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SHILOH_070122_113.JPG: Pittsburg Landing:
Here was the key to Union strategy -- a good troop landing and staging area for an attack on the Southern army at Corinth, a strategic rail center. But the Confederates struck first, driving the surprised Federals from their camps back toward the landing.
On Sunday afternoon, thousands of Union stragglers congregated along the banks here and refused to fight, while reports of disaster filtered in from the battlefield.
Late Sunday afternoon, the tide began to turn. Cheers went up when the first Union reinforcements appeared on the opposite shore. Throughout the night, additional troops poured into the landing by steamboat and by road -- 24,000 in all. The next morning, the revitalized Union force won back all the ground they had lost, and sent the Confederates reeling back to Corinth.
SHILOH_070122_136.JPG: Confederate Memorial:
Shiloh's Confederate Monument combined symbolism with beauty to commemorate the story of the Southern "Lost Cause" in the fields and woods near Shiloh Church. Its prominent location marks a Confederate high water mark. Here, on April 6, 1862, Confederates encircled and captured over 2,200 Federal troops, including General Benjamin Prentiss, thus ending Union defense of the Hornets Nest.
Over eighteen feet high, the monuments central figures depict a "Defeated Victory." In front, the South surrenders the laurel wreath of victory to Death on her right, and Night on her left. Death took away the Confederate commander-in-chief, while Night, having brought on reinforcements for the Federals, stands waiting to complete the defeat.
Below them, in low relief, appears the figure of General Albert Sidney Johnston, the southern commander. Johnston remains the highest ranking American officer ever to die in combat.
The panel of heads to the right represents the spirit of the first day's battle. Exuberantly, hopefully, courageously, fearlessly, the young Confederates rush into battle. The eleven soldiers portrayed here equal the number of Confederate states.
The soldiers on the panel to the left, now fewer in number, represent the second day's battle. Driven back over ground they had gained the day before, Confederates are finally forced to retreat. The panel shows the sorrow of the men who fought so hard for a victory so nearly won, and so unexpectedly lost. The symbolically depicted "wave upon wave of soldierly" is now past its crest.
The the far right, the infantryman has snatched up the Confederate flag in defiance of the U.S. Army. In support by his side, the Artilleryman calmly gazes through the smoke of battle.
To the left, the Cavalryman spreads his hand in frustration. Although eager to assist, the cavalry could not penetrate Shiloh's thick undergrowth. The rear figure, head bowed in submission to the order to cease firing, represents the Confederate officer corps. At that point on the evening of the battle's first day, Confederate victory had seemed imminent.
On the monument's rear wall, three plaques provide additional information on design and construction.
In 1905, the United Daughters of the Confederacy undertook a national project to place a monument on Shiloh Battlefield. In reaching their goal of $50,000, the UDC raised money "little by little," without help from other organizations or any state appropriation.
The monument committee held a design competition in 1913. When none of the submitted models embodied the ideas of the committee, all six initial entries were rejected. The contest was reopened in 1914. A new competitor, Frederick C. Hibbard of Chicago, won the first prize: the contract for building the monument.
Born on June 15, 1881, Missouri native Frederick Cleveland Hibbard studied abroad, in California, and in the Midwest. His work includes the Hannibal, Missouri, statues of Mark Twain, and the author's characters Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, and the equestrian statue of General Ulysses S. Grant at Vicksburg National Military Park in Mississippi.
Excavation for the monument's concrete foundation began on June 21, 1916. Among the articles placed in the cornerstone on November 4, 1915, were silver coins from 1905 and 1916, a $20 Confederate bill, a state flag from every southern state, a replica of the Confederate Seal, a photograph of sculptor Hibbard, and a lock of General Johnston's hair.
SHILOH_070122_148.JPG: Confederate Memorial
SHILOH_070122_190.JPG: The Hornets' Nest
SHILOH_070122_196.JPG: The Hornets' Nest:
After being driven from their camps by attacking Confederates about 9:00am, more than 4,000 Union soldiers retreated to the woods to your left, and took position along the "Sunken Road," the dirt wagon trace in front of you. Here, on high ground commanding Duncan Field and the adjoining woods, Federal infantry took cover behind oak trees, fence rails, and dense undergrowth.
During the next eight hours, Confederate infantry charged the road and the wooded stronghold they called the "Hornets' Nest" eleven times. Repeatedly, they were repulsed by swarms of minie balls.
