Between July 12 and 25, 1999, a team from the Southeast Archeological Center (SEAC) examined several areas at Shiloh National Military Park in western Tennessee and at Corinth, Mississippi. The work documented a wide array of Civil War era military features, New Deal era archaeological excavation trenches, and Mississippian mound construction stages. With a ten-person team, including Florida State University students, project directors David G. Anderson and John E. Cornelison used a variety of investigative techniques, including ground penetrating radar (GPR), metal detecting, GPS and total station mapping, and test excavations. Their objectives included: 

• surveying mounds, the plaza, and Confederate graves with GPR; 

• relocating unmapped excavation units opened in 1933 and 1934 during major New Deal era excavations at the Shiloh Mound Group; 

• locating the Battery Robinette earthworks at Corinth, the location of a major Civil War battle in 1862; and 

• performing a systematic metal detector survey on the battlefield at Shiloh to evaluate two small areas of proposed park development. 

Over one hundred GPR transects totaling almost three linear kilometers of output were run at the Shiloh Mound Group. Transects were run over all seven of the major mounds, revealing a number of internal features in each.

Extensive GPR mapping at Mound A was conducted using transects oriented north-south and east-west and spaced two meters apart. Well-defined signatures of stages deep within the mound were found. This data will be invaluable in guiding future mitigation excavations at Mound A. 

Evidence for construction stages and other internal mound features were found in most of the other mounds examined. Importantly, the GPR output revealed where past excavations occurred. For example, Mound C, thought to have been completely dug away and then rebuilt, was found to be intact at the south end. 

All the major excavation trenches into the mounds left pronounced signatures. For instance, Union burial pits had been placed in Mound G after the battle. GPR output indicated that one soldier may have been left behind when the burials were relocated to the nearby national cemetery. 

The GPR was also used to examine five of the Confederate mass graves at Shiloh, providing information not only on the placement of burials within the trenches, but on their location and depth, as well. This information will assist park personnel in determining where the graves are in relationship to the markers. 

Most importantly, GPR transects were run over the plaza area around the mounds, successfully locating signatures of literally dozens of excavation units opened by Frank Roberts and his crews during the New Deal era. Thirty-one, one-by-one-meter units were opened to depths between ten and thirty centimeters in order to verify the nature of the GPR signatures. These proved highly successful in locating trench edges, which were clearly delimited in many units. 

At Corinth, Mississippi, the GPR was used to successfully locate the earthworks for Battery Robinette, the site of a major engagement fought in late 1862. The earthworks were leveled after the battle, and the area converted into a municipal park. Although the outline of the earthworks was known from historic maps, no surface traces remained. A systematic program of metal detection, shovel testing, and limited test pitting in May 1999 not only located appreciable Civil War activity, but helped investigators eliminate most areas from consideration. The first GPR transect laid out during the July 1999 fieldwork ran right over the top of the earthwork, the outline of which was then traced using additional transects. Four one-by-one-meter units were opened in three areas to verify the GPR signatures, confirming the presence of the earthwork. 

Two areas slated for construction at Shiloh were also examined using shovel testing and systematic metal detection. The shovel testing proved negative, but the metal detecting located over two hundred Civil War era artifacts. One area-a Union camp occupied for a month prior to the battle-produced predominantly utilitarian items and unfired rounds. A second area, where extensive fighting occurred, produced large numbers of fired rounds. 

All proveniences examined during the 1999 fieldwork were mapped using atotal station and a GPS unit and then tied to a series of permanent datums. Locations of unusual features detected by the GPR and metal detectors, and the locations of the excavation units, are thus known to within a few centimeters, permitting their relocation in the future. 

All the project objectives were met, as were several additional goals. A report on the fieldwork will include the full output and data from the GPR transects. All materials recovered will be curated following NPS standards. A web site describing the fieldwork is also being developed. 

Even before final reports are published, the project provided invaluable information to the park- information that will be used to make management decisions, plan construction projects, and interpret the site. For instance, the precise location of the Battery Robinette site can now be factored into plans for the construction of a major visitors center at Corinth. So too, the data collected from the Indian Mound Group at Shiloh will be used to help plan vital mitigation work at Mound A, which is eroding into the Tennessee River. The information will also help other researchers in their work, such as Dr. Paul Welch of Queens College, New York, who is preparing an overview of past archaeological work at the Indian Mound Group. And, most important, interpretation of the site for park visitors will be as current and accurate as possible.