different verses honoring the fallen individuals.

And here is the grave of Carlton Frink who served in Company E of the 11th Iowa Infrantry Regiment, along with his brother Allen. Carlton was then a week short of his 19th birthday. Allen would have been approaching his 24th birthday. Unbelievable today, a common style of attack then was to march in lines, shoulder to shoulder, directly into the face of opposing fire. A Frink family history states that Carlton and Allen (the history names brother William, but I have verified in other sources that it was Allen) were standing beside each other. Of course, we cannot now know for certain, likely though this may be. Carlton was killed, and I have since learned that Allen was wounded, though he eventually returned to Iowa and lived to age 68.

For my sister and those of my cousins who may be interested, here is my connection to Carlton and Allen. (Because our  great grandparents were first cousins, there are actually two ways to trace this, but I'll follow the Frink to Decker names.)

• Perez Frink and Lydia Williams had 15 children, including Mary (my great great grandmother), Carlton, and Allen.
• Henry Decker and Mary Frink had six children, including Frederick (my great grandfather).
• Frederick Decker and Sarah Frink had six children, including Frank (my grandfather).
• Frank Decker had two children, including Frederick (my father).

So if I did this right, here I am with my great great grand uncle, Carlton Frink, a man who died fighting for the Union cause in the Civil War. I have wondered since if other family members have visited his grave before.