Shiloh National Military Park & Battlefield 35-40 White Bass caught on Kentucky Lake

   Below Pickwick Dam we stopped at Shiloh National Military Park. The battle of Shiloh was fought April 6-7, 1862. More than 103,000 Union and Confederate soldiers fought in the battle. Casualties were almost 24,000 killed, wounded and missing. A total of 3482 were listed as killed and 16,420 wounded. This was almost 22% of the men present for duty both days.

  Shiloh was the key battle in the drive by Gen. U. S. Grant that continued down the Mississippi River and cut the south in half.  Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River was key to getting reinforcements to Grant the night of the battle. The reinforcements turned the tide giving victory to Grant. Curiously, the landing site, which is in the park, no longer exists. We landed there, but had to
scramble up rock rip-rap to get to the park.

  Our day's run was 92 miles. We stayed at Cuba Landing Marina, Tennessee, 356 miles from our starting point. With the experience we have had, everything goes smoothly. Our boat and motor ran perfectly, we couldn't have asked for any better performance.

The next day we ran another 92 miles to Kentucky Dam, just upstream from the Ohio River. We arrived at the Kentucky Dam Marina before noon. It was blistering hot, but a guide was available so we went fishing on Kentucky Lake. The fish we caught were called by our guide white bass.  They were not large, up to two-three pounds, but we caught 35-40 of them. Our guide, Earl, saved the larger ones for a fish fry.  The next day we planned to leave the Tennessee River and change directions and go southeast up the Cumberland River. We had an option of going down to the Ohio and going up the Ohio to the Cumberland, and heading upstream, or taking a canal shortcut to bypass the Ohio and go five miles across to the Cumberland. We elected to take the shortcut. We were now 449 miles from our starting point.