m/v Erika Lin's Adventures: Clifton Marina to Grand Harbor Marina, TN

Date October 17, 2011

Day 111

Departure Clifton Marina, Clifton, TN 7:35 am
Arrival Grand Harbor Marina, Counce, TN 2:40 pm

Miles 56.8

Cumulative 2684.4

We got an early start this morning as we knew it would be a longer day because we would have to go through a lock and if a tow was in front of us it could be a couple of hours wait. We have seen many different kinds of wildlife along the banks of the river. One thing we have not seen is any deer, but we have seen cows!

These bluffs are known as Chalk Bluff, one of the most scenic and colorful on the lower Tennessee River. But they aren't chalk! It is a mixture of sand and clay deposited many millions of years ago.

This house is Cherry Mansion. It was built in 1830 by landowner David Robinson. He presented it to his daughter as a wedding gift. It was built by slave labor with bricks made on the riverbank and features 18-inch thick walls and heart pine woodwork. General Ulysses S. Grant was eating breakfast here on April 6, 1862, when he heard a distant dull thud of artillery fire as Confederate forces suddenly attacked his army at nearby Shiloh. The house continued to serve as Grant's headquarters during the fierce two-day battle. A field hospital was set up in the yard and hospital boats were moored below the house. Wounded from both confederate and Union forces were cared for. Two Union generals died in the house while being treated.

Shiloh National Military Park is one of the most historically significant sites on the river. On 4,000 acres are 151 monuments, 217 cannon and more than 450 historic tablets that detail the Civil War's first major battle. The battle of Shiloh was fought April 6-7, 1862. More than 103,000 Union and Confederate soldiers plus the Union gunboats TYLER and LEXINGTON were involved. Among the casualties was General Albert Sidney Johnston, the highest ranking American ever killed in combat. By the time the battle had ended, 23,000 men were dead and dying; much innocence and enthusiasm was replace by grim reality as those who had come to defend their cause discovered the horror of war.

Part of the Shiloh Battlefields seen from the river

The Pickwick Dam was completed in 1944. A total of 506 families and 407 graves had to be relocated. Entire communities such as Unitia, TN, suddenly were no more. One story has it that a family resisted being relocated to their new home because the hearth fire in the fireplace that had been burning continuously for three generations would need to be put out. TVA accomodated the family by moving the burning fire along with the family's other possessions.