The Tennessee State Memorial stands along Sherman Road near the intersection with Confederate Road on the western side of the park.
The newest memorial in the park (as of 2015), this memorial was dedicated in June 2005.
From CivilWarnews.com: (
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"hiloh Prepares For June 3 Dedication Of Tennessee Monument
By Deborah Fitts
May 2005
SHILOH, Tenn. — On June 3 officials at Shiloh National Military Park will dedicate the most impressive monument to be erected at the battlefield since the veterans put up their own nearly a century ago.
That was the assessment of Chief Ranger Stacy Allen, who worked to ensure the authenticity of details in the larger-than-life-sized statue. The three bronze figures in “Passing of Honor” depict a fallen flag-bearer, a comrade who is picking up the flag, and a third standing watchfully by.
“This is the first monument of this size and sophistication” since 1917, when the Confederate Monument was dedicated, said Allen. “It fits in with the older monumentation format; they all carry that Victorian flavor.”
The notion of a Tennessee monument was hatched more than a decade ago by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC). Because the park’s enabling legislation requires that states sponsor new monuments, the UDC turned to Tennessee, which ultimately provided $125,000 in matching funds for the $280,000 project.
Other donors included the UDC, the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), private individuals and the U.S. government.
The artist chosen for the work was G.L. Sanders of Pampa, Texas. Allen said the decision to focus on the color bearer was inspired by an earlier initiative of the SCV, to erect a monument to the 6th Tennessee Infantry at Shiloh that would reflect the fact that the regiment lost “about a dozen” color-bearers in an assault on the Hornets’ Nest on the morning of the first day of battle, April 6, 1862. The monument was never built.
The figures on Sanders’ monument stand 9 feet high. A large flag, in the First National pattern that Tennessee carried, will be bronze like the figures but its 11 stars will be stainless steel so they will “shine forth,” Allen said. The black granite base, another 5 feet high, will have bronze tablets inscribed with the order of battle for Tennessee units and “appropriate quotations.”
Allen traveled to Lander, Wyo., in January to assist as a studio transformed Sanders’ 2-foot wax original into a full-sized clay model. Allen and Fred Prouty, military sites adviser for the Tennessee Historical Commission and project manager for the monument, offered the artist advice on uniforms, weapons and accoutrements, “right down to the hair and moustache,” Allen said. In a final step, the bronze would be cast from the clay model.
The monument is expected to arrive at Shiloh no later than the third week of May. The bronze will come in two or three large pieces and be assembled atop the base.
Allen said the monument will be sited “in a beautiful location,” on the west side of Water Oaks Pond, three-tenths of a mile north of Shiloh Church. Nearby is the prominent wartime crossroads of the Corinth-Pittsburg Landing Road and the Hamburg-Purdy Road.
Allen researched the actions of Tennessee troops at Shiloh before choosing the site.
“It was ground zero for the kill zone at Shiloh,” he explained. “Quite amazingly, at any given point of the battle I can place 90 percent of Tennesseans within a half-mile of that crossroads.”
Of the 44,000 Confederates engaged at Shiloh, 12,000 were from Tennessee, according to Allen. Union forces totaled 65,000. The two-day battle, April 6-7, 1862, resulted in 24,000 casualties.
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen has tentatively accepted an invitation to attend the dedication on June 3, which is the state’s Confederate Memorial Day. The hour-long event is scheduled for 1 p.m. and will be open to the public. Area native and Civil War author Larry J. Daniel will speak, state dignitaries will attend, the Tennessee National Guard will provide a band, and there will be representatives of the UDC and SCV.
Allen noted that several states still remain unrepresented at Shiloh, including Mississippi, Georgia and Florida. The last Tennessee monument erected on the battlefield was a century ago, when veterans put one up to the 2nd Tennessee Infantry.
Superintendent Woody Harrell said the new monument “will illustrate the continuing desire of American citizens to commemorate the historic sacrifice made by the Civil War generation.”