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    Slow Travels-Mississippi
    Slow Travels-Mississippi
    Slow Travels-Mississippi
    Ebook286 pages3 hours

    Slow Travels-Mississippi

    By Lyn Wilkerson

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    About this ebook

    Slow Travels-Mississippi explores the history of the state along U.S. Highways 45, 61, 80, 82, and 84. Based on the American Guides Series of the 1930's and 40's, this guide includes up to date directions, reference maps, and GPS coordinates for all listed sites. Explore Vicksburg, Natchez, Jackson, and all the history inbetween.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLyn Wilkerson
    Release dateNov 8, 2010
    ISBN9781452332291
    Slow Travels-Mississippi
    Author

    Lyn Wilkerson

    Caddo Publications USA was created in 2000 to encourage the exploration of America’s history by the typical automotive traveler. The intent of Caddo Publications USA is to provide support to both national and local historical organizations as historical guides are developed in various digital and traditional print formats. Using the American Guide series of the 1930’s and 40’s as our inspiration, we began to develop historical travel guides for the U.S. in the 1990’s.

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      Book preview

      Slow Travels-Mississippi - Lyn Wilkerson

      U.S. Highway 45 in Mississippi runs from the foothills of the Tennessee River in the northeastern corner of the State to the red clay hills of Wayne County in the southeast. Between Tupelo and Scooba, it traverses the Black Prairie Belt, formerly one of the richest cotton growing sections of the State but now supplementing that crop with diversified Tanning and dairying. Aberdeen and Columbus were prosperous ante-bellum centers and, being in the fertile prairie, they still hold their prosperity. Between Scooba and Waynesboro the highway winds through the uplands of eastern Mississippi, where a more typical Mississippi scene is evident with small terraced cotton patches scattered among the forests and between the gullies.

      Tennessee State Line

      Crossing the Mississippi Line, 44 miles south of Jackson, Tennessee, the travel route enters the State on Mississippi Highway 145, the earlier route of U.S. Highway 45 before the western expressway bypass was constructed. This route, once referred to as the Magnolia Route during the short period of Rand McNally’s Auto Trails, follows the general route of the Union troops in their advance on Corinth after the Battle of Shiloh in April of 1862.

      Junction with Woodlawn Drive (2.6 miles south of the Tennessee Line on MS 145)

      Union Army earthworks ran parallel to the current highway at this point, 1.5 miles from the outer protective earthwork of the Confederate Army at Corinth. They were built by the Union Army between May 17th and May 29th, 1862, in Halleck's advance from Shiloh to Corinth. The Union advance was an example of Halleck's generalship. Without risking an open engagement he brought an overwhelming force to the outskirts of Corinth and entrenched it as strongly as were the defending Confederates. From this earthwork, the Federals could hear distinctly the movement of trains and the beat of Confederate drums in the town.

      Corinth (1.8 miles south of Woodlawn Drive on MS 145 at Cruise Street)

      Mississippi's only city in the Tennessee River Hills, Corinth was closely involved in an important engagement during the War Between the States. Here, soldiers fought in hand-to-hand combat, and for many years after the war, Presbyterians, innocently having built their church upon the site of an old Federal magazine, worshipped above a nest of mines.

      In 1855, officers of the Memphis & Charleston Railroad and the Mobile & Ohio Railroad chose this site for the junction of their two lines, giving it the obvious name of Cross City. Two years later, the editor of the weekly newspaper suggested that the community change its name to the more imaginative name of Corinth, the Grecian crossroads city.

      But when war broke out between the States, the asset of being the crossing point of two trunk lines became a liability. From the beginning of the war, the Union Army planned to capture the town, and the Confederates kept it heavily fortified. After the Battle of Shiloh, April 6th to the 8th, 1862, Confederate General Beauregard retreated to the town, followed by Union General Halleck. When Halleck, after slow marching, at last reached Corinth, Beauregard evacuated the town, permitting him to enter without opposition. The Union army occupied the place for five months, and then General Grant, surmising that the Confederates under Van Dora intended to attack, ordered Rosecrans, who was defending the town, to concentrate his troops. But Van Dorn and his forces swooped down from Tennessee with extraordinary speed, and on October 3rd crushed Rosecrans' men three miles north of Corinth. The Union troops

      retreated into the city at dusk and spent the night preparing to renew the battle. The next morning Van Dorn hurled his troops against the entrenchments of the Union forces, but his forces were disorganized and two battalions failed to attack simultaneously. In the second day of fighting, Colonel William P. Rogers led his brigade in the charge against the Union Battery Robinett. Rogers, after desperate fighting, succeeded in taking the almost impregnable position but paid with his life for the victory. Shortly afterward the Confederates were forced by the augmented Union troops to retreat. After the battle, Rosecrans had Rogers buried with military honors.

