Lick Creek, above the landing, and Snake Creek, below it, empty into the river about three miles apart, the landing being nearer the mouth of Snake Creek. Lick Creek, rising in a swamp, flows eleven miles nearly northeast to the river. Snake Creek flows nearly east to the river. Owl Creek flows nearly parallel to Lick Creek, at a distance from it varying from three to five miles, and empties into Snake Creek something more than a mile from its mouth. The land enclosed between these creeks and the river is a rolling plateau from eighty to a hundred feet above the river-level. The riverfront of this plateau is cut by sundry sloughs and ravines, which were at that time overflowed by back-water. One of these deep ravines, running back at right angles to the river, is immediately above the bluff at the landing. About a mile back from the river, and about a mile above the landing, is a swell in the ground, not marked enough to be called a ridge. From this higher ground extend the head ravines of Oak Creek,[1] a rivulet or brook flowing to the west, passing within a few hundred yards of Shiloh Church, and then turning to the northwest and flowing into Owl Creek. In the reports of Sherman's division this rivulet is treated as the main branch of Owl Creek, and called by that name. From the same rising ground, ravines, wet only after a rain, extend east and southeast to Lick Creek. From the same position extend the head ravines of Brier Creek,[1] a deep ravine with little water, which flows almost due north and empties into Snake Creek a little below the mouth of Owl Creek. The three principal creeks, Lick, Snake, and Owl, flow through swampy valleys, bordered by abrupt bluffs. Oak Creek, from the neighborhood of Shiloh Church to its mouth, flows through a miry bottom bordered by banks of less height. The land was for the most part covered with timber, partly with dense undergrowth; in places were perhaps a dozen open fields containing about eighty acres each. A road, lying far enough back from the river to avoid the sloughs, led from the landing to Hamburg Landing, about six miles above. Another road from the landing crossed Brier Creek and Snake Creek just above their junction, and continued down the river to Crump's Landing. The road to Corinth forked near the landing, one branch of it passing by Shiloh Church, the other keeping nearer to the river, but both reuniting five or six miles out. The position selected thus, gave ample room to camp an army, was absolutely protected on the sides of the river, Snake Creek, and Owl Creek, while from its south face a ridge gave open way to Corinth. The open way to Corinth was also an open way from Corinth to the landing. This accessible front could easily have been turned into a strong defence, by taking advantage of the rolling ground, felling timber, and throwing up slight earthworks. But the army had many things yet to learn, and the use of field fortification was one of them.