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Shiloh Threatened
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Volume 50 Number 3, May/June 1997
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Prehistoric Indian mound at Shiloh
is in danger of eroding into Tennessee River. (Courtesy Shiloh National
Military Park) [LARGER IMAGE] |
Erosion
of the banks of the Tennessee River has rendered Shiloh National Military
Park's Dill Branch ravine, considered the most scenic spot in the park,
inaccessible by car. The battle at "Bloody Shiloh," fought April
6 and 7, 1862, resulted in some 24,000 casualties and secured the West for
the Union. Possibly accelerated by construction of dams by the Tennessee
Valley Authority in the 1930s, erosion has been a constant problem at the
battlefield park, dedicated in 1894. "A major flood in 1954 took away
a third of Pittsburg Landing, held by Union troops during the Confederate
attack," says park superintendent Woody Harrell. "High water in
1973 brought the riverbank to within five feet of the National Cemetery
wall. Now erosion has eaten under the pavement of the Dill Branch causeway,
forcing us to close the last mile and a half of the park's automobile tour
route."
Of more concern to the Park Service is the threat to Shiloh
Indian Mounds National Historic Landmark. The ten-acre, palisaded Late Woodland
and Mississippian site, made up of seven platform mounds and more than two
dozen smaller house mounds, sits on a bluff overlooking the river just south
of Dill Branch. Here erosion has destroyed the eastern end of Mound A, the
largest in the group, leaving behind a 100-foot cliff. Now any period of
high water can cause additional damage. Thirteen inches of rain last Memorial
Day weekend caused a six-foot-wide, 40-foot-long section of mound to slough
into the river overnight. "Four years ago we received $600,000 for
stabilization work in front of the National Cemetery, but we have not been
able to secure funding for work on the rest of the riverbank," says
Harrell. "The price tag for the recommended work could easily top 3
million dollars." In the past, Harrell adds, when it came to funding,
the Shiloh mounds have often taken a back seat to the park's Civil War resources.
© 1997 by the Archaeological Institute of America archive.archaeology.org/9705/newsbriefs/shiloh.html |