Thoughts From A First Time Visitor To Various Western Theater Battlefields

Joshism

Captain
Joined
Apr 30, 2012
Location
Jupiter, FL
I spent two weeks this month traveling around the SE US, including many first-time visits for me to Civil War battlefields and museums. I have previously only been to Gettysburg, Antietam, various Virginia battlefields, and some forts. I had a friend with me who is a fellow history major, but is not a Civil War buff. here are my thoughts on the Civil War sites I visited:

Vicksburg

It was great to travel both siege lines and see so much of the former workers preserved. Thayer's Approach was especially fascinating. The USS Cairo was also great. The amount of monuments on this battlefield are staggering and some of them are quite impressive, especially the open dome Illinois monument.

Visiting on a Tuesday there were a large number of pedestrians (mostly joggers). The visitor center is woefully inadequate for this park. It really needs a large modern center to encompass the entire Vicksburg Campaign and 1863 siege warfare. The monuments are artistically impressive, but the signage is almost entirely in the form of old iron tablets listing minutia that 99% of visitors will not read. Sight lines between the Union and Confederate lines are completely obscured along the majority of the line by modern tree growth.

Of personal interest I was disappointed the Coonskin Tower is only mentioned in passing (as far as I saw). I think that is one of the neatest things about the entire siege.

The CD audio tour purchased from the gift shop is decent, but several decades old. It talks about "stopping the cassette tape!"

Time: 5.5 hours

Tupelo

The only preserved part of the battlefield is probably smaller than a football field with a few monuments and marked graves, plus a small interpretive sign. Not really worth bothering with.

Corinth

The Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center is a sleek, modern museum. It includes the most substantial look at the war itself that I encountered at any of my dedicated Civil War stops. In addition to military operations in and around Corinth, there is also an interesting exhibit on the "contraband camp" at Corinth. It doesn't go very deep into Corinth and Iuka though. If you're visiting Shiloh it's worth including the time for this museum as well, especially since it is free.

Time: 1 hour

Shiloh

The battlefield preservation here seems really well in terms of historical roads and trees-where-they-were-in-1862. The most significant observation I noticed as that many of the farm fields are on small ridges or hilltops meaning they do not provide quite the same field of fire as one might expect. Especially the field south of the Hornet's Nest: the fenceline along the "Sunken Road" (which is apparently no longer sunken anywhere that I saw) and Ruggle's Battery are barely visible from one another because the clear field between them is bisected by a low ridgeline.

I chanced upon a gentleman at the replica Shiloh Church giving a talk about the history of the wood churches and the active stone and brick church next door.

Some of the open fields had not been mowed in awhile resulting in difficult seeing where markers were.

The effort to distinguish the iron unit markers by color and shape helps, but they are not different enough to avoid periodic confusion.

The park's driving tour is not very helpful in understanding the battle. The only audio tour available at the gift shop was from the same series as the dated Vicksburg tour so we chose not to purchase it. Separate tours for the first and second days fighting would probably be a good idea. The visitor center is small, but features a lengthy video about the battle.

Time: 4 hours (visitor center + general driving survey of the whole battlefield)

Stones River

Given that this was one of the bloodiest battles of the war it is a shame what has been done here (or perhaps more accurately not done). There was a sleek, modern visitor center and the rangers were friendly (one turned out to hail from the same area of FL where I live). The driving tour is very brief and the rain that date limited exploration on foot. Of all the battlefields I visited this seemed likely the most most in need of bike and foot exploration. Signs are almost non-existent on this battlefield and only at most half of the battlefield is even intact. Seeing the rock-strewn cedar forests and the imposing location of Mendenhall's Battery were pretty neat though. A real shame.

Time: 2 hours, including driving between disconnected sections of the battlefield. It would have been worth spending a couple more hours in good weather and with a good walking tour guidebook (if one exists).

Chattanooga

I didn't visit what's left of Missionary Ridge, but I did go to Lookout Mountain. It's still a very imposing height with an amazing view. As a bonus, the previous day's rain provided a morning of heavy fog giving a really "Battle Above The Clouds" (and sometimes IN the clouds) feel. We went to Point Park, including walking down the Ochs Museum which has a few interesting exhibits and a great view of Moccasin Bend. We also went to the small visitor center just outside Point Park which is most notable for the huge 'Hooker at Lookout Mountain' painting.

