Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 32.djvu/145

 The Battle of Shiioh. 133

C. S.

GENERAL ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON, Commanding the Confederate Army,

Was Mortally Wounded

Here at 2:30 P. M., April 6, 1862.

Died in Ravine Fifty Yards ast at

2:54 P. M.

The place in the ravine where he died is plainly marked, the tree under which his volunteer aid-de-camp, Governor Isham G. Harris, laid him, still standing there.

The inscription on the other mortuary monuments are of a like character.

The headquarters of general officers of divisions and brigades are marked by pyramids of shells, with inscriptions giving names of the officers. The lines of all organizations are plainly marked, so that it is easy to recognize the ground over which any body of troops passed during the battle.

The Confederates who fell at Shiioh are buried in large trenches, five in number, near where they fell. The Commission has placed them in fine order and adorned them with shells similar to the adornment of the monuments just mentioned.

I was there on the 3Oth day of May last (Decorative Day). The Commissioners invited me to a seat in their carriage, and we passed to all these resting places of Confederates, and on- arrival at each burying place the Commissioners alighted and decorated them.

Hereafter it is expected that there will be a general decoration of Confederate graves, as is usual at other places.

THE NATIONAL CEMETERY.

This adjoins the park, and is on a bluff 120 feet high, immedi- ately on the Tennessee river. It was laid out in 1866, and contains ten and a half acres. There are buried in the cemetery the bodies of 1,239 known and 2,375 unknown Union soldiers. It is hand- somely laid out, and under the superintendence of Mr. John W. Shaw is kept in admirable order.

There is a very good hotel near the offices of the Commissioners, and a general store, where almost any article usually found in such places can be had.

Altogether, the park is a most beautiful one, and the work done by the Commissioners reflects credit on their good judgment and business capacity.