Living along the high river bluffs of the Shiloh Plateau, Mississippian mound builders left little clues of their culture other than large earthen ceremonial mounds. Many of these early settlements date between 800 and 2000 years ago, and Shiloh is one of the few places where remnants of prehistoric dwellings are still visible.
   What attracts most of the visitors to this area is one of the most important battlefields of the Civil War. An inevitable meeting place between opposing forces was centered on Corinth, Mississippi, where two of the Confederacy's most important railroads were linked. Emphasizing the importance, Confederate War secretary Leroy Pope Walker called their railroads the Vertebra of the Confederacy. When Union General Ulysses S. Grant selected Pittsburg Landing as a base of operation across the border in Tennessee, General Albert S. Johnson concentrated his forces in Corinth to defend the railway.
   Shiloh National Military Park highlights the two day battle where General Johnson seized the initiative, taking on Grant's troops around a small log church called the Shiloh Meeting House. General Johnson was one of the 23,746 causalities of the bloody conflict. With so many dead, many were buried in mass graves and honored today on the battlefield and in the Shiloh National Cemetery.

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