history in the news, and social media from facebook, youtube, twitter and foursquare. follow us every weekend on c-span 3. the civil war battle of shiloh took place april 6th and 7th, 1862 in tennessee. and resulted in adown yn victory over confederate forces. she talked about the personal effects from soldier who is fought in the battle. he also took us behind the scenes to the storage facility, where he showed us two rare civil war tents. >> we're here as the park visitor center. we're taking a look at a

collection of objects on exhibit we have battle flags. what's unique about this flag is that it carries the pittsburgh landig battle honor, the official name recorded by union forces for the battle of shiloh. this case the landing being the primary feature here. officially went in as the battle of pittsburgh landing. confederacy referred to it as the battle of shiloh. meaning place of peace or house of peace. took dominance over the identity of the conflict through time.

and so it's interesting to see the pittsburgh landing on these flags. a unit that participated in the battle with the apprentice division and fought at the hornet's nest. you can see the dark fabric with the lighter fabric to same is true for the white stripes as well. you can see the flag was in tatters. story, light, moisture, you name it. it's amazing to think they do survive. usually they go through some

major deterioration over time if they don't have proper treatment and care. there's no standardization to them. many were sewn by ladies in the communities in which the organizes were raised and thus the flags would be presented the to them to the units as they marched off and so a little bit of when artists' freedom to alter configuration of the star patterns in particular. this other large u.s. flag captured by 16th infantry. he had this flag in his

possession. the report they did seize many u.s. flags that they captured at shiloh. and then this flag would appear to be large enough to have been a garrison flag. personally i and other staff members believe this flag probably flew over john a. mcdowel's tents, possiblily his headquarters. right flank of sherman's division as it lay encamped and around shiloh church. there's another union camp that they occupied that night further north, one of the brigades of mcclernon's division. it's a probability as well but i think the highest probability would be the first camp, the 16th louisiana, mcdowell's camp was there for some time, and could i see them taking this flag. this was donated to the park

years ago from descendants of major gober. it's in good shape showing that it was well cared for and stored. even though apparently this had been buried at one time in the ground. that's the story. that's the family story with a loved one for a while, in a grave. i'm not sure, but it was recovered later, and that's how they claim that the staining occurred. it may have gotten wet underground at that point in time. all the flags underwent major conservation treatment so they could be properly exhibited. next flag is not a relic of the battle, having been a witness flag of the battle. this is in 1864 dalton pattern confederate flag adopted by the army of tennessee at that point in time and issued to the troops. it was in bad shape when it arrived here in a brown paper bag. a gentleman walked in, threw it down on the visitor center information desk which just happened to be manned by the chief ranger at that time, george reeves.

threw it down and said this thing is causing so much trouble in my family. i would just assume be red of it. george, if you want it. mr. george said he likely fell over in the chair moving fast enough to get the donation form when he realized what he had inside the brown paper bag. the flag was in tatters. there's a differentiation of it, and it completes the flag, and you can see, if you come up and examine it real close, that much of the flag was missing when it arrived here. it also probably contained in these missing quadrants other battle honors that the 51st tennessee would have participated. one that have seemed to have survived is the shiloh honor. early in history of shiloh in say the first 50 years or so, history of the battle, there's been some battle whether the 51st tennessee actually participated. they were at donelson. we knew some of the units escaped from them.

they seemed to have junctioned up with the 51st tennessee and weren't formally consolidated with them until after the battle of shiloh, but they would not have been able to put a battle honor on the flag without being present. we do know the flag has been rearranged some since probably its initial issue. maybe that's post-war. it's hard to tell, but it -- the placement of the regimental identity and things is a little bit different than what is standard with the dalton pattern flags, but clearly a civil war witness flag. and, again, one that has survived the test of time to come to shiloh and interpret the colorful part of the civil war which was these battle flags being carried by these organizations, which were identity flags. in other words, you could look out over across the battlefield and identify the units, not only friend and foe, but you could identify the respective organizations. these cannons are brought in basically because they each have

