Shiloh and Pickwick

We woke up again to cold and fog, which again quickly morphed into a gorgeous autumn day, with sunshine and highs in the lower 70s. The other Dragonfly departed our anchorage first, then we pulled up our anchors and got underway about 9:15 AM. Our stern anchor hooked a couple of nice-sized freshwater mussels, but they slipped back into the river before I could get a picture.

At Mile 198 on the Tennessee River, we passed Pittsburg Landing, the site of Ulysses S. Grant’s April 1862 encampment. Grant was caught off-guard by Albert Sydney Johnston’s Confederates and the ensuing two-day battle of Shiloh was one of the bloodiest conflicts of the Civil War. More than 110,000 soldiers from both sides fought here, with more than 23,000 casualties. Grant turned the tide and won the field, and Johnston was killed, both major blows to the Confederate Army. 

After 180 miles, our cruise on Kentucky Lake came to an end today, when we passed through Pickwick Lock. The lock got its name from the nearby town of Pickwick, TN, which was named by an antebellum postmaster, after his favorite Charles Dickens novel, The Pickwick Papers. We went up 57 feet from Kentucky Lake to Pickwick Lake, and the incredibly friendly and helpful Lockmaster took pictures of us and posted them on Facebook. Here’s the sequence:

Approaching the lock (we took this one)

Entering the lock

Secured to a floating bollard, at the far end of the left wall

Before filling

After filling

Departing

Once on Pickwick Lake, we went past the entrance to the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, our eventual route to the Gulf of Mexico, in order to continue up the Tennessee River for another 250 miles to Chattanooga. We are spending tonight at J.P. Coleman State Park Marina in Iuka, MS, before heading to Florence, AL tomorrow, then snaking back into Tennessee. Fun fact: Pickwick is one of only a handful of U.S. lakes that are in three different states.