On the second day, the Union forces, having stabilized their lines and received reinforcements, pushed forward against the Confederates, now led by General G.T. (Pierre Gustave Toutant) Beauregard, who ended the battle with a covered withdrawal. Total casualties for the two-day Battle of Shiloh: about 24,000, including 3,500 total dead combining both sides. For comparison's sake, the US military lost about 32,000 wounded and 5,000 dead in the Iraq War of 2003-2011.
Shiloh has been the subject of stories, novels, movies and paintings. Bobbie Ann Mason's "Shiloh" uses the battle as metaphor for an embattled marriage, and includes a physical trip to the battlefield to drive home her point. Aside from English school textbooks, one can find this evocative text in Mason's Shiloh and Other Stories, originally published in 1982.
Note: By the Tennessee River, one can still see created mounds dating back to about 1000 A.D., part of a fortified complex of the "Late Woodland" era. It's part of the Shiloh National Military Park: http://www.nps.gov/shil/mounds.htm
Today's Rune: Possessions.
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War leaves its marks, even on the land
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