Overall, it felt more like a scenic jaunt than history.

Chickamauga

A friend had loaned me the 2 hour audio tour narrated by Peter Cozzens which is well worth it, especially since the park's tour completely skips the fighting on Sept 19th! Cozzens' audio tour is itself incomplete, skipping some important stops like the Kelly Field salient and Wilder Tower, which I made a point to see. This battlefield is a great example of subtle terrain that one only really appreciates in person. I had really wanted to read David Powell's books before visiting, but I didn't get to do so. (I had read Cozzens several years ago.) Snodgrass Hill is fairly imposing terrain. Wilder Tower is pretty neat, but trees have gotten so tall that it's not very useful anymore for surveying the battlefield.

The visitor center was real nice - the best I saw on my visits this trip. I was particularly pleased with the light-up map which seems a rarity (First Manassas has one) which I find a great way to illustrate the flow of a battle. There was also a good demonstration video of loading and firing a Spingfield muzzleloader vs a Spencer breechloader. I was here on a Saturday afternoon and the park seemed fairly busy, although the amount of thru traffic on the main road through the park (the old LaFayette Road) was at times problematic.

Time: 5 hours - probably the best battlefield to visit in the Western Theater.

Kennesaw Mountain

Do not visit this battlefield on a weekend! We tried to go here on a Sunday morning and the place was an absolute zoo. Sadly, it was not due to anything historic, but instead due to a huge number of local Atlanta area residents using the park for walking, often with their dogs.

The visitor center was also a great disappointment. While it gives a wide presentation of the entire Atlanta Campaign, the place is so dimly lit that half of the text is unreadable. The text would still be problematic even with properly lighting: I'm 6'3" and many panels had text that ran from eye level down to my knees!

Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History

This is really a three-part museum: railroads in the Civil War, the Glover Machine Works (a local railroad locomotive manufacturer), and the Great Locomotive Chase including The General (the original, not a replica). They have a very cheesy half-hour movie about the Chase which is basically just a cheesy knock-off of the Fess Parker movie.

Great place to visit if you're a big railroad buff, but not really remarkable for Civil War buffs. I'd recommend just reading "Stealing the General" by Russell Bonds instead.

Time: 1.5 hours

Atlanta History Center

The Atlanta History Center is the future home of the Atlanta Cyclorama and from my visit there I think it will be a great home for it. This is a real top-notch museum with a large and I think permanent exhibit about the entire Civil War. Nothing groundbreaking, but like the Tredegar museum it is really good to see a modern look at the war in a major Southern city. The museum has various permanent and rotating indoor exhibits, plus a large outdoor garden and living history sites. I only had about 90 minutes here before they closed. I'll definitely come back in a few years when the Cyclorama opens (I think they're aiming for 2018). When all the exhibit halls are open this is a place you can spend the better part of a day.

Andersonville

The site of the prison is marked out, but only the main gate and one corner have been replicated. The lay of the land was rather surprising as the stream through the middle of the prison cuts quite the valley through the middle.

Besides the prison site, there is also modern POW museum which is very sleek and has some good videos interviewing former POWs, but the emphasis on the "POW experience" is a bit too artistic. I don't mean to say inaccurate, but don't expect to come away being able to compare and contrast life in Andersonville to life in the Hanoi Hilton.

Time: 3 hours

General Thoughts

Boy was I spoiled by Civil War sites in Virginia! I was blown away by all the modern signage there, most if I think sponsored by the Civil War Trust for the 150th anniversary. Gettysburg was also top-notch when I was there in 2009. Sadly, the western battlefields feel very neglected and incredibly dated. Given how intact and significant Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chickamauga were this is rather sad.

I can also happily report all the videos at the NPS visitor centers have been modernized. I've seen a few comments on here about how some of them used to be really hokey and dated so thankfully those are all gone.

Bonus Thought

If you plan to visit Shiloh and Vicksburg, include an extra 3 days in your trip itinerary to travel the entire Natchez Trace from Natchez to Nashville. Lots to see and do along the way, plus great scenery.
 
