This day of travel started extremely slowly as none of us were really very excited to leave the railcar. We were having a ton of fun just hanging out and watching TV in our beds – my husband and I had a queen size and the boys were sleeping on a daybed with a trundle. I finished my book, my husband got a nice long sleep in and the boys were completely pacified watching cartoons on TV. Things were peaceful at the rail station.
But, all good things must come to an end – and, just like in a real hotel, they kick you out around 11:00 a.m. So, we got up, showered, packed the car and checked out. But, before we left we took advantage of some more free stuff that we got with our room and went to view the model railroad museum located on the hotel property.
The brochure said that the model railroad was valued at $1 million and has taken more than 50,000 hours to build and maintain. The railroad is 174 feet long and 33 feet wide at it’s widest point. It had over 3000 feet of track and there were four train
s running on continuous loops while we were there. There were also push buttons to operate a downtown trolley and an incline railway.There is just something about model railroads. I don’t know what it is, but I could stand and look at them all day long. And this one was exceptional. The attention to detail found in this display was breathtaking.
We spent about 30 minutes making the long trip down the room and back and marveling at the new things we discovered each way. They even had a miniature of the hotel there when it was a working depot. That was cool because it was an excellent opportunity for us to explain to the boys how passenger trains worked. They were fascinated.
We ate lunch at the dining room again and then hopped in the car and headed west across the great state of Tennessee. We drove mostly on Highway 64. The majority of the road was a scenic byway and we enjoyed watching the native hills, houses and livestock as we went. It would appear that the state is attempting to make this route a 4-lane highway all the way from Chattanooga to Memphis. There are several spots with brand new 4-lane and others where it is clear where the 4-lane is to go and still others that are being developed into 4-lane as we speak. This project occupied much of our discussion during the trip.
At Savannah, TN we stopped for a short break at the Shiloh National Military Park. We got to the visitor’s center just as it was closing, but got the map for the driving tour and did a hurry-up-and-look job around the museum.
This battle was a little more self explanatory. Basically, General Grant and his troops were headed to Corinth MS in an effort to take a strategic position there along the railroad in order to cut off the south’s northern rail supplies. He was to be reinforced before he took the city so he was camping in the Shiloh area and occupying a two mile stretch south of Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River. The confederates in Corinth learned of his plan and decided to attack him and his troops before he was reinforced.
They met the outlying post of soldiers at 4:55 a.m. on April 6 and fought a bloody, tough battle for the entire day. Federal troops were pushed back to a line just about 100 yards from Pittsburg landing where they massed and held the confederates for the remainder of the evening. The fighting stopped at dark.
As luck would have it, Grant was reinforced that evening with two additional platoons of soldiers, increasing his ranks to 50,000 men. The tired and diminished confederates, who were hoping to finish off the Federal troops the morning of the 7th, awoke to an overwhelming and fresh set of Federal troops that outnumbered their 35,000 ranks. They quickly gave up and were pushed back to Corinth.
The most interesting part of this battlefield was viewing the confederate burial trenches that are scattered about. This war saw 23,000 casualties – men that were killed, wounded or missing. To bury the confederate dead, General Grant created mass graves where he buried men 7 layers deep. There are memorials at each of these trenches.
These battles are so much in our distant past that it is difficult to imagine what went on so many years ago. It is moving to see the problems that can happen when people can’t use their words to resolve issues and instead use people like chess pieces on a political playing board. The brochures all talk about how both sides of the conflict felt that fighting would not be necessary and, if needed, would be over in 3 months. Obviously, they were wrong. And many, many people on both sides paid a significant price.
After the battlefield, we hopped back in the car and drove the last stretch to Memphis and our hotel. We are all tired from the road so we immediately went straight to bed.