some provenience, a story to tell. early in the war, it's difficult to pinpoint specific guns on these battlefields. records were haphazardly kept early in the war. later in the war, it's a little bit easier to take a particular gun and be able to link it to specific actions, campaigns and engagements. but we do have a piece here that is a shiloh veteran, did see service here. captured by the confederates here from u.s. forces. retaken by those same u.s. forces on day two, and then at the battle of richmond, kentucky, confederates took this a second time. so, it has a storied past of a gun trading hands more than once between opposing forces. we are quite lucky that we have a very diverse collection of field artillery on the battlefield. a lot of different types of guns at shiloh that you don't see elsewhere. every gun currently on the battlefield, all the field artillery on the battlefield and

the two siege guns, were either made prior to or during the american civil war, so these are actual historical pieces from that time. they were in the united states arsenals when the national military park was established, and the commission then requisitioned 250 cannon for the marking of the battlefield and for use in monuments as well. so we're lucky. we're lucky it's one of the first battlefield sites to be these are actual historical pieces from that time they were united states arsenals when the national military park was established, and the commission then requisitioned 250 cannon for the marking of the battlefeel and for use in monuments as well. so we're lucky. we're lucky it's one of the first battlefield sites to be set aside and that these artillery pieces were still housed in the united states arsenals and were available for

marking the battlefield. a lot of people don't realize in the emergency of world war ii and the need for a national effort to -- to wage a global war, secretary of war, one of the cannons off the battlefields across the country were the scrap drive, and luckily the secretary of the interior was made of stern stuff, had a few words for the secretary of war and managed to hold on to the cannon and promised that the national park service would provide the scrap that would be demanded of the agency for the drive. so when the exhibits were planned and being designed, the staff at that time and the park service people decided that these guns which at one time were on the battlefield would be used to be a part of the exhibit. a lot of the items in the exhibit are donated items. they are general in nature in the sense that they don't have

any provenience directly to shiloh, but they represent, of course, the kind of equipage, kind of weapons utilized in the war, as well as personal items that may have been possessed by individuals. now, much of the personal items that we have on display are iconic to shiloh because a great deal of it were recovered with the exhumation of the national troops here beginning in 1866 through 1868 and remained in a collection at the national cemetery. it was transferred over to the national parks service when the cemetery became part of the administration, park administration. so, these items do have some provenience to shiloh, particularly the personal possession items, whereas the larger things, such as belts and bayonets and haversacks are donated to the park might not have park provenience but civil war provenience. you see the civil dollar that has popped up. apparently general buell paid

for bread between columbia and savannah, and these people still possessed the gold dollar. it's amazing that that story stayed, and it's -- it's wholly believable. i mean, there's nothing to disprove it, but it fits, you know. buying some fresh bread for the general's commissary, and these are all artifacts off the field. again, a number of the items are items that were recovered with the national dead. you see an ovm belt plate, ohio volunteer militia. you see jackknifes. almost everybody had a knife of some type. some of them have big bowie knives like many of the confederates. the buttons are off the field,

collected off the field. some of them would have come up with the war dead. this exhibit always attracts attention. people just sit there and look at all that stuff throughout their touring around. but indeed a witness to shiloh would be this grimsley saddle, holsters, belts, scabbard and sword carried by major john mcferrin who was in the 70th ohio infantry serving in sherman's division assigned to ralph buckland's brigade, so that would have been on his horse as he participated in the battle. the 70th saw significant action, but he would be dead in october of 1862 from fever. the majority of the artillery rounds all have provenience to shiloh, recovered through the years from the battlefield representing the types of explosive rounds or solid shot utilized here.

