Fallen Timbers

On April 8, 1862, Union Gen. William T. Sherman led a reconnaissance force from the Shiloh battlefield to see if the Confederate army had actually withdrawn. Here, six miles southwest of Pittsburg Landing, he described the ground before you, from right to left, as "a clear field, through which the road passed," then immediately beyond "some 200 yards of fallen timber," followed by by "an extensive camp" occupied by Confederate Col. Nathan Bedford Forrest's cavalry. Sherman ordered two companies of skirmishers forward.