As far as Murfreesboro ( only Yankeees name battles for where they washed their face) in the past 10-15 years it has added ground along Old Nashville Pk and aquired Fortress Rosecrans, It also has monuments across Broad Street by the River notably the Artillery Monument.
The thing that needs to understood is that Mufreesboro has grown greatly in the past few years and alot of the sites were then private property (during the fight) and remained so . So unless the US Park Service is willing to make payment for it or have it Condemned ( which after the last time I doubt they will) then you work with what ya got.

And you should have went to the Sam Davis house in Smyrna while you were in the area,
 
I spent two weeks this month traveling around the SE US, including many first-time visits for me to Civil War battlefields and museums. I have previously only been to Gettysburg, Antietam, various Virginia battlefields, and some forts. I had a friend with me who is a fellow history major, but is not a Civil War buff. here are my thoughts on the Civil War sites I visited:

Vicksburg

It was great to travel both siege lines and see so much of the former workers preserved. Thayer's Approach was especially fascinating. The USS Cairo was also great. The amount of monuments on this battlefield are staggering and some of them are quite impressive, especially the open dome Illinois monument.

Visiting on a Tuesday there were a large number of pedestrians (mostly joggers). The visitor center is woefully inadequate for this park. It really needs a large modern center to encompass the entire Vicksburg Campaign and 1863 siege warfare. The monuments are artistically impressive, but the signage is almost entirely in the form of old iron tablets listing minutia that 99% of visitors will not read. Sight lines between the Union and Confederate lines are completely obscured along the majority of the line by modern tree growth.

Of personal interest I was disappointed the Coonskin Tower is only mentioned in passing (as far as I saw). I think that is one of the neatest things about the entire siege.

The CD audio tour purchased from the gift shop is decent, but several decades old. It talks about "stopping the cassette tape!"

Time: 5.5 hours

Tupelo

The only preserved part of the battlefield is probably smaller than a football field with a few monuments and marked graves, plus a small interpretive sign. Not really worth bothering with.

Corinth

The Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center is a sleek, modern museum. It includes the most substantial look at the war itself that I encountered at any of my dedicated Civil War stops. In addition to military operations in and around Corinth, there is also an interesting exhibit on the "contraband camp" at Corinth. It doesn't go very deep into Corinth and Iuka though. If you're visiting Shiloh it's worth including the time for this museum as well, especially since it is free.

Time: 1 hour

Shiloh

The battlefield preservation here seems really well in terms of historical roads and trees-where-they-were-in-1862. The most significant observation I noticed as that many of the farm fields are on small ridges or hilltops meaning they do not provide quite the same field of fire as one might expect. Especially the field south of the Hornet's Nest: the fenceline along the "Sunken Road" (which is apparently no longer sunken anywhere that I saw) and Ruggle's Battery are barely visible from one another because the clear field between them is bisected by a low ridgeline.

I chanced upon a gentleman at the replica Shiloh Church giving a talk about the history of the wood churches and the active stone and brick church next door.

Some of the open fields had not been mowed in awhile resulting in difficult seeing where markers were.

The effort to distinguish the iron unit markers by color and shape helps, but they are not different enough to avoid periodic confusion.

The park's driving tour is not very helpful in understanding the battle. The only audio tour available at the gift shop was from the same series as the dated Vicksburg tour so we chose not to purchase it. Separate tours for the first and second days fighting would probably be a good idea. The visitor center is small, but features a lengthy video about the battle.

Time: 4 hours (visitor center + general driving survey of the whole battlefield)

Stones River

Given that this was one of the bloodiest battles of the war it is a shame what has been done here (or perhaps more accurately not done). There was a sleek, modern visitor center and the rangers were friendly (one turned out to hail from the same area of FL where I live). The driving tour is very brief and the rain that date limited exploration on foot. Of all the battlefields I visited this seemed likely the most most in need of bike and foot exploration. Signs are almost non-existent on this battlefield and only at most half of the battlefield is even intact. Seeing the rock-strewn cedar forests and the imposing location of Mendenhall's Battery were pretty neat though. A real shame.

Time: 2 hours, including driving between disconnected sections of the battlefield. It would have been worth spending a couple more hours in good weather and with a good walking tour guidebook (if one exists).