A 5-minute walk down the Sunken Road leads to an exhibit on the surrender of the Hornets' Nest.The ground you will be walking over is the scene of some of the most desperate and deadly fighting in the Civil War.
SHILOH_070122_204.JPG: Ruggles' Batteries
SHILOH_070122_207.JPG: Ruggles' Batteries:
After six hours of bloody fighting here, it became evident that Confederate infantry alone would not break the strong Union defense along the Sunken Road and the thickets beyond. Toward late afternoon, Brig. Gen. Daniel Ruggles brought forward eleven batteries of artillery and placed them in a line that began here and extended to your right along the wooded edge of Duncan Field and beyond.
According to Ruggles' official report, there were 62 cannon here -- the greatest concentration of field guns seen on a North American battlefield up to that time.
For more than an hour, the Confederate artillery roared, unleashing a great storm of shot, shell, and canister that kept the Union soldiers in the "Hornets' Nest"" pinned down. Confederate infantry then encircled the Hornets Nest and forced its defenders to surrender.
SHILOH_070122_233.JPG: Confederate burial trench
SHILOH_070122_244.JPG: Water Oaks Pond, where the Confederates began their retreat
SHILOH_070122_250.JPG: Confederate Retreat:
On the second day of fighting, Confederate forces here under Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard made their last attempt to check the surge of Union forces counterattacking from Pittsburg Landing. Confederate infantry sloshed through the shallow Water Oaks Pond in front of you and charged to your left across the field. They gained some ground, but were unable to stop the steady advance of Grant's Union army which had been heavily reinforced during the night.
About 2:30pm, a Confederate staff officer asked Beauregard, "General, do you not think our troops are very much in the condition of a lump of sugar thoroughly soaked with water, but yet preserving its original shape, though ready to dissolve? Would it not be judicious to get away with what we have?"
Moments later, General Beauregard gave the order for the Confederate army to retreat to Corinth. The Battle of Shiloh was over.
SHILOH_070122_274.JPG: Shiloh Log Church
SHILOH_070122_280.JPG: Shiloh contemporary church
SHILOH_070122_287.JPG: Shiloh Log Church:
Shiloh Church, biblically known as "place of peace," was built in 1851. Ironically, this small log church gave name to the famous Battle of Shiloh and became the site of some of the fiercest fighting yet seen in the Civil War. On Sunday morning, April 6, 1862, the quiet woods and fields around this small Methodist Church erupted into a horrific battle. Shortly after dawn, the Confederate Army under the command of General Albert S. Johnston attacked the Union Division of General W.T. Sherman camped at this location.
The Union troops were determined to hold the high ground by this church and the Confederates were equally determined to drive back the Federals into the Tennessee River. After several hours of intense fighting, the entire Federal army under the command of Ulysses S. Grant slowly withdrew toward Pittsburg Landing, leaving this area with many dead and wounded from both sides.
By early afternoon, General P.G.T. Beauregard assumed command of the Confederate Army after the death of General Johnston. Beauregard established his headquarters and directed the battle from this area near the church. By nightfall, Shiloh Church also served as shelter for the many wounded and dying men who had fallen during that day's fighting.
The following day, April 7th, Shiloh Church once again served as a critical location when the Confederate Army started their slow retreat back to Corinth. General Beauregard and his staff directed the retreat from this area.
Although the original log church at Shiloh was destroyed during the battle, the log church before you is a near exact replica of that original church. Much detail went into building this church, using hand-hewn logs approximately 150 years old that came from this area. This log church was started in 1999 under the direction of the Shiloh Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp #1454 and Shiloh Methodist Church. ....
SHILOH_070122_298.JPG: Leonard Ray Blanton's marker.
Ray Blanton
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
44th Governor of Tennessee
In office 1975 – 1979
Born April 10, 1930
Adamsville, Tennessee
Died November 22, 1996
Political party Democratic
Profession Teacher, Politician
Early life and Congress:
Blanton was from Adamsville, Tennessee, and was from a farming family with road-building interests. He had a background as a schoolteacher and he had worked his way through the University of Tennessee. After one term in the Tennessee House of Representatives, he ran for Congress, challenging 12-term incumbent and former Crump machine ally Tom J. Murray in the Democratic primary for the 7th Congressional District, which was based in Jackson and included Adamsville. Blanton defeated Murray in a major upset, a victory that was tantamount to election. He was reelected three times.
