Farther Along the Road

Green Acres RV Resort in Savannah, Tennessee

With our friends the Frisbees and the Heibs at Green Acres

In a few weeks we're off to Kentucky for cars, baseball, and art but till then we're still focusing on the Civil War.  Our next stop was in Savannah, Tennessee where we stayed at  Green Acres RV Resort, owned by our friends Diane and Larry Frisbee.  After being on the road for a few weeks it was fun to see familiar faces when we pulled in at Green Acres. It was our first visit there and it was wonderful. The park grounds looked like a golf course, the sites were spacious, and the Frisbees made us feel like family. Everything an RVer dreams of.

The battle at Shiloh began here at Frayley's Field

A few miles from Green Acres we visited Shiloh, another of the Civil War battlefields on our list. Some people drive from one point of interest to another without ever getting out of their cars but we can't resist stopping to read the info boards and walking onto the actual battlefields. Shiloh is a large park in a rural area--acres of fields and forests that border the Tennessee River. Because of the terrain at Shiloh the two armies were virtually on top of each other. It's always eerie to stand on a battlefield, to see for instance, the view that Grant saw as he directed his troops or to get a sense from the markers for Union and Confederate troops of how close they were to one another. It was particularly sobering to stand on the battleground at Shiloh, where the ferocity of the battle shocked the nation and let both sides know that it was not going to be a short war.

Russ standing in the door of Shiloh Church, for which the battle was named

We were lucky to attend a Ranger Talk given by a park ranger named Timothy Arnold. Timothy, who had had been visiting the park since he was a child, really made the battle come alive with his knowledge and enthusiasm as he told us about the infamous Hornet's Nest. His passion for Civil War history goes beyond his ranger duty--he's been in several Civil War documentaries and even makes period-correct clothing for films. He gave me a whole new perspective when he told us that instead of being enemies, many veterans from both sides held joint reunions after the war to symbolize to the nation that  the most important lesson they learned was that the country was stronger and better when it was united.

I've really gotten into genealogy so one of the things we planned for this trip was to visit areas or battlefields where I knew my ancestors had been. I had ancestors on both sides of the Civil War and have confirmation that my Confederate relatives were in regiments at Shiloh, Stones River, and Chickamauga. One of our plans was to take photos at the battlefields of markers where their units where during the battle. We lucked out at Shiloh since the rangers were able to give us good directions and the markers were fairly accessible. In the photo at right I'm behind a marker for my ancestors' regiment during this part of the battle. They faced artillery in the tree line across the field.  

Shiloh was fought over control of these tracks

The real reason for the battle at Shiloh--and the real objective--was control of the railroads at Corinth, Mississippi, just a short distance south of Shiloh. The intersection of two railroads critical to the supply lines of the Confederacy was smack in the middle of the town of Corinth. Those lines are still in use today and surprisingly, there's no prohibition against going out and standing in the middle of the them for a photo op. Russ was just told to be sure I got off the track in time if a train came through. Although there is no battleground in Cornith, during the Civil War there were more troops gathered in one location there than there have been at any other place in the Northern Hemisphere.

Just down the road from Shiloh

Our Eating Our Way Through The South stop on this part of the trip was at the Catfish Hotel. Savannah and the surrounding area is billed as the Catfish Capital of the World. What better place for Russ to have catfish than one that's been serving up catfish since 1938? In fact, it's one of the oldest family-owned restaurants in America. The story goes that the family, who had settled along the Tennessee River in 1825 had famous catfish dinners at a shack on the river near their home. The dinners would last so late that people spend the night in the shack, which was dubbed the "Catfish Hotel". In 1938 when a prominent guest suggested that their catfish was so good they should start a restaurant, they decided to do just that, choosing the obvious name Catfish Hotel. According to Russ, the catfish was good but didn't beat the Catfish Parlor in Austin. I skipped the catfish of course but had a piece of Lemon Rub Pie. Who could resist it with a name like that?

Catfish, hushpuppies, and fried green tomatoes at the Catfish Hotel

Russ and Sheri's Believe it or Not From Savannah, TN:

• The woman cashier at the grocery in Savannah told me that "If I was doing any better, there would have to be two of me."
• Union troops stayed at the shack on the property of the owners of the Catfish Hotel before the battle at Shiloh.
• In Corinth parallel parking can apparently be done in either direction, making some of the streets look like a free-for-all as cars dart across in front of other cars to snag a parking spot on the opposite side of the street.

  

  Parallel parking can get very interesting in Corinth