The main section of the park sits in the unincorporated community of Shiloh, located about 20 miles south of Savannah, Tennessee. Additional areas extend into the city of Corinth, Mississippi, which lies roughly 35 miles southwest of Shiloh. A third area exists at Parker's Crossroads Battlefield within Parkers Crossroads, Tennessee.
Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant faced Confederate troops led by Albert Sidney Johnston on the morning of the 6th of April 1862 near Pittsburg Landing. Fighting continued over two days with nearly 24,000 men killed, wounded, or missing during the engagement.
Shiloh National Military Park was officially established on the 27th of December 1894 after local farmers demanded federal action due to human remains being disturbed by pigs. President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Basil W. Duke as commissioner of the park in 1904 before the War Department transferred control to the National Park Service on the 10th of August 1933.
A self-guided auto-tour spans 12 miles and stops at key locations including the Peach Orchard and the Hornet's Nest. The route also passes General Johnston's death site near Pittsburg Landing while connecting physical landmarks with historical narratives through interpretive signage and audio guides available at each stop.
The well-preserved prehistoric Shiloh Indian Mounds Site was inhabited during the Early Mississippian period from approximately 1000 to 1450. Archaeologists have identified mounds that served ceremonial or residential purposes for indigenous communities long before European contact, holding designation as a National Historic Landmark alongside the Civil War battlefield features.