      Points of Interest:

      National Cemetery (Meigg Street and St. John Street)

      Here are buried more than 6,000 Union soldiers from 273 regiments of 12 States.

      Nell Curlee Home (711 Jackson Street)

      This residence was built in 1857 by Hampton Mask. During the War Between the States, the house, then the showplace of Corinth, was occupied successively by Generals Halleck, Bragg, and Hood.

      Site of Fred Elgin Home (615 Jackson Street)

      The house was used for headquarters by General Ulysses S. Grant; the large old bed in which he slept was once displayed with pride by the owner.

      A. K. Weaver Home (Fillmore Street and Bunch Street)

      The recessed entrance is noteworthy. This home was occupied by General Leonidas Polk at the time of the Union invasion of Corinth.

      Site of Rose Cottage (Southeast corner of Fillmore Street and Bunch Street)

      General Albert Sidney Johnston, Confederate Commander of the War in the West, made his headquarters in Rose Cottage. After Johnston received a fatal wound at the Battle of Shiloh, his body was returned to Corinth where it lay in state in Rose Cottage.

      Corinth Interpretive Center (Linden Street and Confederate Street)

      This is the site of Fort Robinett. A monument is located here to Colonel William Rogers, who was killed attacking the fort.

      Site of Jones Boarding House (815 E. Waldron Street)

      Jones Boarding House was originally the Methodist church, and was at one time used as a Confederate prison.

      Crossroads Museum (211 N. Fillmore Street)

      The museum is in the historic Corinth Depot, at the meeting point of the Memphis & Charleston and the Mobile & Ohio Railroads.

      Site of Battery F (Bitner Road and Scenic Lake Drive)

      This fortification was one of six built in 1862 by Union troops as part of the outer defenses south and west of Corinth. It was taken on October 3rd, 1862, by Confederate forces after fierce fighting. The battle resumed on October 4th, but Confederate troops were forced to withdraw.

      Junction with U.S. Highway 45 (3.1 miles south of Corinth on MS 145)

      The travel route joins with the current U.S. Highway 45 at this intersection.

      Junction with County Road 514 (4.9 miles south of MS 145 on U.S. 45)

      Side Trip to Dilworth House (County Road 514 West)

      Dilworth House (2.1 mile west on CR 514)

      This residence was built by Thomas F. Dilworth. His son, John M. Dilworth (1916-2005), lived here with his family until his death.

      Junction with County Road 410 (2 miles south of CR 514 on U.S. 45)

      Side Trip to Danville (County Road 410 East)

      Danville (1 mile east on CR 410)

      This was the first white settlement in the northeastern corner of Mississippi. An abundance of fresh spring water suitable for tanning determined the site. It is said that the citizens of Danville were noted for their piety and their law-abiding natures, Danville lost its prosperity when the railroad skirted it, and, shortly after, completely disappeared when the Union Army moved the houses elsewhere to use them as quarters for its troops.

      Junction with Mississippi Highway 356 (2.5 miles south of CR 410 on U.S. 45)

      Side Trip to Jacinto Courthouse (Mississippi Highway 356 East)

      Rienzi (1.9 miles east on MS 356)

      Point of Interest:

      Dr. Joseph M. Bynum House (48 S. Front Street)

      This residence was built about 1877.

      Jacinto Courthouse (8.9 miles east on MS 356)

      Jacinto was founded in 1836 as the county seat of Tishomingo County, which also included the present Alcorn and Prentiss Counties. The community was named for the Battle of San Jacinto, which occurred during the fight for Texas Independence. When the town rejected the plans of the railroads, Corinth became the crossroads and Jacinto’s ceased to be a town of importance. The county seat was moved in 1870 and this building, built in 1854, became the home of Senator E. W. Carmack.

      Junction with Mississippi Highway 145 (2.2 miles south of MS 356 on U.S. 45)

      The travel route departs from the current four-lane highway to follow the earlier route of U.S. Highway 45, again designated as Mississippi Highway 145, south through Tupelo to Shannon.

      Booneville (5.3 miles south of U.S. 45 on MS 145 at Church Street)

      Booneville was the scene of an all-day fight between Hardee's Confederate cavalry and Sheridan's Union troops on July 1st, 1862, after the Army of the Mississippi had retreated from Corinth and was reorganizing at Tupelo.

      .