Chattanooga

I didn't visit what's left of Missionary Ridge, but I did go to Lookout Mountain. It's still a very imposing height with an amazing view. As a bonus, the previous day's rain provided a morning of heavy fog giving a really "Battle Above The Clouds" (and sometimes IN the clouds) feel. We went to Point Park, including walking down the Ochs Museum which has a few interesting exhibits and a great view of Moccasin Bend. We also went to the small visitor center just outside Point Park which is most notable for the huge 'Hooker at Lookout Mountain' painting.

Overall, it felt more like a scenic jaunt than history.

Chickamauga

A friend had loaned me the 2 hour audio tour narrated by Peter Cozzens which is well worth it, especially since the park's tour completely skips the fighting on Sept 19th! Cozzens' audio tour is itself incomplete, skipping some important stops like the Kelly Field salient and Wilder Tower, which I made a point to see. This battlefield is a great example of subtle terrain that one only really appreciates in person. I had really wanted to read David Powell's books before visiting, but I didn't get to do so. (I had read Cozzens several years ago.) Snodgrass Hill is fairly imposing terrain. Wilder Tower is pretty neat, but trees have gotten so tall that it's not very useful anymore for surveying the battlefield.

The visitor center was real nice - the best I saw on my visits this trip. I was particularly pleased with the light-up map which seems a rarity (First Manassas has one) which I find a great way to illustrate the flow of a battle. There was also a good demonstration video of loading and firing a Spingfield muzzleloader vs a Spencer breechloader. I was here on a Saturday afternoon and the park seemed fairly busy, although the amount of thru traffic on the main road through the park (the old LaFayette Road) was at times problematic.

Time: 5 hours - probably the best battlefield to visit in the Western Theater.

Kennesaw Mountain

Do not visit this battlefield on a weekend! We tried to go here on a Sunday morning and the place was an absolute zoo. Sadly, it was not due to anything historic, but instead due to a huge number of local Atlanta area residents using the park for walking, often with their dogs.

The visitor center was also a great disappointment. While it gives a wide presentation of the entire Atlanta Campaign, the place is so dimly lit that half of the text is unreadable. The text would still be problematic even with properly lighting: I'm 6'3" and many panels had text that ran from eye level down to my knees!

Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History

This is really a three-part museum: railroads in the Civil War, the Glover Machine Works (a local railroad locomotive manufacturer), and the Great Locomotive Chase including The General (the original, not a replica). They have a very cheesy half-hour movie about the Chase which is basically just a cheesy knock-off of the Fess Parker movie.

Great place to visit if you're a big railroad buff, but not really remarkable for Civil War buffs. I'd recommend just reading "Stealing the General" by Russell Bonds instead.

Time: 1.5 hours

Atlanta History Center

The Atlanta History Center is the future home of the Atlanta Cyclorama and from my visit there I think it will be a great home for it. This is a real top-notch museum with a large and I think permanent exhibit about the entire Civil War. Nothing groundbreaking, but like the Tredegar museum it is really good to see a modern look at the war in a major Southern city. The museum has various permanent and rotating indoor exhibits, plus a large outdoor garden and living history sites. I only had about 90 minutes here before they closed. I'll definitely come back in a few years when the Cyclorama opens (I think they're aiming for 2018). When all the exhibit halls are open this is a place you can spend the better part of a day.

Andersonville

The site of the prison is marked out, but only the main gate and one corner have been replicated. The lay of the land was rather surprising as the stream through the middle of the prison cuts quite the valley through the middle.

Besides the prison site, there is also modern POW museum which is very sleek and has some good videos interviewing former POWs, but the emphasis on the "POW experience" is a bit too artistic. I don't mean to say inaccurate, but don't expect to come away being able to compare and contrast life in Andersonville to life in the Hanoi Hilton.

Time: 3 hours

General Thoughts

Boy was I spoiled by Civil War sites in Virginia! I was blown away by all the modern signage there, most if I think sponsored by the Civil War Trust for the 150th anniversary. Gettysburg was also top-notch when I was there in 2009. Sadly, the western battlefields feel very neglected and incredibly dated. Given how intact and significant Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chickamauga were this is rather sad.

I can also happily report all the videos at the NPS visitor centers have been modernized. I've seen a few comments on here about how some of them used to be really hokey and dated so thankfully those are all gone.

