Shiloh, Part Two: Indian Mounds, National Cemetery and Trail of Tears Site
- lvenegas13
- Jan 26
- 10 min read
Updated: Feb 10
SHILOH NATIONAL MILITARY CEMETERY AND INDIAN MOUNDS NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK AT SHILOH BATTLEFIELD
1055 Pittsburgh Landing Road, Shiloh, TN 38376
(731) 689-5696
Free to visit, Monday through Sunday 9am-5pm, closed on holidays.
The Shiloh National Military Park is a Sacred Site, of that there is no doubt. It witnessed one of the bloodiest and most consequential battles of the Civil War, a pivotal moment in the first year of the war that would splinter the Confederate’s control of the South. In Part One of this two-part series we explored the Shiloh Battlefield, the story behind the famous battle that happened there and how to best take in the site. But Shiloh is so much more than a battlefield! In Part Two we continue the fascinating history of the site, exploring the other three hallowed aspects that make this a Sacred place: the National Military Cemetery, the Indian Mounds National Historic Landmark, and its role as a Trail of Tears site. It's fascinating that there are not one for four Sacred Sites at Shiloh!
As we mentioned in Part One, your trip to explore Shiloh should begin at the Visitor Center. Park rangers will provide you with a map for the driving tour and instructions on how to download the audio guide. I started by walking from the Visitor Center over to the National Military Cemetery, then taking the driving tour that ends near the Indian Mounds, and that’s how this post will be organized.
THE SHILOH NATIONAL MILITARY CEMETERY
Close to the Shiloh Welcome Center and next to the bookstore is the Shiloh National Military Cemetery, our second Sacred site (the battlefield is the first). It is situated on a bluff above the Tennessee River and next to Pittsburgh Landing where most of Genl. Ulysses S. Grant’s army landed and prepared for an attack on Corinth. The cemetery and its design seems to flow outward from a hub where a US flag flies, and the far side looks down on the river below. This is a nice departure from other national cemeteries I’ve been to where you may only see straight lines of stones. The fact that the graves face the river is symbolic, I believe, of the important role the Tennessee River played in this significant battle. (See Part One to explore how this site came to be chosen as a battlefield.)
Nearly 24,000 soldiers died on April 6-7, 1862, and it was soon incumbent upon Union burial teams to inter the soldiers from both sides. At first, soldiers were buried at or near where they fell. For Union soldiers these were individual graves with simple wooden crosses. The Confederates, however, were given a different fate. They were buried in five known mass graves, and while markers and a monument name the sites, a 2004 archaeological study believes these are actually estimates of where the graves are and how they are oriented.
In 1866, the War Department created the Pittsburg Landing U.S. Military Cemetery (renamed the Shiloh National Cemetery in 1889) for the Union soldiers who fell there and the surrounding areas, and the grim work of disinterring the dead began. There were 156 burial sites in Shiloh alone, and 565 locations in the surrounding area. The Shiloh National Cemetery holds 3,584 Union Civil War dead, 2,359 which are unknown. The National Cemetery also holds the graves of those who fought for the US in other wars and many family members as well. I thought it was fascinating that some of these graves had the names of the soldiers on one side, and the names of their spouses on the other! If you're wondering where Confederates were buried, you'll find them in private cemeteries throughout the South such as Mount Olivet in Nashville and Elmwood in Memphis.
The cemetery is divided into the various regiments that fought in this area: Wisconsin, Iowa, Kentucky, Ohio and Illinois. While the original graves were marked with wooden markers, granite markers later replaced them. Those whose names are known have taller markers, while unknown soldiers have shorter ones. All are numbered to account for those who perished. There is also a single grave for a drummer who came from an Ohio regiment; knowing that drummers were usually children or teenagers made this marker even more grim. I downloaded a map of the cemetery prior to my trip to Shiloh and am including here to help you understand the layout.