Tennessee in the early 1970s:
Tennessee lost a congressional district after the 1970 census, and the legislature decided to eliminate Blanton's district in time for the 1972 elections. Much of Blanton's district, including his home, was merged with the neighboring 8th District of fellow Democrat Ed Jones. The redrawn district retained Blanton's district number--the 7th--and Jackson was the biggest city in the district. However, the district contained more of Jones' former territory than Blanton's. Jones was very popular in this area and would have probably proven very difficult if not impossible to defeat. At the same time, Republican Senator Howard Baker was running for reelection. Even though Baker was a heavy favorite, the Democrats needed a serious candidate to oppose him. Blanton sought the Democratic nomination and won, but was heavily defeated in November. This was the year of a massive Republican landslide that saw President Richard Nixon carry 90 of Tennessee's 95 counties. Under the circumstances, Blanton faced nearly impossible odds, though Baker was so popular that Blanton would have been a heavy underdog in any case. He later stated that his problems in 1972 were "the two M's — money and McGovern." His willingness to take on a popular Republican opponent against long odds greatly increased his name recognition in the state, setting him up as the principal Democratic candidate for governor in 1974.
1974 gubenatorial campaign:
Blanton won a nine-way Democratic primary for governor that year, defeating three well-financed opponents including flamboyant East Tennessee banker Jake Butcher, as well as five also-rans and then defeated the Republican nominee, attorney Lamar Alexander in the November general election, receiving the largest number of popular votes ever achieved for a statewide race in Tennessee to this point, 575,205. Blanton's strongest condemnation of Alexander seemed to be that he had served for a time on Nixon's White House staff. Nixon had resigned in disgrace only a few months earlier. Blanton also took advantage of the wide perception that Alexander was a somewhat distant, upper-class individual (despite Alexander's background as the son of schoolteachers).
Tennessee governorship:
Blanton's administration was noted for extensive recruiting of foreign industrial and trade opportunities. Also, it was during his term that the state Office of Tourism was raised to a Cabinet-level position, making Tennessee the first state in the nation to do so. Blanton's administration emphasized equality for women and blacks, tax relief for older and fixed income citizens, and penal reform.
Blanton soon displayed an abrasive style that was interpreted by many as arrogance. He was suspected of playing favorites with his family and other highway contractors. He gained considerable negative attention when he told Carol Marin, then a reporter with Nashville's WSM-TV, that he would not be answering any more "negative" questions. His administration seemed rife with "cronyism", and this became more apparent when Roger Humphries, a convicted double murderer, was pardoned for his crimes and it became public knowledge that his father was a county chairman for Blanton. It was later discovered that members of Blanton's staff were involved in the apparent sale of pardons. Several of them were then convicted of selling pardons, although Blanton himself was never charged. Blanton seemed unfazed by any criticism. The Tennessee State Constitution was amended in February, 1978 to allow Blanton and future Tennessee governors to succeed themselves. Blanton did not run for reelection. However, due to the controversy surrounding his administration, it was very unlikely he would have been renominated, let alone reelected, had he chosen to run. His Republican opponent in 1974, Alexander, won in November.
Transition from Blanton to Alexander:
In January 1979, with his term expiring, the State's Pardon Board began to make a series of pardons that seemed to be either the product of sheer politics or open bribery. This generated outrage from all sides of the political spectrum. Leaders from both parties, including Lieutenant Governor John S. Wilder and State House Speaker Ned McWherter, searched for a way to prevent further damage to the state's reputation. They found it in the state constitution, which is somewhat vague on when a newly elected governor must be sworn in. It was eventually decided to swear in Alexander several days before the traditional inauguration day. Alexander's first act as governor was to have the state Highway Patrol seize control of the state capitol to prevent any maneuvers by Blanton to regain office. Wilder later called the move "impeachment Tennessee-style."
Post-governor troubles:
Out of office, Blanton found himself in legal difficulties. He was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, among other law-enforcement agencies. Although never formally charged in the pardons matter, he was eventually indicted on charges of selling liquor licenses. He was convicted and sentenced to federal prison. After serving his sentence he returned to Tennessee and later had most charges against him dropped, with even the validity of the charges upon which he had been convicted and sentenced severely questioned by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Run for Congress in 1988 and death:
In 1988, Blanton appeared on a ballot for the first time in 14 years when he ran for the retiring Ed Jones' Congressional seat. He finished far behind the eventual winner, State Senator John Tanner, only winning seven percent of the vote. He then became privately employed until he died of liver failure in 1996, still proclaiming his innocence. Had he not died in 1996, many believe he would have been cleared of all charges.