Bonus Thought

If you plan to visit Shiloh and Vicksburg, include an extra 3 days in your trip itinerary to travel the entire Natchez Trace from Natchez to Nashville. Lots to see and do along the way, plus great scenery.
Thanks for all that. I know it took some time to compose it. So far,I've only been to 3 Trans-Mississippi battlefields and 5 in Virginia. Next Monday I am flying to Chattanooga for 5 nights and days. Going on a 3 day,guided battlefield tour of Chattanooga/Chickamauga. Might make a day trip to Franklin while there and visit Chattanooga National Cemetery my last morning there. I really prefer weekday and winter tours. Hope to make a road trip to Vicksburg in the fall.
 
You need to visit the Pea Ridge National Military Park and the Wilson's Creek National Battlefield. They are both well preserved and well interrupted!

The Tupelo National Battlefield is the smallest NPS battlefield in their system. But there are spots just north of this NPS site where the Battle of Harrisburg (Tupelo) is preserved.

I love the Virginia ACW sites but I am very found of the Trans-Mississippi sites.

Bill
 
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The Tupelo Campaign (Old Town Creek).

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@Buckeye Bill, those photos have exactly the kind of signs I saw all over VA, but which were incredibly rare on this trip. Whenever I return some distant future day to further study the Shiloh battlefield I will have to read up on Tupelo further and seek out the related sites like those.

As for Pea Ridge and Wilson's Creek: those are on my To Do list. This trip I had originally planned for 2013 but many events caused it to be repeatedly postponed to 2016. I've got alot of traveling ahead of me because I did very little traveling in the first 28 years of my life (I'm 34 now). And nowadays I'm a lighthouse buff in addition to a Civil War buff so I've got even more destinations calling my name. Being down in the SE corner of the country (South Florida) doesn't help.
 
I spent two weeks this month traveling around the SE US, including many first-time visits for me to Civil War battlefields and museums. I have previously only been to Gettysburg, Antietam, various Virginia battlefields, and some forts. I had a friend with me who is a fellow history major, but is not a Civil War buff. here are my thoughts on the Civil War sites I visited:

Vicksburg

It was great to travel both siege lines and see so much of the former workers preserved. Thayer's Approach was especially fascinating. The USS Cairo was also great. The amount of monuments on this battlefield are staggering and some of them are quite impressive, especially the open dome Illinois monument.

Visiting on a Tuesday there were a large number of pedestrians (mostly joggers). The visitor center is woefully inadequate for this park. It really needs a large modern center to encompass the entire Vicksburg Campaign and 1863 siege warfare. The monuments are artistically impressive, but the signage is almost entirely in the form of old iron tablets listing minutia that 99% of visitors will not read. Sight lines between the Union and Confederate lines are completely obscured along the majority of the line by modern tree growth.

Of personal interest I was disappointed the Coonskin Tower is only mentioned in passing (as far as I saw). I think that is one of the neatest things about the entire siege.

The CD audio tour purchased from the gift shop is decent, but several decades old. It talks about "stopping the cassette tape!"

Time: 5.5 hours

Tupelo

The only preserved part of the battlefield is probably smaller than a football field with a few monuments and marked graves, plus a small interpretive sign. Not really worth bothering with.

Corinth

The Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center is a sleek, modern museum. It includes the most substantial look at the war itself that I encountered at any of my dedicated Civil War stops. In addition to military operations in and around Corinth, there is also an interesting exhibit on the "contraband camp" at Corinth. It doesn't go very deep into Corinth and Iuka though. If you're visiting Shiloh it's worth including the time for this museum as well, especially since it is free.

Time: 1 hour

Shiloh

The battlefield preservation here seems really well in terms of historical roads and trees-where-they-were-in-1862. The most significant observation I noticed as that many of the farm fields are on small ridges or hilltops meaning they do not provide quite the same field of fire as one might expect. Especially the field south of the Hornet's Nest: the fenceline along the "Sunken Road" (which is apparently no longer sunken anywhere that I saw) and Ruggle's Battery are barely visible from one another because the clear field between them is bisected by a low ridgeline.

I chanced upon a gentleman at the replica Shiloh Church giving a talk about the history of the wood churches and the active stone and brick church next door.

Some of the open fields had not been mowed in awhile resulting in difficult seeing where markers were.

The effort to distinguish the iron unit markers by color and shape helps, but they are not different enough to avoid periodic confusion.

