"Road Trip: Shiloh and Vicksburg" Topic

I am planning a road trip from New Orleans back up to Michigan and was planning on stopping off at Vicksburg and Shiloh, among other places, and I was wondering if they had been preserved enough to make it worthwhile. Especially Shiloh. I know Vicksburg has the Cairo there so that's pretty much locked in, but is Shiloh preserved to anywhere near the level of say, Antietam?

I appreciate any input from anyone who has been there recently and can give me their thoughts.

Thanks in advance.

I have heard that Shiloh is well preserved and a great place to visit. I was considering going to Vicksburg and saw that along with the Cairo, they have a museum and battlefield preservation well done. Hopefully someone will post who has actually been there recently.
Have fun! Envious!

I've been to both. Shiloh is very well preserved, easily on a par with Antietam.

There has been more modern encroachment at Vicksburg since the park is right in the middle of the city.

They're both fantastic visits.

Having lived and worked as a summer seasonal interpreter there one summer in my younger days, and having done numerous living history programs there over the years, I can tell you that Shiloh is definitely worth a visit. It is a National Park that was established back at the end of the 19th Century and is one of the oldest of the Civil War National Battlefields. The park covers several square miles and takes in most of the battlefield. You can see Pittsburg Landing, the Sunken Road (which isn't really as sunken as one might suppose), the Peach Orchard, Bloody Pond, and many other well-known sites. The driving tour is about 5-6 miles long and will take about 1-2 hours, so leave yourself plenty of time. If you have time, Corinth, Mississippi is on the way from Vicksburg and is also worth a stop. There is a visitor's center and several historic homes including one that served as Beauregard's headquarters. Corinth and Shiloh are both parts of the same park, although separated by about 20 miles. Hope you enjoy your trip!

Shiloh is worth the stop. It was well preserved and walking it really gave you an appreciation of the battle. It is not too large to be incomprehensible by the standard visitor. Well recommended.

The video the Park Service shows now at Shilo is a tremendous improvement over the old one. Shilo is well worth the visit.

I was at Vicksburg several years ago. Lots of monuments that are fun to see. The main attraction for me was the USS Cairo exhibit. It is a must-see if you go there. The thing I didn't like it that the park is heavily forested in many sections, where is should look a lot more like no-man's land. In fact, the Confederates had cleared trees and brush in front of their trenches. The explanation from the park ranger was that, since they were a National Park, they couldn't clear the woods. I have heard that since then, they were allowed to clear sections of the woods and restore it as it would have been. However, I have not been able to get back there to see it.

If you're going to Vicksburg see the USS Cairo.

Try to get a side trip to Perryville KY if you can too.

At Vicksburg, they are in the process of clearing parts of the fortifications of the vegetation that has grown up over the decades so that visitors can get a feel for what the opposing forces actually saw. Count on probably spending a full day at park with both the driving tour and visiting the Cairo.

It has been decades since I was at Shiloh but as others have stated, it is a great battlefield to visit. As also recommended, you should plan on stopping by Corinth which is where the Confederates gathered before the battle. Afterwards it was the goal of Halleck's army. Later in 1862 it was the site of the Confederate attack under Van Dorn against Rosecrans. The battlefield has been marked and some of the fortifications have been restored. Corinth is definitely a "hidden" gem.

After Corinth and Shiloh, you could continue on north down the Tennessee River to Fort Donaldson, the site of one of Grant's early victories and where he received the "Unconditional Surrender" nick-name.

Good luck on your trip,

Jim (Jackson, MS)

Thanks everyone for all the info. Vicksburg and Shiloh are now definitely on the agenda.

Jim, Donelson was already on the list, probably as the last stop. I've got a Great Great Great Great Grandfather who fought there with the 50th Tennessee.

I'll be starting in New Orleans(no explanation needed) and am going to tour the Mississippi Gulf coast area around Biloxi where my MP Company was deployed to after Katrina. I've always wanted to go back and see how they rebuilt. After that I'll head north for the ACW stuff.

I thought that Shiloh was the most atmospheric of the civil war battlefields that I've visited, particularly when you get away from the roads. It's easy to imagine a ragged line of Rebs approaching through the trees. If you do go to Corinth, I can recommend lunch at Borroum's Drug Store.

Shiloh is very well preserved. I was just there in April, it was great!

Fort Donelson would be worth a stop, also.

They can remove trees as part of restoring the battlefield. That first started a few years ago. I visited Antietam and Gettysburg last summer.

The West Woods at Antietam is being cleared and re-planted to look more like it did during the battle. The Peach Orchard at Gettysburg had new saplings planted when I was there.

I stood where the Georgians were sniping at the Union troops trying to cross Burnside's Bridge and you had a difficult time seeing the bridge. A Park Ranger told me that there was decades of brush and tree growth I was looking through. That will also be restored.

They were doing work on the bridge when I was there. Restoring it to as close to like it was as they can. The crew were on their lunch break and I could see big white sheets that the Curators drew the stone pattern for the bridge.