On April 6th 1862, the Confederate Army launched a surprise attack on Ulysses S. Grant and his men in Shiloh, Tennessee.
After a long day of fighting, what appeared to be a Rebel victory turned into a loss the following day. Unbeknownst to Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard, who had called his men off that evening, Union General Don Carlos Buell and 20,000 men from the Army of Ohio were about to enter the fight. The next morning Grant launched an overwhelming counterattack that forced the Confederate Army to retreat.
With more than 23,000 dead, wounded or missing on both sides, Shiloh was one of the bloodiest battles in the Western Theater of the Civil War.
During the battle, soldiers bled into a pond on the battlefield while filling their canteens and washing their wounds. Today, that small body of water is known as “The Bloody Pond”.
According to legend, the pond actually turns a dark shade of crimson on occasion. While this sounds like it could be a legend handed down by locals; there are people who have claimed to actually see the pond turn blood red!
