abundant themes of revenues moved forth. he touched the dead corpse of the public debt and is crying upon its feet. the civil war battle of shiloh took place april 6 and 7th, 1862, in hardin county, tennessee and resulted in a union victory over confederate forces. we visited shiloh military park where stacy allen the park chief ranger talked about the artifacts on display in the visitors center. he also took us behind the scenes to the park storage facility, where he showed us two rare civil war tents. >> we're here at the park visitors center. you could refer it as the shiloh battlefield. we're taking a look at a collection of objects we have on exhibit here and display for the public to give them a taste and

feel of the period. our museum collection here inside the senator is object oriented. we have battle flags that saw service here at shiloh. unique about this flag is that it carries the pittsburgh landing battle honor that was the official name recorded by union forces for the battle of shiloh. united states forces had a tendency to name their battles after geographic land points, in this case the landing being the primary feature here. officially the battle went in as battle of pittsburgh landing. newspaper accounts would talk about the battle of pittsburgh landing. it was referred to as the battle of shiloh and the shiloh name biblical in its connotation meaning place of peace or house of peace took dominance and predominance over the identity of the conflict through time and so it's interesting to see

pittsburgh landing on these flags. this was in the possession of lucius d. woodward in the 21st missouri infantry, a unit that participated in the battle with apprentices division and fought at the hornet's nest. the flags have undergone a great deal of restoration and conservation for exhibit. you can see here the difference between the historic fabric which is the dark fabric backed by the lighter fabric to fill out what's missing on the flag. the same is true for the white stripes as well. you can see that the flag was in tatters. the fabric, of course, ravages of time, storage, light, moisture, you name it. it's amazing that things like this do survive even if they're, you know, stored away in an attic somewhere, usually they go through some major deterioration over time if they don't have proper treatment and care.

people are always fascinated by the unique star configurations on the flags. because there's no standardization to them. many of them were sewn by ladies in the communities in the organizations in which they were raised so the flag would be presented to them, to the units, as they marched off to war. a thing of honor to be carried and cherished. and so a little bit of artists' freedom to alter configuration of the star patterns in particular. this other large u.s. flag is a battle relic. apparently captured by the 16th louisiana infantry, major daniel gober had this flag in his possession. the confederates report

officially that they did seize one garrison flag amongst the 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 mefbs believe th members believe that this flew over john a. mcdowell's brigade camp, headquarters, which was part of sherman's division, right flank of the sherman division as it lay in camp around shiloh church. there's another union camp that they occupied at neat for the north, one of the brigades of mcclernan's division, it's a probably as well. but i think the highest probability is the 16th camp, mcdowell's camp, they were there for some time and i can see them taking this flag. and this was donated to the park years ago. from descendents of major gober. it's in good shape, showing that

it was well cared for and stored. even though apparently this has been buried at one time in 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 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. the next flag is not a relic of the battle, or been a witness flag of the battle. this is an 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 things causing so much trouble in my family, i'd just soon be rid of it, it's yours if you want it. mr. george liked to have fell over in his chair moving fast enough to get the donation form when he found out what was in the brown paper bag. the flag was in tatters, new material is backed the historic material so 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 can probably contain in these missing quadrants other battle honors that the 51st tennessee with have participated in. the one that seems to have survived is the shiloh honor. early in the history of shiloh, say the first 50 years or so, historiography of the battle,

part of the unit was captured. some of the unit escaped and they seemed to have formed and junctioned up with the 54th. and they weren't formally joined until after the battle of shiloh. 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 patterned 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. cannons are brought in basically because they each have some story to tell. early in the war, difficult to pinpoint specific guns on these battlefields. the records were haphazardly kept early in the war. later in the war it's a little 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. it is 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 with 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 arsenal from the national military park was established and the commission 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 set aside and these artillery pieces were still housed in the united states arsenals and with 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 wage a global war, secretary of war, wanted the cannons off of the battlefield across the country for a scrap drive and luckily the secretary of the interior was made of stern stuff and had a few words to the secretary of war and managed to hold on to the cannons and said 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 in the park service people decided to -- 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're general in nature in the sense that they don't have any provenance directly to shiloh, but they represent, of course, the kind of equipage, the 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 you have on display are iconic to shiloh because a great deal of it were recovered with the exhumation of the national troops from 1866 to 1868 and remained in the chection at the national cemetery, which was transferred over to the national park service when the cemetery became part of the administration, park administration. so, these items do have some provenance to shiloh, particularly the personal possession items. whereas the larger things such as belts and bayonets and haversacks are donated to the park. and you see the gold dollar. now, that's kind of an item that cropped up at -- again, it's based upon oral history tradition.

apparently general boule 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 totally 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 a jackknife. almost everybody had knives of some type, many had big knives. some were collected on the field. some would have come up with the war dead.

this always attracts attention. people just sit there and look at all that stuff while they are touring around. but indeed a witness to shiloh would be this saddle, pommel holsters, belt, scabbard and sword carried by major john mcferrin who was in the 70th ohio infantry, serving in sherman's division. assigned to ralph buckman's brigade. it would have been on his horse as he participated in the battle. 70th saw significant action. but he would be dead to in october of 1862 from fever. the majority of the artillery round all come from shiloh. recovered through the years from the battlefield. representing the types of explosive rounds or solid shot utilized here. about half of gran's artillery was rifled artillery. they were smooth bore.