Film about governorship:
A portion of the story of the pardons scandal was made into a book, Marie : A True Story by Peter Maas, author of Serpico, and eventually made into a motion picture starring Sissy Spacek in the title role. Attorney and future U.S. Senator Fred Dalton Thompson launched his acting career in this picture, portraying himself. The pardons scandal, as well as others, are also detailed in the book FBI Codename TENNPAR, written by Hank Hillin, the Nashville-based FBI agent who lead the investigation into the Blanton administration.
Burial:
Ray Blanton is buried in the churchyard of Shiloh Church, within Shiloh National Military Park (not in the Shiloh National Cemetery). His grave is marked by a large obelisk.
SHILOH_070122_303.JPG: Shiloh Church:
The Battle of Shiloh takes its name from a Methodist log church that stood here during the battle. On the morning of Sunday, April 6, 1862, the church and cemetery grounds became the scene of fierce fighting as Confederates attacked Union forces camped nearby.
The original log meeting house was erected in 1853. The building survived the battle to serve as a hospital, but collapsed several weeks later. A new frame church replaced the original in 1875. The present masonry church was dedicated in 1959.
SHILOH_070122_310.JPG: Shiloh United Methodist Church:
In 1851, John J. Ellis donated 4 acres to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, for a house of worship. The original church was constructed of rough hewn logs and was about 25 by 30 feet in dimensions. The name Shiloh, from which the Civil War battle received its name, means "House of Peace." During April 6-7 1962, the church was the scene of heavy fighting between Union and Confederate forces. The church was destroyed soon after the battle. After the war, worship resumed in a brush arbor. About 1875, a wood frame structure was erected on the original site. The present structure was begun with native stone in 1929. Construction was discontinued due to lack of funds. It was completed and dedicated in 1952.
[Among the burials in the Shiloh Cemetery is Ray Blanton, a former Tennessee governor.]
SHILOH_070122_311.JPG: Union Reconnaissance Patrol:
As dawn approached on Sunday, soldiers in the Union camps to the north and east began to stir. While some continued to sleep, others prepared breakfast. They didn't know that more than 40,000 Southerners with loaded rifle-muskets and bayonets were marching on them from the southwest.
Suspicious of Confederate activity nearby, Col. Everett Peabody, an alert Union brigade commander, sent out a reconnaissance patrol of about 200 men under Maj. James E. Powell. Following the road to your right, Powell's patrol groped through the morning darkness past this point. When they entered Fraley Field a short distance to your left, they stumbled onto the pickets screening the Confederate army. Three shots broke the silence, and the Battle of Shiloh began.
SHILOH_070122_317.JPG: The Battle Begins:
Here on Fraley Field, advance units of the opposing armies met for the first time just before dawn. Confederate pickets on the high ground ahead opened fire on a Union reconnaissance patrol which entered the field just behind you. Here fell the first victims of Shiloh. In the following 34 hours, 3,400 more men would die or be fatally wounded.
The fighting in Fraley Field and the surrounding woods lasted about an hour. The Union patrol was forced to retreat, as the first three waves of the Confederate assault swept forward. Though not decisive in itself, this initial engagement gave the Union camps in the northeast warning that a Confederate attack was on its way.
SHILOH_070122_321.JPG: Fraley Field
SHILOH_070122_325.JPG: In the distance, you can see a marker where the Confederate pickets were stationed as the battle began.
SHILOH_070122_329.JPG: Union Line of Defense:
Finally aware that great numbers of Confederates were marching on their camps, the Union Sixth Division organized its first line of defense along the ridge in front of you. Henry M. Stanley, a Confederate infantryman, described what it was like here when his regiment tried to break through the Union Line:
Still advancing, firing as we moved, I, at last, saw a row of little globes of pearly smoke streaked with crimson, breaking out with spurtive quickness from a long line of bluey figures in front; and, simultaneously, there broke upon our ears an appalling crash of sound, the series of fusillades following one another with startling suddenness, which suggested to my somewhat moldered sense a mountain upheaved, with huge rocks tumbling and thundering down a slope, and the echoes rumbling and receding through space. ...
Twenty thousand muskets were being fired at this stage, but, though accuracy of aim was impossible, owing to our laboring hearts, and the jarring and excitement, many bullets found their destined billets on both sides.