There is also a second, private cemetery across from where the Shiloh church once stood and where a replica can now be found. The Shiloh Methodist Church Cemetery is intimate and a mix of older graves and new. The famous figure buried there is the notorious TN Governor, US Congressman and State Representative Leonard Ray Blanton who served from 1967 until 1973. According to Find A Grave, he was removed from office for selling pardons and he served almost two years in prison for conspiring to sell liquor licenses!
THE SHILOH INDIAN MOUNDS NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK
Near the end of the self-driving trail is the parking area for the Shiloh Indian Mounds and our third Sacred aspect of Shiloh. At first this seems strange, a prehistoric site alongside a notorious battlefield. But thanks to its inclusion when the park was created, these are now the largest surviving Indian mounds in the Tennessee River Valley! You can choose to drive through the 46-acre site on Brown’s Landing Road, but I highly discourage this. The Shiloh Indian Mounds are a National Historic Landmark for good reason, and the 1.1-mile interpretive trail is the best way to experience this remarkable site. The trail begins at the Orientation shelter where you will see educational panels and a sculpture of the park grounds. Since this was once also part of the Shiloh battlefield there are a couple of military sites here as well that you might find interesting.
At one time this village was a political and ceremonial chiefdom that lasted from approximately 950 A.D. to around 1350 A.D. (the Late Woodland and Mississippian periods) with its height around the year 1200 A.D. It included six smaller settlements on a twenty-mile stretch of the Tennessee River. Each had one or two mounds, while the settlement where Savannah now lies had multiple mounds and a palisade, rivalling Shiloh in size but now destroyed. Interestingly, the Shiloh site was originally settled approximately 2,000 years ago, abandoned, then re-settled by those who were part of the Shiloh chiefdom!
At this site you’ll find seven large flat-topped and dome-shaped mounds surrounding a central plaza, the largest being Mound A overlooking the river. All the mounds were likely residential sites or had other structures on top, except for Mound C, a burial mound along the river. This mound was excavated in 1899 and found to have four human skeletons and a number of artifacts, including the Shiloh ‘Crouching Man’ Effigy Pipe. The pipe ties this chiefdom to the Cahokia complex as it is made of the same type of clay as is found there and was probably brought to Shiloh in the 12th or 13th century. There was also pottery tying Shiloh to north Georgia/East Tennessee/ Western North Carolina and possibly Moundville in Alabama, and a chunky stone made of shells from Florida. Like Mound Bottom, the Shiloh Mound Complex was abandoned around 1350 AD during what is known as the Vacant Quarter, and this may have been due to a perfect storm of factors such as megadroughts, warfare and changes in political organization. It was not resettled until the 19th century.
One of the amazing conclusions found by archaeologists by digging into the largest mound, Mound A, is that this mound and likely others were not green from grass as you see them today, but were constructed out of layers of red, black, yellow and gray soil, and the exterior coated in red clay! The colors were intentional and symbolic. For example, red was typically associated with war, danger and conflict, white with peace, purity and holiness, and the use of other colors was almost certainly connected with the clan who lived here. How impressive the mound must have been!
“Perhaps the most important finding from our fieldwork is that Mound A was dramatically different in appearance when it was in use than it looks at present... During the Mississippian era, a series of large buildings were located at the base of the mound, that probably represent associated ceremonial structures, storage areas, temples, and possibly the residences of lesser elites... Large and elaborate structures were apparently built on the summit, and a raised platform with a bright red surface was present atop one stage, like a smaller mound atop a larger one… Structures atop the mound were likely elaborately decorated, based on descriptions of what they looked like from early historic accounts. The mound would have been a dramatic feature when viewed by visitors, or from a distance, as from the river below. (Anderson and Cornelison 2002:51–52)”
Creating a settlement at this site was no doubt strategic. But looking around the complex I thought about how architectural elements like a plaza and mounds are usually placed according to ideas about cosmology and the energies tied to the upper and lower worlds, and that some believe these align with ley lines or "hotspots." I also pondered the fact that centuries after the last Shiloh Native inhabitants left, white settlers would arrive here and build a church. They named the church Shiloh, which is Hebrew for 'tranquil' or 'peaceful.’ Did they pick up on the energy of this site and find it Sacred? What brought the builders of the Shiloh Mound Complex to this particular place? And is it just a coincidence that one of the most momentous battles of the Civil War happened here?
