Days 121 - 123 Aqua Harbor, Iuka, MS

We traveled back in time to April, 1862, when we toured Shiloh Battlefield. At the visitors' center we saw a video that described the bloody two-day battle that was fought there. Then we drove through the site. We stopped to view the Hornets' Nest where the Confederates surrounded and overran the Union troops on the first day before they were forced back on the second day when the Union army's reinforcements arrived. We saw the Peach Orchard where bullets in the trees caused the blossoms to "rain down like snow." We observed monuments and read plaques, viewed the burial trenches of the confederate soldiers, and walked around the National Cemetery where the Union soldiers were interred. When we noticed wild turkeys and deer observing our movements, we wondered if their ancestors had observed the sad segment our country's history that occurred in this place.

Nearby Corinth, MS was also important in the Civil War, as we learned at The Civil War Interpretive Center. The once thriving town was ravaged by the battle between the north and south for control of its strategic location as a junction of several major railroads.

Bronze casts of artifacts of the war . . . hats . . . weapons . . . a folding knife . . . clothing . . . were scattered along the walk to the door of the museum as though the soldiers had just recently passed through.

After our two days of history education, we relaxed with Richard and Laura of the Laura Lee with dinner and the light comedy, Couples Retreat.

The clouds continue their dark wet cover, but just for a few minutes the sun seared through to color the dawn.