SHILOH_070122_332.JPG: Union line of defense
SHILOH_070122_336.JPG: Invasion of the Union Camps:
As the sun rose, Union soldiers camped here and at nearby sites looked forward to a peaceful and leisurely Sunday. A flood of Rebel infantry, however, was about to engulf them from the southwest.
Whitelaw Reid, a Northern reporter, described the lack of preparation in the Union camps, "Some, particularly among our officers, were not yet out of bed. Others were dressing, others washing, others cooking, a few eating their breakfasts. Many guns were unloaded, accoutrements lying pell-mell, ammunition was ill-supplied -- in short, the camps were virtually surprised..."
By the end of the day, the Southerners had overrun most of the camps. Many Union soldiers spent the night without food, bedding, or other supplies left behind in haste.
"Shells were hurtling through the tents while, before there was time for thought of preparation, there came rushing through the woods the lines of battle sweeping the whole fronts of the division-camps..."
-- Whitelaw Reid, War Correspondent, Cincinnati Gazette
SHILOH_070122_369.JPG: Texas
remembers the valor and devotion of her sons who served at Shiloh April 6-7, 1862
Here the Rangers upheld the fame of the name they bore, the 2nd Texas fought with gallantry and the 9th Texas responded to any demand upon its courage and endurance.
General Albert Sidney Johnston of Texas gave is life in this battle.
Texas troops at Shiloh were:
9th Texas Infantry Colonel Wright A. Stanley (Brig. Gen. Patton Anderson's Brigade, Ruggles' Division, Bragg's Corps)
2nd Texas Infantry, Col. John C. Moore, Lieutenant Colonel William P. Rogers, Major Hal G. Runnels (Brig. Gen. John R. Jackson's Brigade, Withers' Division, Bragg's Corps)
6th Texas Cavalry (Rangers) Colonel John A. Wharton, (Unattached)
A memorial to Texans who served the Confederacy. Erected by State of Texas 1964.
SHILOH_070122_378.JPG: Field Hospital:
After the Battle of Shiloh, Federal soldiers buried the dead, and medical officers faced the enormous task of caring for 16,400 wounded. Many were crowded onto steamboats for transport to Northern cities, while others were taken to nearby homes. Some of the wounded received professional medical treatment here.
On this high ground surrounding the farmhouse of Noah Cantrell, medical officers of the Union Army of the Ohio set up a large field hospital under canvas. Tents, bedding, and supplies were secured from the infantry camps to accommodate some 2,500 sick and wounded.
Ordinarily, regiments took care of their own wounded. Here was the first consolidated tent hospital -- a forerunner of modern military field hospitals.
SHILOH_070122_383.JPG: Union field hospitals were in this area
SHILOH_070122_399.JPG: Albert Johnston's moral wounding spot
SHILOH_070122_401.JPG: Death of General Johnston:
On the afternoon of the first day of fighting, Confederate forces under Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston sought to envelop Grant's left wind and seize Pittsburg Landing. While leading his men against Union forces barring his way, Gen. Johnston was fatally wounded here.
Johnston, who had been slightly wounded earlier, was struck just below the right knee by a stray minie ball. The bullet tore open an artery, causing severe bleeding. Tennessee Governor Isham G. Harris, a volunteer aide, discovered Johnston reeling in his saddle near this point, and led him down to the protected ravine to your right. The general died a few minutes alter.
The tree trunk to your left stands at the site of the oak tree under which Gen. Johnston was found mortally wounded.
SHILOH_070122_414.JPG: I took several pictures of this field because obviously they're trying to make it look like it did during the battle with the flowering peach orchard trees that were observed then.
SHILOH_070122_419.JPG: The Peach Orchard:
This was the scene of intense fighting on Sunday afternoon as Federal troops stubbornly resisted Confederate charges through the peach trees. Peach blossoms ripped off by minie balls fell like snow.
A Union soldier who faced the Confederate onslaught described the heavy artillery fire: "Everywhere around us the storm began to rage: shot, shell, ... canister came howling and whistling through our lines. The very trees seemed to protest against it. Missiles flew everywhere."
Successive Confederate infantry charges finally broke the blue line, and the Federals retreated in disorder back toward Pittsburg Landing. The next day, however, a reinforced Union army won this ground back.
Union troops under Brig. Gen. Stephen A. Hurlbot held back the Confederate tide for several hours at the peach orchard. Losses were heavy on both sides.