about half of grant's artillery was rifled artillery. there were smooth bore artillery, probably about 85%. two gun boats in play at the battle of shiloh. "uss tyler" and "lexington," wooden gun boats, in fact. large eight-inch guns and 32-pounders. served well in defense and left of grant's last line, and then they fired salvos into the confederate-held camps throughout the night of the 6th on into the morning of the 7th. shrapnel from the gun boat fire found on the battlefield. we've found shrapnel as far as three miles inland from

pittsburg landing. the drum, don't know a great deal about the story behind the drum. it's one of the early things donated to the park, but cited as being recovered from the battlefield or near the battlefield, perhaps abandoned by retreating forces and then preserved all these years here at shiloh to be utilized as part of the exhibits. the drummers played a special role in the military organization. the drum was communication. think of it as 19th century walkie-talkie. beats on that drum told the men in the regiment certain things to do. it called them to breakfast. it woke them up in the morning. it put them to sleep at night. it -- various beats of the drum

told them to do different things in formation. they could even fire by the beat of the drum. load and fire by the beat of the drum. there's all kinds of things the drums were used for, and they were used for communication. music was an important part of their life, but a drummer assigned to an infantry regiment served a communication role. hence, they were always near the officers so that they could issue the commands by drum necessary for the troops. we've left the battlefield visitors' center and moved to our collection -- museum collection storage facility. in here will be the elements of the collection retained at shiloh that aren't on exhibit as well as the archival documents. the majority of those archival documents relate to the park's administrative history, so they are associated with the

development and establishment of the park or the national cemetery, not necessarily specific to the civil war, though we have a few documents relative to the civil war, and we have them divided up in the building here with archive documents stored here in this room and arranged in a different series. these would also include photographs in this collection. all right. let's see what we've got here. for many of these we do have the glass plate negatives for. here's 1895 veterans reunion at shiloh. that picture had been taken out by shiloh and ray springs just underneath shiloh church.

here's a photograph of them around the spring. these would all have been veterans and their families. from this time frame through say the mid-1930s, pretty regular reunions being held here at the battlefield. step into the other compartment. battle opened up when combat patrol sent out by everett peabody on the command and major james powell, three companies of the 25th missouri and two companies of the 12th michigan infantry participated in the first fighting in the battle of shiloh out in fraley field, and the first known participant of the battle named, recorded as wounded was a frederick klingler of the 25th missouri infantry. this is klingler's sword, and the metal components of the associated scabbard, and this

has an inscription on it. the bearer of this sword, f.j. klingler, lieutenant, company b, 25th missouri infantry, was the first officer wounded sunday morning, 4:45, would have been a.m., in the battle of shiloh and remained two and a half days on the battlefield. so this is klingler's sword that he would have carried with him in the combat and then subsequently retained, and it would be inscribed. this is one of the newest pieces of the park collection donated to the park. i hope to get this on permanent display soon because it's so iconic with a very prominent part of the shiloh story, the opening of the battle, and to have it returned here and to be able to share this with the public is quite unique. this hall rifle, a series of

these were issued to mississippi troops at corinth. we hope to get this on display at our corinth facility. it's owned by a man in corinth, mississippi. we have it here until we can design the proper exhibit for it. it's kind of unique and it's pretty fragile because at some point in time it was torn before it came to us is a photograph reportedly found in the grave of an unknown soldier lying in the national cemetery so there's wartime grade that had this

image. i think the image has been remounted on this backing, but the specific remain in which this was recovered, whose site it is unknown, is grave 757 in the national cemetery. so this would be an image of his sweetheart, maybe wife, of that individual who died here, unfortunately, remains were not identified, either at the time of burial or upon exhumation, and so simply another question mark who was the unknown soldier and who is the sweetheart. i guess you could say god only

knows, so kind of a unique item to come up with the dead. you saw the jackknifes and some of the other personal items like pipes and things, and to see -- to see an image, a photograph come out. let's see, what have we got here? oh, more. these are more items collected from the national dead exhumed here, a vast majority of them. these are kind of neat. these were rings that would have been buried with their owners. wedding bands that would have been with the physical remains upon exhumation that were collected. the pipes in particular.

