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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 [see Modern Photograph], 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.
A 2-minute walk down the path to your left leads to Fraley Field and an exhibit describing the opening of the battle. |