How many of you have ever been to the Shiloh battle site?? How much do you know about the battle itself??
I've been to several reinactments but I won't be there this year. It's going to be a wonderful event but way too many people for me.
When you do research on this event you find conflicting accounts. Here is a blub from the article adapted from a chapter in Timothy B. Smith's forthcoming book The Untold Story of Shiloh: The Battle and the Battlefield. The article is titled: Battle of Shiloh: Shattering Myths
The standard account of Shiloh, however, is more myth than fact. Misunderstandings and oft-repeated campfire stories have over the years become for many the truth about Shiloh, distorting the actual facts and painting an altered picture of the momentous events of those April days. One has to look no further than the legend of Johnny Clem, the supposed Drummer Boy of Shiloh, to realize that tall tales surround the battle. Clem's 22nd Michigan Infantry was not even organized until after Shiloh took place. Similarly, the notorious Bloody Pond, today a battlefield landmark, could be myth. There is no contemporary evidence that indicates the pond became bloodstained. In fact, there is no contemporary evidence that there was even a pond on the spot. The sole account came from a local citizen who years later
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