Southeast Coalition of Authentic Reenactors

Matt Woodburn is hosting this effort to provide us a unique experience. From 'steaming' down the river to Pittsburg Landing to landing along its muddy shores. We will march thru the original battlefield as much as possible and into the main event site. After fighting we will find refuge in an abandon camp. Rations will also be issued.  SCAR will part of Co mapnay E and we have some surprises for those men that have signed up with us. Registration is full right now. You can be added to a waiting list by contacting Jim Butler at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   If you do not get a slt on the boat, then you may meet as the landing on Saturday morning and march into the site with us.

Event website: http://www.westernindependentgrays.org/shiloh150/index2.htm

From Matt Woodburn:
During the crisis of war in 1862, soldiers were tightly crammed aboard transport ships to rush as many men as possible to the front. Modern maritime law doesn’t think so highly of that method and we have to follow modern law. That being said we will likely have to transport one wing at a time to ferry the entire regiment to “our” Pittsburg Landing. You have a great logistical team in place to see that all of this happens for you, so you need not worry. We intend to embark from Savannah via a gang plank laid on the dirt bank as you might have seen in period wood cuts. We want to avoid modern marinas that would detract from our experience. And while modern maritime law has requirements of today’s paddle wheelers, our ship has given us permission to cover or hide as many of those modern intrusions as feasible. It will not be perfect, but being dimly lit with candles and intrusions covered with patriotic bunting, etc., we will have as close an experience as we can have in 2012. Look at your friend’s faces as it may be the last day you see them alive. Look at your plate of food as it may be your last meal. Look at the passing bank and the stars in the sky as they are the same ones that the original boys saw in 1862. The sound of the paddle wheel and the lapping waves against the bank will be the same too. If you do these things, you’ll make your visit back.

The Minnehaha reached Pittsburg Landing at 4:00am as recorded by 1st Sgt. W. P. L. Muir. Another source says it was 4:30am. As such we will operate through the night as they did, but with two trips our times will be a little off. On April 6th, 1862 at “7 o’clock we ate breakfast on board the Minnehaha…” At “10 o’clock we are ordered ashore, with knapsacks, overcoats, 2 blankets, an extra suit of clothes, haversacks filled with hard tack and a big high hat with a brass eagle on the side.” Ammunition was distributed after they disembarked and for the first time they loaded their rifles. The regiment was ordered by General Grant to hold the road going to the landing as wounded and panicked men made their way to the landing in an effort to board a boat. The 15th held the road for about an hour during which time they also “were engaged in making coffee,” according to Cpl. W.H. Goodrell. When the battle really started going badly for the Federals ahead, one of General Grant’s staff members passed the order for the 15th Iowa and the nearby 16th Iowa to move up to support General Prentiss. One of Grant’s staff officers took the 15th into the fight according to the 15th Iowa’s Asst. Surgeon, Dr. W.H. Gibbon. This same Dr. Gibbon bravely set up his field hospital that day only 250 yards behind the Federal battle line. The 15th Iowa lead the two regiments toward the fighting two miles away. During this march it was noted by Cyrus Boyd that the 15th Iowa’s Lt. Col. Dewey swears a lot and drinks whiskey from a pint bottle on his horse. Upon reaching a field where the Confederates were concealed in woods and behind tents, the enemy opens fire on the 15th and their battle baptism begins. Col. Reid gives an order that initially faces the regiment away from the enemy, but then faces them properly to begin firing. In Col. Reid’s official report of the battle he says they fired by file as the men had not yet learned proper firing commands. And so for the 15th Iowa began the great battle which was later to be called the Battle of Pittsburg Landing by the Federals or the Battle of Shiloh by the Confederates. It was the largest battle to be fought on American soil at that time.

As you read the experiences of the original 15th Iowa, know we will to the best of our ability execute all of the same. You will be fed breakfast aboard our paddle wheeler, you will initially hold a road to the landing, you will boil coffee during this time and be issued ammunition, you will be lead to the first days battle by some of “Grant’s staff,” we’ll see that our Lt. Col. Dewey spouts off a few foul words between swigs of whiskey, etc., etc. And if we time it right, we’ll arrive at the event site just in time to go into the first day’s battle. We intend to have a fully mounted staff, a horse drawn wagon or two for our regiment, couriers, fifers and drummers, a color guard of all Iowans, surgeons, a sutler, and oh yeah, a paddle wheeler! And if all that gets boring, as I’ve said before, we’ll throw a chair through a window and see what that scares up.