A Soldier in the Forest
Not far from Shiloh Church stands a monument to the Second Tennessee Infantry, Army of Mississippi. According to the monument, the men “fell near this spot early in the morning of the battle of Shiloh, April 6, 1862.”
The regiment suffered 235 casualties that morning. “The 65 percent casualty rate and the severe fighting were burned into the memories of the surviving Tennessee soldiers,” says historian Stacy Reaves in her History & Guide to the Monuments of Shiloh National Park. “As a result, they were the first Confederate group to erect a monument on the battlefield.” They erected the monument on October 1903.
“Go, Stranger, and tell Tennessee that we died for her,” said Patrick Cleburne—words also inscribed on the monument. “Tennessee can never mourn for a nobler band than fell this day in her second regiment.”
A poignant episode in a much broader battle and evokes for me the fact that each segment of a battle and war has its own tale and meaning somewhat distanced from grand themes of causality. Thanks Chris.