MrBob Loc: lookout Mtn. NE Alabama

Don't concentrate on Photo, its just an an attention getter from a cemetery at Shiloh battlefield, or more specific, the battle of Pittsburg Landing. 160 years ago on April 6th and 7th over 23,000 casualties occurred over a 2 day period. A horrific lightning storm raged throughout the first night with the thunder and lightning only punctuated by the screams of the wounded and half dead as bands of roaming wild pigs feasted on the human flesh... Up to this date this was the bloodiest battle in US history. Visiting this site on these dates a couple years ago was a somber experience...

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lxu532 Loc: Cherry Hill, NJ

How awful. I never knew that. Thanks for the education.

bikinkawboy Loc: north central Missouri

I’m as Civil War fan. What a terrible, bloody war! In the South is was called a”rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight” because very few southern soldiers were slave owners. Those that did weren’t the ones doing the fighting. My great-great grandfather, his brother and 10 Illinois cousins fought for the North and one Missouri cousin for the South. That cousin’s younger brother fought for the North. Talk about tearing families apart.

MrBob Loc: lookout Mtn. NE Alabama

Your very welcome LXU... Its almost unimaginable what those 2 days must of been like.

MrBob Loc: lookout Mtn. NE Alabama

I live in NE Alabama now and I have been up here 15 years now as a Florida transplant... I am up on Lookout Mtn. and only 54 miles from Chattanooga and really enjoy going up to chickamauga and taking in the history etc... while trying to do a little photog. I posted a personal rendering of a sculpture by Frederick Hibbard that he was commissioned to do at Shiloh. It is in the picture Gallery and posted a couple days ago... Thank you for your thoughtful comments... Bob

Stephan G

Even now we have examples from war, even those waged with misplaced ideologies, that show such somber results.

Several years back, we visited the Bloody Lane at Antietam. It was on a sunless day that added to the atmosphere.

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Far too many of our brave soldiers today suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from the horrors of modern battle. I can't imagine what the soldiers that fought in the Civil War must have experienced and suffered from where the fighting was up close and personal, hand-to-hand, with bayonet and sword, and the dead, dying and wounded littering the battlefield.

If one was lucky enough to cheat death by only being wounded, they were more likely to die from primitive unsanitary surgical practices and later from infection.

Stephan G

I recall back in the 1960s collecting Topps gum cards which featured the US Civil War. A major focus was on the weapons used. Those weapons indicated the damage done to the bodies of the soldiers. The artwork on those cards left little to the imagination. A couple of cards did address the field medical situations.

One aspect of the war that made it even more horrendous was the fact that brothers, cousins and other kinfolk ended on opposing sides.

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Just came across the story on Roman and Leonid Butusin. Two brothers who were born in Russia, but they moved to Ukraine in 2014. Their father, Oleg, recovered their bodies. [Born In Russia, Two Brothers Died Defending Ukraine.mp4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR6eZ28ftSs

bikinkawboy Loc: north central Missouri

I’ve visited Lookout Mountain several times. Another place that is pretty sobering is Andersonville (prison).

Most of my ancestors living in Illinois during the Civil War came from Tennessee. One time the Union army came through Carlinville (IL) with southern POWs, many of them related family, friends or friends of friends. The Illinois folks threw a big party for the POWs with food, lots of visiting and everyone singing patriotic songs from both sides. Unlike so many protesters during Vietnam, my ancestors realized that folks on both sides were simply doing what their home states asked or told them to do. I don’t think war can ever be “civilized “, but anti-war protestors need to raise hell with the desk driving officials rather than the lowly soldier doing what he’s told to do.

Stephan G

I had the honor of conversing with a grandson of one of the POWs at Andersonville, Ga. I signed in about ten minutes after he did in the daily register. When I saw his reason for his visit, I knew I had to talk to him. "For my grandfather." He gave me some of the stories from his grandfather about the time at the POW camp.

We commiserated when I told him about my mom's time in the concentration camp in Eastern Germany, as well as to my father's experience in the poor Germans work camp during WWII. (My mother was Slav and not Jewish. My father was Ukrainian, not German.) We left as friends who understood the hidden side of war.

There were, and are, many politicians and people who did not understand or appreciate the concept of Citizen-Soldier. In the USA, soldiers are not conscripts who surrender their citizen status to serve their country. They are citizens who step up to the demands of the needs. (Putin's military is comprised with many political prisoners who were sent to invade Ukraine.)

It still remains the duty of all members of the country to make the politicians toe the line and do their sworn duty to the country. This includes those who have served in the military who think it gives them privilege.

bikinkawboy Loc: north central Missouri

My daughter joined the Air Force at the age of 32 and did really well. Seeing her march by after completing basic training has to be my proudest parental moment.

buckbrush Loc: Texas then Southwest Oregon

I totally agree. I never appreciated what horror the civil war was, until I entered the Connecticut state house in Hartford, CT and they had displays of each branch of each CT unit who were in the civil war. The main thing I remember was that they brought back a group of trees that had been devastated by the bullets, cannon shots and it was so dramatic seeing the absolute devastation on the landscape that it was easy to understand how cruel and miserable it must have been to be in that war. It made a very deep impression on me even tho I was out of the Army at that time, I never really understood what the devastation meant, but seeing those trees and the fantastic number of bullets having been embedded in the trees was so influential to me I really came to understood how horrible the war must have been.

1MoreFord Loc: Arkansas

As I understand it Shiloh/Pittsburg Landing was in reality a pre-emptive battle to protect the town of Cross Roads or Crossroads, now known as Corinth, MS. Crossroads was actually the site of a North/South and East/West railroad crossing and an important objective in the war. Additionally Crossroads/Corinth has been the subject of two movies. One being a John Wayne movie called The Horse Soldiers and the other being Walking Tall. In addition to Buford going into the neighboring county what the movie failed to mention is the county he went into was also across the TN and MS state line. There's still a road in Corinth called Dead Body Road.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

The casualties during the Civil War were horrendous.