The Cradle of the Civil War

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Today’s journey? I am following the river down the highway To the cradle of the Civil War (Paul Simon, “Graceland”) I spent the day seeing what America can do to itself. My destination when I started this morning was Shiloh National Military Park. I made it at dusk, getting sidetracked by informational signs along the highway. I’ll explore Shiloh tomorrow. Today, however, was a trip back through history, stopping at two other battlefields that were important in the Civil War. The major battlefield was Fort Donelson. This (and, from what I briefly saw at Shiloh, other battlefields) is beautifully laid out (if a place where a war between Americans took place can be called such), with signs in blue (depicting the details of the Union army) and red (the Confederacy) explaining the battle that occurred at that battlefield in detail. There are also markers that show troop positioning, explanations of the weapons used, and why that particular battle was important. I’ll detail another Civil War stop in another discussion. The beauty of these historic sites stands in such stark contrast to the awful bloodshed that occurred there.