In 1902 a crowd of 2,000 people witnessed the dedication ceremony for a monument to the Fifth Ohio Cavalry at Shiloh Battlefield in Tennessee. They could never have imagined the future technology that would enable 135,000 people to view, in a single day, a photo comparing the monument as it looked 1902 with the same scene over a century later.

The image that's attracted all those viewers was taken by Law Enforcement Ranger Dwight Paulk at Shiloh National Military Park. It features a 1902 photograph of the newly-placed Fifth Ohio Cavalry monument, overlaid with its appearance today. The image was posted on the park's Facebook page, and it recently reached more than 135,000 people in less than twenty-four hours, far surpassing any of the park’s previous posts on the popular site. 

In addition to the large number of views, the post also garnered more than 7,000 collective “likes,” hundreds of comments, and generated almost 200 more “fans” of the park's Facebook page.

“As the National Park Service begins its Centennial celebration, social media will allow us to engage our audience in new and exciting ways,” said Superintendent Dale Wilkerson. “We normally see 80,000 people in the visitor center every year...The response was fantastic.”

So, what's the story behind the monument featured in the photo?

According to a park spokesperson, "Ohio was the first state to erect and dedicate monuments on Shiloh Battlefield. They would place 34 monuments in total, at a cost of $45,140 in 1902. The dedication took place on June 6th of that year with Judge David Pugh, a veteran of the 46th Ohio Infantry, officially turning over the monuments to the federal government in front of a crowd of 2,000 spectators."

The monuments themselves are constructed of Barre granite and were built by the Hughes Granite Company of Clyde, Ohio. Today the battlefield contains around 800 state monuments, mortuary monuments, headquarters monuments, position markers, and camp tablets.

The Fifth Ohio had three battalions of troopers on the field at Shiloh: the First and Second Battalions attached to Brigadier General Stephen Hurlbut’s Division and the Third Battalion with Major General Lew Wallace’s Division.

There's a reason Shiloh attracted so much attention in the years after the war. In April 1862, nearly 110,000 American troops fought at this site in Tennessee; the clashes resulted in 23,746 casualties, more than in all of America's previous wars combined at that point in history.

If you'd like to see Shiloh Battlefield in person, you'll find information to help plan a visit on the park website.

As to that photo that's gone viral, we didn't want to spoil the effect by posting it with this story, so if you'd like to see the "Then-and-Now" photo, you can view it on the park's Facebook page at this link.