Catfish and Battles

Green Acres RV Resort
Savannah, Tennessee
Site 27

We took a short drive to Shiloh National Military Park this morning.  As we entered the visitor center we were told that a guided walk to Pittsburg Landing and talk about "Why Shiloh", would be starting in a few minutes.  Since the weather forecast was predicting temperatures in the 90's, we thought the walk would be great to do while it was cooler.  

Once again lady luck was with us.  We had Shannon all to ourselves.  She was interning for the park service and she loved history.  

Shannon pointed out the difference in the headstones.  The small ones were for unknown soldiers and the ones with a point on the top was for a confederate soldier.  

It was a nice walk through the National Cemetery down to Pittsburg Landing.  Unfortunately, it was uphill all the way back.  Shannon did a great job and she kept explaining the event all the way back to the visitor center.

The museum was small but well appointed.  

I would rather visit a small museum with the most important artifacts than a large accumulation of items.  

Of course, Bill loves the cannons.

This was an original battle flag.  

After we toured the museum we watched an excellent  45 minute video about the battle.  It was too late to drive down to Corinth Military Park.  

Our RV park owners suggested a restaurant for lunch.  I wasn't all that hungry and neither was Bill, but we thought we'd check out the one they recommended.

Did you know that Savannah, Tennessee is reported to be the "Catfish Capital of the World"?

More history with lunch...  The Hagy's docked their flat boat in 1825 and claimed a few acres of bottom land.  John, their son, built a rough log shack that stored items to be shipped by the steamboats.  The Union soldiers occupied the shack during the Battle of Shiloh.  

Friends of Norvin Hagy started referring to the shack as the "Catfish Hotel" as he served catfish and hushpuppies when entertaining his friends.  

When Gordon Browning was seeking his term as Governor, he attended a political gathering at Norvin's in 1938.  After eating some of the catfish, he suggested Norvin's family open a restaurant.  The family has since added some additions to the shack to accommodate all the customers.  It has continuously been owned and run by the Hagy family since 1938.  The third generation that is operating it still gives great service, prices and food.  

In 1975 fire destroyed the building, but a year later the Catfish Hotel opened.  

The road to the restaurant was a very narrow, curvy, tree lined road and we didn't pass anything else until we reached the river.  We couldn't believe how crowded it was and they had just opened.  

These were the steps down to the river.  I'm sure they haven't been used in a very long time.

It wasn't fancy, but had a tin ceiling and just great views of the river.  

Remember we weren't hungry.  There's something about great food that makes you want to clean your plate.  We both ordered the catfish dinner.  Bill had a salad, and I had cole slaw.  The cole slaw was very different and had the dressing on the side.  I've never tasted anything like it, but it was delicious. 

We were seated at a small table by the fireplace, which thankfully, wasn't lit.  All the other tables were filled.

Here's my plate of catfish along with my side dish of a baked potato.  When they carried out your food the waitresses had on big hot pad gloves on.  Everything was very hot.  

Yep, we weren't hungry, notice I cleaned my plate and we didn't bring anything home. 

Turtle Safely.........