      Baldwyn (11.3 miles south of Booneville on MS 145 at MS 370)

      Baldwyn is on the line between Prentiss and Lee Counties, a division that has caused some amusing conflicts of jurisdiction. Until 1920, the town had a hotel named the Forrest House because Confederate Cavalry General Nathan B. Forrest had used it for quarters after the Battle of Brice's Crossroads, his greatest fight.

      Side Trip to Brice’s Crossroads Battlefield National Historic Site (Mississippi Highway 370 West)

      Brice’s Crossroads Battlefield National Historic Site (5.2 miles west on MS 370)

      Against a force of about 5,000 Union troops, including cavalry, infantry, and artillery, Confederate Cavalry General Forrest interposed a much smaller force of mounted troops, defeated the column in a brisk engagement June 10th, 1864, then turned its retreat into a rout along the road to Ripley, capturing 14 pieces of artillery, 5,000 stand of fire arms, 500,000 rounds of ammunition, and 250 wagons. The Union casualties were 223 killed, 394 wounded, and 1,623 missing, as against Forrest's loss of 96 killed and 396 wounded. It was a signal victory for Forrest's peculiar strategy and method of fighting. The marshy terrain was to his advantage. He won a race for the crossroads, and, bluffing his way as usual, charged against the Union force before they could emerge from the woods. At one time, he was in the front rank, pistol in hand, and his courage and aggressiveness carried his daring to victory.

      Guntown (4.7 miles south of Baldwyn on MS 145 at MS 348)

      According to local legend, this village is named for a Virginia Tory, James Gunn, who fled here to escape the American Revolution. Gunn later married the daughter of a Chickasaw Indian chief. He continued to toast the King of England on his birthday as long as he lived.

      Junction with the Natchez Trace (8.5 miles south of Guntown on MS 145)

      Originally an Indian trade route, the Trace runs from outside Nashville, Tennessee to Natchez, Mississippi. The Trace ran through the wilderness and the country of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians, two powerful tribes. In 1801, General James Wilkinson made treaties with these tribes. The granted the United States the right to lay out a wagon road between the settlements of Mero district in . . . Tennessee, and those of Natchez in the Mississippi Territory. The work of widening the trail was done by United States soldiers. The treaties, however, permitted the Indians to retain the inns and necessary ferries over the watercourses crossed by the said road. Described as a post road, it was placed under improvement in 1806.

      Side Trip to Pharr Mounds (Natchez Trace East)

      Confederate Gravesites (3.2 miles east on the Natchez Trace)

      The original markers long since crumbled away, the National Park Service erected thirteen headstones for these unknown soldiers from the Civil War. Each stone bears the inscription Unknown Confederate Soldier.

      Pharr Mounds (20.6 miles east on the Natchez Trace)

      Pharr Mounds is the largest and most important archeological site in northern Mississippi. Eight large, dome-shaped burial mounds are scattered over an area of 90 acres (100 football fields). These mounds were built and used about 1 to 200 A.D. by a tribe of nomadic Indian hunters and gatherers who returned to this site at times to bury the dead with their possessions.

      Tupelo (5.6 miles south of the Natchez Trace on MS 145 at U.S. 278)

      The region around Tupelo was a part of the land obtained from the Chickasaw Indians by the Treaty of Pontotoc in 1832. Immediately after the opening of the land, settlers from the eastern seaboard States moved in and by 1848 had established themselves as well-to-do farmers. In that year, C. C. Thompson built a store on land belonging to Judge W. R. Harris, one of the wealthy prairie planters, and named the site Harrisburg. Within three years, two stores were built. The village continued to thrive until 1859, when the tracks of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad were laid two miles to the east and a gradual abandonment of Harrisburg began. The people moved east, down from the upper slope of the ridge into the flat, marshy bottoms, where there were no stores or dwelling houses, but a railroad and plenty of tupelo gum trees. By the end of the first year, the first arrivals had built a store, a temporary railroad station, and two saloons.

      These stood opposite the present freight depot, on the east side of the railroad. Because of the nearness of a small pond lined with tupelo gum trees, the new station was called Gum Pond. But later the first citizens wished to honor the trees that had supplied the timber for their homes, so they changed the name to Tupelo (Indian for lodging place).

