After viewing this, we imagined uncovering artifacts all over the park...
Look! A cannonball stuck in a tree! (Not really, it's a gall. We dubbed it the cannongall.)
Look! It's a soldier's tooth! (Not really, it's a bit of quartz.)
Look! It's leftover Confederate Weed-Eater string! (Not really, it's probably Union Weed-Eater string instead.)
And so on.
Another thing that occupied my brain involved wondering, "Was this tree here when the battle was fought?" The park is remarkably well-preserved. So there are trees much older than in your average neighborhood.
Large Oak tree.
Two big Water Oaks near the Visitor's center.
A largish Cedar.
Another big Oak, in the Union cemetery.
Further reading on the internet says (according to one of the park rangers) that the park's oldest trees would now be 146 - 153 years old. So some of these may have been saplings when the battle was fought.
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That's my sister-in-law and mother-in-law, by the way!
I'm captivated by the thought that a sapling that survived the battle would be a huge old tree today. If these trunks could talk!
ReplyDeleteI hope you submit this post to the Festival of Trees since it's ultimately arboreal.
Good idea, thanks for the reminder!
ReplyDeleteI think that I shall never see, a thing as lovely as a tree~ unless it's the pretty people under them :) Great photos!
ReplyDeletei love your imaginings about your findings, hehehe. to think those stately old trees were just tender whipper snappers, kinda boggles the mind doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteRurality, awesome photos and commentary on Shiloh
ReplyDeleteWalking through areas of Civil war strife, etc, always makes one most humble for sure
LOVE the punning…aka the Gall, and the tooth…Humor is a good thing
"Cannongall"?? Holy cow.... you crack me up.
ReplyDeleteThanks y'all. When I first found out that the trees there are as young as they apparently are, I was a little disappointed... they looked so much older! But in a way it is even more interesting to imagine that they grew up during the years since then.
ReplyDeleteHey DebbieT, glad to see you here! Hope you will come to the winter meeting this year. :)