Nelson's March

One site we visited was something that was entirely new to us.  We decided to try to follow Nelson's march.  Armed with a local map we followed roads that had to have been on the old roadbed.  Much of it was still dirt roads which was an exciting experience.

Eventually we ended up in a spot where we thought we were close to the river but would need to cross a farmer's field to get there.  The crops were long since out and there was a truck path through the field.  It was a bit muddy so we decided to walk it instead of risking the rental car.  A short distance into the field some locals came along, they were bowhunters and were glad to chat with us.  They offered us a ride in the back of their truck as they said it was probably too muddy for us to walk to the river.  We gladly accepted the ride and ended up at the river a bit south of where Nelson crossed.

Directly across from us was where Dill branch entered the Tennessee River.  In 1862 it would have looked a lot different as that rock wall wouldn't have existed (I would assume that's a TVA improvement) but one can easily imagine what it would have looked like.

And then looking north one can somewhat see where Pittsburg Landing is. 

All in all I think this might have been my favorite part of the Shiloh visit as it was something we had never seen before.  And something we might not have seen without the help of a few local bowhunters.