confederates smooth bore artillery about 85%. two gunboats in play at the battle of shiloh. "u.s. tyler" and "lexington." wooden gunboats in fact. large guns, 82-pounders. served well in this instance, 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 gunboat fire found on the battlefield. we found shrapnel as far as three miles in from the pittsburgh landing. the drum, don't know a great deal behind the story of the drum, it was one of the early

things donated to the park. but cited as being recovered on the battle 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 exhibit. 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. various beats of the drum told them to do different things in formation. they could even fire by the beats of the drum. load and fire by the beat of the drum. there's all kind 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 would be the elements of the collection retained at shiloh that aren't on exhibit as well as the archival documents. the majority of the archival documents relate to the park's administrative history, so they're associated with the establishment of the park or the national cemetery, not necessarily specific to the civil war, although we have a few documents related to the civil war. and we have them divided up in the building here with the archive documents stored here in this room. and arranged in a different series. these would also include

photographs in this collection. all right. get a few of these out. see what we've got here. for many of these we do have the glass plate negatives for. here's 1895 veterans reunion in 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 have all 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 send out by everett peabody under the command of major james powell. three companies of the 25th missouri and two company dids of the 12th 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 as a fed rick 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, if jay klingler, lieutenant, 25th missouri infantry was the first officer oned sunday morning, 4:45 would have been a.m. in the battle of shiloh and remained 2 1/2 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, opening of the battle, and to have it returned here and be able to share this with the public is quite unique.

this hall rifle. series of these were issued to mississippi troops. we hope to get this on display, their corant facility. it's owned by a man in corant, mississippi. we have it here until we can design the proper exhibit for it. and kindve kind of unique, 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, this wartime grave evidently had this image. i think the image has been remounted on this backing. but the specific remain in which this was recovered was cited as an unknown is grave 757 in the national cemetery. so, this would be an image of a sweetheart, maybe wife, of that individual who died here unfortunately remains were not identified either at the time of burial or upon exhumation. so simply another question mark, who was the unknown soldier and who's 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 personal items like pipes and things and to see an image, a photograph, come out. what do we got here. 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 of your hat of the united states infantry soldier. the item didn't survive the hat, but the metal did. recent archaeology on the

battlefield, on a kepi we found a buckle with the leather strap and two side buttons and they were in the ground where the cap would have set and deteriorated and all that there was the buckle and the buttons still in the orientation they 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 service, cane river location, n nacogdoches, louisiana, before the civil war, had upon the retreat of nathaniel bank's army of the red river campaign in

1864, the spring of 1864, the united states army 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, based on a plain indian teepee pattern. his family had had these tents in their possession since recovering at that point in time. one of them's an oil tent, and then this is the sibley tent. remarkably it's now known there are only sibley tents in the american civil war in existence in the world. one in each hemisphere of mother

earth. this is in our hemisphere and in the possession of the american people now. this tent in recent negotiations with the smithsonian institute will be traveling to washington for potential display at the national african-american museum in a civil war exhibit about the african-american experience in the civil war. so that we're excited about that. the conservation and the exhibition of tents is very difficult. they're quite large. this is a huge tent. and they got all kinds of issues on their dismay, because they're heavy, they're cumberson, we're talking about old canvas, old threat, stress points are weak and they're 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 will receive much-needed cleaning. but we're excited that it will be on display to the public on a temporary exhibit, at least for a year's time frame, and they'll be able to get some benefit from it. henry sibley got the patent in 1850s, mid-1850s, sirs use firs the utah division used by albert sidney johnson in the united states army in 1856-1857 time frame through 1858. and overall it appears that roughly 44,000 of the tents produced. now, unfortunately sibley who had worked out an arrangement where he would receive about $5 per tent made joined confederate states' army, so he never recovered any money from the manufacture of the tents made off 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 of getting it displayed here, but we're going to have to have a exhibit overhaul to be able to do anything with it here. this is probably the most unique item, bar none, considering that there's only one like it in the western hemisphere. the other one of all places is in copenhagen, denmark. and then the wall park, we hold half the total tentage from the civil war that remains on the earth. it's amazing. this is the second tent that we received. it's the wall tent. a standard wall tent. you 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 are also minor tears in these tents from them being used. you see they all had some sort of patching of. if there's ever to be a design to put this one on display as well. but i understand they continued to use the tents during the years, get them out in the summertime and have sleepovers and cam-op outs and barbecues t make use of them. if i had the same thing, i think i'd make use of them, too, and when the new park service site was being established there, they contacted the park service about the possibility of getting them in a repository, and when it was realized that we had two surviving civil war tents, the word went out to civil war sites, if anybody was interested, and we were.

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 that time frame. that's why the items are that linkage. they don't exist today, because like us in our future, we will pass unto team. they have passed unto time, but these objects have survived. they're an accident. i mean, two tents, half of what exists in the world from the civil war time frame are right here, they are here to impart appreciation and understanding of a different time and different people. >> you can watch this or other "american