      During the War Between the States, Confederate General Beauregard retreated to Tupelo after the battle of Shiloh, and encamped here during the summer of 1862. Later, General Forrest made his headquarters in the Younger home. On July 14th, 1864, the Confederate army under the command of Stephen D. Lee paused at Tupelo to give battle to the pursuing Union army commanded by A. J. Smith. The two armies met on the hilltop where the village of Harrisburg had been. It was the last major battle and one of the bloodiest fought in Mississippi. Cavalry General Forrest, whose wounded foot forced him from horseback into a carriage, drove madly up and down the Confederate lines, swearing at officers and giving orders wholesale. One of the orders miscarried, and the battle was lost for the Confederates; an incident which Joe Smith, once of the Forrest cavalry, described as making the General so mad he stunk. But though the Confederate troops were beaten back, the Union force retreated two days later. Robert S. Henry, in his Story of the Confederacy, says: General Smith was uneasy in his mind. That night he burned Harrisburg and started on his retreat to Memphis. He left so hurriedly that he abandoned 250 of his seriously wounded, their wounds undressed, to be found by the Confederates in Tupelo, a ghastly sight with open wounds fly-blown and festering. . . . It was a strange spectacle, an army which had just won a pitched battle drawing back from an enemy of half its own size which it had just beaten. In the winter of 1864 and 1865, 20,000 Confederates rested at Tupelo.

      On October 6th, 1866, Lee County was formed from Itawamba and Pontotoc Counties, and after considerable wrangling on the part of the older towns, Tupelo was selected as the county seat, and a courthouse was built. This raised Tupelo from the category of village to that of town, and brought to it the adventurous young men who cut themselves off from established families in other communities, and who later forsook the land for the machine, thus shaping Tupelo into an industrial city. Cultural progress was manifested on September 1st, 1871, when, according to John Thompson's announcement in the Tupelo Journal, school was opened today in the new building near the Baptist Church with 30 pupils.

      In 1875, the town was grouped around Main Street, with three brick store buildings, a brick hank, a courthouse, and several business houses. The population was slightly less than 100. There were no sidewalks or paved streets, and the large area between Main Street and the courthouse square served the farm people in town to trade as a hitching yard. In wet weather, the little holes caused by the restless pawing of horses' hoofs on the earth would fill with water and turn green. The hitching yard was also the swapping ground," where farmer met merchant and traded produce for merchandise.

      In 1887, the Memphis & Birmingham Railroad, later the St. Louis & San Francisco, called the Frisco, swerved slightly out of a more direct course to cross the Mobile & Ohio trades at Tupelo. This gave the town rail transportation in four directions, and enabled it to develop in a more substantial way. Connecting streets, now called Spring, Broadway, and Green were cut, and Main Street was extended. In 1890, electric lights were installed and one year later a charter of incorporation was granted by the State. Then, with electric lights, a city charter, and thousands of bottom acres made available for farming by a system of 36 drainage canals (the latter of which were the outcome of the first drainage laws passed in the nation), the citizens financed one of the first cotton mills in the State.

      On April 5th, 1936, a violent tornado struck old Harrisburg, now a subdivision, swept through Willis Heights, another subdivision, and roared down into the hitherto hill-protected city of Tupelo. In 33 seconds, 201 persons were killed, 1,000 injured; hosts of others wandered helplessly without homes, schools, or places of worship. The great oak trees lay broken or uprooted. In less than a minute Tupelo received the most disastrous blow ever delivered to a Mississippi town until that time. Within six months, however, Tupelo had built new homes, repaired the churches, and designed new, modern schools.

      Points of Interest:

      De Soto Boulder (Main Street and Church Street)

      This is a granite stone commemorating De Soto's alleged march through here in 1540 and 1541.

      Tupelo National Battlefield (Monument Drive and Main Street)

      In the summer of 1864, General Forrest's hard hitting troops in Northern Mississippi threatened the supplies of General Sherman's campaign against Atlanta. Therefore, General A. J. Smith marched 14,000 Union troops against Forrest. He reached Tupelo despite harassing attacks and took positions here. A Confederate force of about 10,000 under General Stephen D. Lee, with Forrest commanding the right wing, attacked fiercely and repeatedly from the west throughout July 14th, but could not penetrate the Union defense. The next day, Smith withdrew his command to the north and returned in good order to Memphis. The pressure on Sherman's flank had been reduced.

      Birthplace of Elvis Presley (306 Elvis Presley Drive)

      Elvis Aaron Presley was born January 8th, 1935, in this house built by his father. Presley's career as a singer and entertainer redefined American popular music. He died on August 16th, 1977, at Memphis, Tennessee.

      Shake Rag Community (E. Main Street and Franklin Street)

      Shake Rag, located east of the old Mobile & Ohio Railroad tracks and extending northward from Main Street, was one of several historic African American communities in Tupelo. By the 1920’s, blues and jazz flowed freely from performers at Shake Rag restaurants, cafes, and house parties, and later from jukeboxes, while the sounds of gospel music filled the churches. The neighborhood was leveled and its

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