The park's driving tour is not very helpful in understanding the battle. The only audio tour available at the gift shop was from the same series as the dated Vicksburg tour so we chose not to purchase it. Separate tours for the first and second days fighting would probably be a good idea. The visitor center is small, but features a lengthy video about the battle.

Time: 4 hours (visitor center + general driving survey of the whole battlefield)

Stones River

Given that this was one of the bloodiest battles of the war it is a shame what has been done here (or perhaps more accurately not done). There was a sleek, modern visitor center and the rangers were friendly (one turned out to hail from the same area of FL where I live). The driving tour is very brief and the rain that date limited exploration on foot. Of all the battlefields I visited this seemed likely the most most in need of bike and foot exploration. Signs are almost non-existent on this battlefield and only at most half of the battlefield is even intact. Seeing the rock-strewn cedar forests and the imposing location of Mendenhall's Battery were pretty neat though. A real shame.

Time: 2 hours, including driving between disconnected sections of the battlefield. It would have been worth spending a couple more hours in good weather and with a good walking tour guidebook (if one exists).

Chattanooga

I didn't visit what's left of Missionary Ridge, but I did go to Lookout Mountain. It's still a very imposing height with an amazing view. As a bonus, the previous day's rain provided a morning of heavy fog giving a really "Battle Above The Clouds" (and sometimes IN the clouds) feel. We went to Point Park, including walking down the Ochs Museum which has a few interesting exhibits and a great view of Moccasin Bend. We also went to the small visitor center just outside Point Park which is most notable for the huge 'Hooker at Lookout Mountain' painting.

Overall, it felt more like a scenic jaunt than history.

Chickamauga

A friend had loaned me the 2 hour audio tour narrated by Peter Cozzens which is well worth it, especially since the park's tour completely skips the fighting on Sept 19th! Cozzens' audio tour is itself incomplete, skipping some important stops like the Kelly Field salient and Wilder Tower, which I made a point to see. This battlefield is a great example of subtle terrain that one only really appreciates in person. I had really wanted to read David Powell's books before visiting, but I didn't get to do so. (I had read Cozzens several years ago.) Snodgrass Hill is fairly imposing terrain. Wilder Tower is pretty neat, but trees have gotten so tall that it's not very useful anymore for surveying the battlefield.

The visitor center was real nice - the best I saw on my visits this trip. I was particularly pleased with the light-up map which seems a rarity (First Manassas has one) which I find a great way to illustrate the flow of a battle. There was also a good demonstration video of loading and firing a Spingfield muzzleloader vs a Spencer breechloader. I was here on a Saturday afternoon and the park seemed fairly busy, although the amount of thru traffic on the main road through the park (the old LaFayette Road) was at times problematic.

Time: 5 hours - probably the best battlefield to visit in the Western Theater.

Kennesaw Mountain

Do not visit this battlefield on a weekend! We tried to go here on a Sunday morning and the place was an absolute zoo. Sadly, it was not due to anything historic, but instead due to a huge number of local Atlanta area residents using the park for walking, often with their dogs.

The visitor center was also a great disappointment. While it gives a wide presentation of the entire Atlanta Campaign, the place is so dimly lit that half of the text is unreadable. The text would still be problematic even with properly lighting: I'm 6'3" and many panels had text that ran from eye level down to my knees!

Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History

This is really a three-part museum: railroads in the Civil War, the Glover Machine Works (a local railroad locomotive manufacturer), and the Great Locomotive Chase including The General (the original, not a replica). They have a very cheesy half-hour movie about the Chase which is basically just a cheesy knock-off of the Fess Parker movie.

Great place to visit if you're a big railroad buff, but not really remarkable for Civil War buffs. I'd recommend just reading "Stealing the General" by Russell Bonds instead.

Time: 1.5 hours

Atlanta History Center

The Atlanta History Center is the future home of the Atlanta Cyclorama and from my visit there I think it will be a great home for it. This is a real top-notch museum with a large and I think permanent exhibit about the entire Civil War. Nothing groundbreaking, but like the Tredegar museum it is really good to see a modern look at the war in a major Southern city. The museum has various permanent and rotating indoor exhibits, plus a large outdoor garden and living history sites. I only had about 90 minutes here before they closed. I'll definitely come back in a few years when the Cyclorama opens (I think they're aiming for 2018). When all the exhibit halls are open this is a place you can spend the better part of a day.