items that would have been buried with their owner. insignia on the cap ahead of the united states infantry soldier. the item didn't survive the hat but the metal did. recent archaeology on the battlefield, we found the buckle for the leather strap and the two side buttons, and they were in the ground where the cap would have sat and deteriorated and all that was there was the buckle and the buttons still in the orientation that would have been at the time that the cap was either dropped there or just lied there. it's amazing. 1999, yeah, 1999, summer of 1999, it all started in the spring of 1999, it was brought to our attention at a new site the park river, cain river low capital gain, nacogdoches, louisiana, that a family long living at that area, even before the civil war, had upon their retreat of nathaniel banks' army

during the red river campaign of 1864, spring of 1864, the united states army had left a large amount of baggage and equipage, and the family went out and recovered this. amongst it were two, two civil war tents. one of those tents was a sibley tent designed by henry hopkins sibley. it's based on a plain's indian teepee pattern. the family had had these tents in their possession since recovering them at that point in time. one of them is a well tent and then this is a sibley tent. remarkably, it is now known there are only two sibley tents in the american civil war in existence in the world. one in each hemisphere of mother earth. this one is in our hemisphere and in possession of the

american people now. this tent in recent negotiations with smithsonian institute will be traveling to washington for potential display at the national african-american museum and the civil war exhibit of the african-american experience in the civil war so that we're excited about that. the conservation and exhibition of tents is very difficult. they are quite large. this is a huge tent, and they got all kinds of issues on their display because they are heavy. they are cumbersome. we're talking about old canvas, old threads. stress points are weak, and they are going to be strained more

with the exhibition, so we are making available the sibley on loan for the exhibit. it's going to be conserved so it's going to receive some much-needed cleaning, but we're excited that it will be in front of the public, at least for a temporary exhibit, maybe for a year's time frame, and they will be able to get some benefit from it. henry sibley got the patent for these in 1850s, mid-1850s. they were first used in the utah expedition commanded by albert sidney johnston of the united states army in 1856-1857 time frame, through 1858, and overall it appears that roughly 44,000 of the tents produced. unfortunately, sibley, who had worked out an arrangement where he would receive $5 per tent made joined the confederate state army so he never recovered any money from the manufacturer of the tents made off of his patent, so we're excited about

this object going on display, receiving some conservation treatment, and then maybe before it returns to shiloh we might be able to work up a plan. i'm going to get displayed here, but we'll have to have a complete exhibit overall to do anything with it here. this is probably the most unique item, bar none, considering there's only one like it in the western hemisphere. the other one, of all places, is in copenhagen, denmark, and then the wall tent. you count the wall tent and the sibley, the park within its collection holds about half the total tentage of the civil war remains on the earth. that's amazing. this is the second tent that we received. it's the wall tent. it's a standard wall tent. you can see where it's been

patched. some of the patches are probably associated with the use the family made of these tents through the years. there's also some minor tears in these tents from them being used. you can see here. these all require some sort of patching up if there's ever a design to put this one on display as well, but i understand that they continue to use these tents through the years. get them out in the summertime and have sleepovers and have campouts and barbecues, and then they put these tents up and made use of them, which if i had the same thing, i think i'd make use of them, too. and then when the new park service site was being established there, they contacted the park service about the possibility of getting them at a repository, and when it was realized that we had two surviving civil war tents, word went out to civil war sites, if

anybody was interested, and we were, and we come up with the chunk of change to buy two tents for the people of the united states. these objects are meant to impart a linkage, a tie to that period. these tents were slept in by actual soldiers. they were actually moved, stored, carried, transported by physical beings of the time frame and that's why the items, that linkage, because of us and our future they have passed on to time. they have passed on to time and they have survived. they are accidents. two tents, half of what exist in the civil war time frame exist right here. they are accidents of survival, and they are here to impart understanding and appreciation for a different time and different people.