Manse George Cabin:
At the time of the battle, this land was owned and farmed by the W. Manse George family. When the fighting started, the family fled. Later, they returned to find their home burned and possessions destroyed.
After the battle, a cabin from another part of the battlefield was moved here to replace the one swept away by war. The short path to your right leads to this historic building.
SHILOH_070122_422.JPG: The pseudo-Manse cabin in the distance
SHILOH_070122_433.JPG: The peach orchard
SHILOH_070122_437.JPG: Bloody Pond:
The Battle of Shiloh was, at its time, the bloodiest conflict this nation had seen. The beautiful spring woods, fields, and orchards were transformed over two days into scenes of death and destruction which eyewitnesses described as horrible, desolate, and heart-rending.
This shallow pond attracted the weary and wounded soldiers of both armies who were engaged in heavy fighting nearby. Some crawled here for their last drink. Observers after the battle reported that the pond was littered with dead soldiers and horses. Blood had turned the water a murky red.
The Debris of Battle:
American short-story writer Ambrose Bierce was only 20 when he fought here with the Union Army of the Ohio. Bierce recorded his impressions of the aftermath:
"Knapsacks, canteens, haversacks, distended with soaken and swollen biscuits, gaping to disgorge, blankets beaten into the soil by the rain, rifles with bent barrels or splintered stocks, waist-belts, hats and the omnipresent sardine-box -- all the wretched debris of the battle still littered the spongy earth as far as one could see, in every direction. Dead horses were everywhere; a few disabled caissons, or limbers, reclining on one elbow, as it were; ammunition wagons standing disconsolate behind four or six sprawling mules. Men? There were men enough; all dead...
SHILOH_070122_441.JPG: Bloody pond
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Wikipedia Description: Battle of Shiloh
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, fought on April 6 and April 7, 1862, in southwestern Tennessee. Confederate forces under Generals Albert Sidney Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard launched a surprise attack against the Union Army of Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and came very close to defeating his army.
On the first day of battle, the Confederates struck with the intention of driving the Union defenders away from the Tennessee River and into the swamps of Owl Creek to the west, hoping to defeat Grant's Army of the Tennessee before it could link up with Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell's Army of the Ohio. The Confederate battle lines became confused during the fierce fighting, and Grant's men instead fell back in the direction of Pittsburg Landing to the northeast. A position on a slightly sunken road, nicknamed the "Hornet's Nest", defended by the men of Brig. Gens. Benjamin M. Prentiss's and W.H.L. Wallace's divisions, provided critical time for the rest of the Union line to stabilize under the protection of numerous artillery batteries. Gen. Johnston was killed during the first day's fighting, and Beauregard, his second in command, decided against assaulting the final Union position that night.
Reinforcements from Gen. Buell arrived in the evening and turned the tide the next morning, when he and Grant launched a counterattack along the entire line. The Confederates were forced to retreat from the bloodiest battle in United States history up to that time, ending their hopes that they could block the Union invasion of northern Mississippi.
Background and opposing forces:
After the losses of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in February 1862, Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston withdrew his forces into western Tennessee, northern Mississippi, and Alabama to reorganize. In early March, Union Maj. Gen. He ...More...
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2007 photos: Equipment this year: I used the Fuji S9000 almost exclusively except for the period when it broke and I had to send it back for repairs. In August, I bought a Canon Rebel Xti, my first digital SLR (vs regular digital) which I tried as well but I wasn't that excited by it.
Trips this year: Two weeks down south (including Graceland, Shiloh, VIcksburg, and New Orleans), a week at a time share in Costa Rica over my 50th birthday, a week off for a family reunion in the Wisconsin Dells (with sidetrips to Dayton, Springfield, and Madison), a week in San Diego for the Comic-Con with a side trip to Michigan for two family reunions, a drive up to Niagara Falls, a couple of weekend jaunts including the Civil War Preservation Trust Grand Review in Vicksburg, and a December journey to three state capitols (Richmond, Raleigh, and Columbia). I saw sites in 18 states and 3 other countries this year -- the first year I'd been to more than two other countries since we lived in Venezuela when I was a little toddler.
Ego strokes: A photo that I took at the National Archives was used as the author photo on the book jacket for David A. Nichols' "A Matter of Justice: Eisenhower and the Beginning of the Civil Rights Revolution." I became a volunteer photographer at both Sixth and I Historic Synagogue and the Civil War Preservation Trust (later renamed "Civil War Trust")..
Number of photos taken this year: 225,000.