Another incredible aspect of the Shiloh Mound Complex is that you can actually see the remnants of circular home sites, some around the plaza and the others in the “Leaving Home” area of the interpretive trail. Apparently, it is very rare to have these remnants visible centuries after they were abandoned! Tests show that the homes may have been intentionally set on fire when they were deserted. Was this a spiritual act or were they burnt during a raid? There is evidence of a semicircular palisade along the northern and western sides of the town constructed later in its timeline, so there was likely conflict at some point, but whether this was built around the time of the town's abandonment is not known.
Unfortunately, the ultimate battle certainly did find Shiloh centuries later, and it is not surprising that it spilt into the mound area. The 28th Illinois Infantry buried their dead atop the westernmost platform mound (Mound G), and while the bodies were later reinterred in the National Cemetery, ground penetrating radar shows there may be one or more bodies and metal artifacts still in the mound! So, while visiting be sure to honor both the Native American and US soldiers who perished and are/were buried here. As discussed in Part One, those who are seeking paranormal experiences at the battlefield may wish to do so here as well.
TRAIL OF TEARS SITE
The fourth of the Sacred Sites elements at Shiloh is its connection to the Trail of Tears, thanks to the Tennessee River and nearby Savannah, TN.
Like the Chickasaw before them who were removed from their lands east of the Mississippi River by treaties, the Natives of Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida were forced to leave for Oklahoma following the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The Trail of Tears refers to the 17 different detachments using three main land routes (with variations), and one main river route, to transport approximately 16,000 Cherokee, some Creek, and their black slaves. Most travelled during a bitterly cold winter for more than three months before reaching Oklahoma.
Three of the four water routes used on the Trail of Tears utilized the Tennessee River and passed by Shiloh. These detachments were composed mostly of Georgia Cherokee who had supported Chief John Ross and fought the removal treaty, as well as their military escorts. Their evacuation began four miles upriver from Ross’s Landing, where the Native Americans had been held in notoriously brutal conditions, and the detachments are named after the commanders who led them: Lt. Edward Deas, Lt. R.H.K Whitely, and Captain G.S. Drane. The plan was to start on the Hiwasee River at Calhoun, then join the Tennessee River and follow it south to Alabama and north through Tennessee where it would eventually join the Ohio River. Unfortunately, there was a terrible drought that year, and the river was so low in Tennessee that the detachments (travelling separately) were forced to walk by land into Alabama where they were finally able to secure boats for the rest of the journey.
Just a few miles away, Savannah would experience another Trail of Tears detachment, this time led by John Bell, a white man married to a Cherokee, which also left Ross’s Landing and travelled by land west across Tennessee in a direct route toward Oklahoma. His group consisted of the 650-700 Cherokees who had supported the removal treaty and were now bitter enemies of the Ross supporters. The Bell detachment crossed the Tennessee River in Savannah, and their trek through Tennessee only lasted 42 days, in comparison to the three or more months the other detachments had to endure.
Isn’t it remarkable and sad that the mounds of the Shiloh Complex on the banks of the Tennessee River were to witness another exodus of American Indian people, this time escorted by white settlers? It is estimated that 4,000 people died on the Trail of Tears, one of the most shameful acts our country has perpetrated against Native Americans, and an event that will forever shape their cultures.
Thank you for reading this two-part post on the four sacred aspects of Shiloh! I hope you enjoyed the dive into this complex place. I highly recommend a visit to the Tennessee River Museum in Savannah which has great exhibits on the Trail of Tears, the archaeology of the Shiloh Mounds Complex, as well as the Shiloh Battlefield.
Tennessee River Museum
495 Main St., Savannah, TN 38372
(731) 925-2364
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