Andersonville

The site of the prison is marked out, but only the main gate and one corner have been replicated. The lay of the land was rather surprising as the stream through the middle of the prison cuts quite the valley through the middle.

Besides the prison site, there is also modern POW museum which is very sleek and has some good videos interviewing former POWs, but the emphasis on the "POW experience" is a bit too artistic. I don't mean to say inaccurate, but don't expect to come away being able to compare and contrast life in Andersonville to life in the Hanoi Hilton.

Time: 3 hours

General Thoughts

Boy was I spoiled by Civil War sites in Virginia! I was blown away by all the modern signage there, most if I think sponsored by the Civil War Trust for the 150th anniversary. Gettysburg was also top-notch when I was there in 2009. Sadly, the western battlefields feel very neglected and incredibly dated. Given how intact and significant Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chickamauga were this is rather sad.

I can also happily report all the videos at the NPS visitor centers have been modernized. I've seen a few comments on here about how some of them used to be really hokey and dated so thankfully those are all gone.

Bonus Thought

If you plan to visit Shiloh and Vicksburg, include an extra 3 days in your trip itinerary to travel the entire Natchez Trace from Natchez to Nashville. Lots to see and do along the way, plus great scenery.

Thank you and well done. I have a personal interest in the western battlefield sites, so now I have a good handle on what to expect as I make my trips. I wasn't as interested in Chickamauga as I am in Stones River, for obvious reasons listed in my signature line. Thanks again.
 
Howdy from Missouri, where you won't find more than a handful of BIG battlefields. However, if you do your research, you will find soooooooo many smaller battle sites. If you begin to explore them, you just might find yourself endlessly fascinated. If you are more focused on big battlefields with lots of numbers engaged, at least come and visit Lexington, Missouri.
 
I am sorry the Western Theatre historic sites did not "measure up" in your travels. I have a preference for the Western Theatre, and therefore am somewhat partial to it. You are correct, the West is neglected somewhat compared to the Eastern Theatre, IMO. I believe because the focus of the Civil War has always been in the East, even when the War began, and continues to this day. Much improvement has taken place in the last 20 odd years or so, it seems to me in my frequent visits to Western sites. You took in a lot of sites in a very short time period as well, it seems like you were rushed. You are 100% correct about Kennesaw Mountain, that area is heavily used as a regular park and is used extensively for jogging, biking, etc. It can be impossible to get in there and find parking, for those who actually come for the historical aspect.
 
Much improvement has taken place in the last 20 odd years or so, it seems to me in my frequent visits to Western sites.

Good to hear. Despite budget cuts to the NPS during that time period it seems like most Civil War battlefields are moving in the right direction.

You took in a lot of sites in a very short time period as well, it seems like you were rushed.

I did. I only have one friend who I could get to go with me on a trip like this and he couldn't take as much time off work.

At the same time I haven't done the in-depth reading I would want to do before spending an entire day studying any single battlefield at length, except maybe Gettysburg (and it is a very large battlefield). I'm okay with the amount of time I spent at most of the battlefields (not Stones River due to rain or Kennesaw due to crowds) as a first time visitor just to see the lay of the land and to connect places I've read about in a book and seen on a map with real three-dimensional locations. I see myself returning someday to Chickamauga and Shiloh.

On a personal note, I am also trying to make up for some lost time. I don't know how many people here had their parents take them lots of places as a kid, but my sightseeing child was very limited and for the decade after I graduated high school I was not in a situation where traveling was possible. Changed circumstances have allowed me to travel much more these days, but I've still got alot of ground to cover. Even after my trip this month I've only been to 15 of the 50 states, and some of those only nominally (and ever outside the US).
 
There wasn't a "sunken road" at Shiloh. Veterans of the battle wanted their own "sunken road" like Antietam. The actual Federal position is a small ravine located directly behind the farm lane.
 
At the same time I haven't done the in-depth reading I would want to do before spending an entire day studying any single battlefield at length, except maybe Gettysburg (and it is a very large battlefield).
I can relate to that. I've only been doing this a coupla years now and so far the only battlefield I've done any in-depth reading about prior to a visit was Petersburg. I read some on Chickamauga earlier this year and have read a coupla books on Franklin,so I am heading to Tennessee next week with some knowledge about the ground I'm gonna be on.
 
