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Shiloh Battlefield Park

This Week on the Road - January 16th-23rd

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This Week on the Road - January 16th-23rd

Hey Y’all,

It is great to be back on the road and it is great to be back writing This Week on the Road. I’ve missed you all, and this weekly post and this journey. While it was definitely good for me mentally to go back to work for a few months and then spend some quality time with my friends and family back at home, I feel really good and very blessed and happy to be back on the road.  

I left home in Washington DC last Thursday and aimed for my dad’s place in Charleston, West Virginia. It was a cold and windy ride through the mountains, and snow whirled and blew as Shadow Catcher and I made our way west. The winter blast made me happy we were heading south and it felt good to have months ahead of us and only our plans and our wits to guide us. It was wonderful passing through and past some of the earliest destinations of this journey when we first set out way back in November of 2017. It was cold then too and the days were short, and my dad’s place was definitely a point of refuge as I got all of this off the ground. But driving past exits for Blackwater Falls and Weston and Morgantown and Harpers Ferry all brought a huge smile to my face. We’ve come a long way since then and it was good to take a drive down memory lane.  

I spent 2 days with my Dad and Judy, and it was great to catch up with them and enjoy their company. I helped them with a few things around the house and they took me out to a nice meal. It’s always great to see them, and it was my last taste of home for a while.  

We set off from Charleston on Saturday, headed west into Kentucky and then south from Lexington into Tennessee. This ride took us past even more wonderful memories from this journey…

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Snapshots: Shiloh National Battlefield

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Snapshots: Shiloh National Battlefield

The Battle of Shiloh took place on April 6th and 7th, 1862 in the woods near the Tennessee River just north of the Mississippi border. The battle takes its name from a log church which was there at the time and built by the settlers in the area. The word ”Shiloh” sadly comes from the Hebrew for “Place of Peace”, but in our history it will forever be remembered as a place of terrible, bloody conflict. The Union was moving down the Tennessee River with the hopes of capturing and controlling the Mississippi River Valley. One of the keys to that goal was the important railroad crossing in nearby Corinth, Mississippi, which linked the Mississippi and Charleston and the Mobile and Ohio Railroads. The first was the only rail link between the Mississippi River and the Atlantic Ocean. After a decisive victory at Fort Donelson and the subsequent falls of Nashville and Clarksville, the Union Army set their sights on Corinth, and the Confederacy rushed to reorganize and defend it…

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