Shiloh & Corinth: The Civil War's Western Theater

Two hours southwest of Nashville, the Shiloh National Military Park preserves the site of the April 1862 battle that was the largest in American history to that point — 23,000 men killed, wounded, or missing in two days of fighting in the woods above the Tennessee River. Unlike the battle sites closer to Nashville, Shiloh has remained largely undeveloped; the battlefield's 4,000 acres look much as they did in 1862, with the original terrain, the burial trenches, and the 151 monuments and cannon marking every position. Corinth, Mississippi, 25 miles south of the battlefield, was the Confederate railroad center that both sides fought to control; the Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center is the best NPS visitor center dedicated to the Western Theater of the war.