Interesting to read your reviews and experiences as a first time visitor.
I'm not criticizing your opinion but want to add a few thoughts of my own---maybe to clarify some details.


Tupelo

The only preserved part of the battlefield is probably smaller than a football field with a few monuments and marked graves, plus a small interpretive sign. Not really worth bothering with.

Did you go visit Brices' Crossroads? It is just a little south of Tupelo and has several signs but without a map you could miss them. They have a fairly nice Visitor's Center at the Baldwyn exit off Hiway 45. Also in the area is Okolona and its large Confederate cemetery.

Chattanooga

I didn't visit what's left of Missionary Ridge, but I did go to Lookout Mountain. It's still a very imposing height with an amazing view. As a bonus, the previous day's rain provided a morning of heavy fog giving a really "Battle Above The Clouds" (and sometimes IN the clouds) feel. We went to Point Park, including walking down the Ochs Museum which has a few interesting exhibits and a great view of Moccasin Bend. We also went to the small visitor center just outside Point Park which is most notable for the huge 'Hooker at Lookout Mountain' painting.

Overall, it felt more like a scenic jaunt than history.

One reason is that there was really no battle on top of the Mountain. However, if the view from Point Park is clear, you can see site of Wauxhatchie, a reverse view of the Hooker Painting, and many of the prominent features on the north side of the Tennessee River. A brief walk from the Craven's House around the north face will take you to the actual location where the Battle Above the Clouds began on the Western slope.

Shiloh

The park's driving tour is not very helpful in understanding the battle. The only audio tour available at the gift shop was from the same series as the dated Vicksburg tour so we chose not to purchase it. Separate tours for the first and second days fighting would probably be a good idea. The visitor center is small, but features a lengthy video about the battle.

The park's self-guided tour takes you in a loop and it lays out the general idea of the battle. But it is difficult to understand the second day. I purchased Timothy Smith's book as it is supposed to provide the best details of that day and I had planned to return and follow the events of that day. It is surprising the similarities with the the first day---just in reverse.

Andersonville

I went to Andersonville to look-up some names in the cemetery. One of the most moving sites I've visited in quite a few years. I have an equal interest in WW2 so I was interested to read about the WW2 PW's.
 
Interesting to read your reviews and experiences as a first time visitor.
I'm not criticizing your opinion but want to add a few thoughts of my own---maybe to clarify some details.




Did you go visit Brices' Crossroads? It is just a little south of Tupelo and has several signs but without a map you could miss them. They have a fairly nice Visitor's Center at the Baldwyn exit off Hiway 45. Also in the area is Okolona and its large Confederate cemetery.



One reason is that there was really no battle on top of the Mountain. However, if the view from Point Park is clear, you can see site of Wauxhatchie, a reverse view of the Hooker Painting, and many of the prominent features on the north side of the Tennessee River. A brief walk from the Craven's House around the north face will take you to the actual location where the Battle Above the Clouds began on the Western slope.



The park's self-guided tour takes you in a loop and it lays out the general idea of the battle. But it is difficult to understand the second day. I purchased Timothy Smith's book as it is supposed to provide the best details of that day and I had planned to return and follow the events of that day. It is surprising the similarities with the the first day---just in reverse.



I went to Andersonville to look-up some names in the cemetery. One of the most moving sites I've visited in quite a few years. I have an equal interest in WW2 so I was interested to read about the WW2 PW's.

I concur, Tennessean!

Bill
 
Thanks for the great summary. I just did Murfreesboro / Franklin / Ft. Donelson / Shiloh / Vicksburg. I agree with most of your comments.

I had heard that there wasn't much at Franklin, and that's correct, but what is there is very powerful. I was really moved by my visits to the Carter House and McGavock Confederate Cemetery.

The most pleasant surprise was Fort Donelson. Not the Visitor Center - which is undergoing renovation - but the Fort. It is situated on the Cumberland River and the cannons and their emplacements are well preserved and very impressive.

Regarding Vicksburg, could they not have some lumber company come in and clear cut all those trees between the lines and pocket the money? It would be really neat to see how the armies looked at each other. The few open areas are spectacular.
 
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