Visiting Alabama and Mississippi...

         ...And Its History 

Much like Virginia history, both Alabama and Mississippi is complicated.  What I learned  through our travels certainly was more detailed than what I learned in history class.

Selma, Alabama

We drove about an hour east to Selma.  There we walked the Edmund Pettus bridge, the scene of "Bloody Sunday", March 7, 1965, where 600 black and white Americans walked from Brown Chapel's AME Church for voting rights.  Danny and I took a picture there and saw a picture of those walking with the same signs posted  Much remains unchanged.

Following Bloody Sunday, there was "Turn around Tuesday" where the Pettus Bridge was crossed again by protesters, the people knelt and walked back to the church.  There was no violence.  That evening while preparing for demonstrations, Rev James Reeb was attacked along with 2 other ministers.  Reeb was struck in the head and died 2 days later.  The fact that Reeb was white made the events in Selma carry more weight in the national news. 

Not far from here is Brown Chapel AME Church where 400 people marched on 3/21/1965 from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama about 50 miles.  These protests ultimately led to the National Voting Rights Act of 1965.

We visited Old Live Oak Cemetery with beautiful trees and graves with great carvings.  Two of the special findings were the cast iron top as well as a shell covering to this gravesite(this was of a 10 year old girl).  Both these findings are the only examples in Selma.  Apparently the shell covering is something seen on the Gulf according to the historical documents at the cemetery.

One portion of the cemetery was segmented to Confederate troops called the Confederate Circle.  This portion of the cemetery is cared for by the Confederate organizations.  The cannons point north supposedly to show protection of those buried from the north...  

                                 

On our way back from Selma, we went to a market called Mark's Mart.  It reminded me of the country store outside Charlottesville on the way up to Wintergreen.  Great food to go as well as beer and wine selection.  Very neat place in the middle of nowhere! 😊

Vicksburg, Mississippi

In October 1862, the Union controlled the Mississippi River except for the area of Vicksburg and south.  Like Corinth, Mississippi, the people with money did not support Southern secession due to the economy of the area -bottomline it was not good for their business.  Lincoln and Grant felt the way to end the Civil War sooner was to work around Vicksburg and split the South in two.  Jefferson Davis referred to Vicksburg as the nail that held the 2 halves of the South together.  In December, 1862, Grant tried to cut a canal to bypass Vicksburg which was unsuccessful (The Mississippi River in this area has lots of twists and turns).  In April, 1862, Grant travels south in Louisiana, crosses over south of Vicksburg and marches northeast towards Jackson which was the capital of Mississippi.  In the skirmishes, the Confederates were pushed back towards Vicksburg.  Sherman attempted to attack twice without success.  Grant's troops dig underground to area of the Confederates in Vicksburg and sets off explosions and this doesn’t work both on June 25 and July 1st.  Union ships are attacking from the water and residents of Vicksburg have dug caves near their homes and lived in those caves for 47 days.  Grant had his troop dig zigzag trenches to cut down on troop injuries and death during the battle.  The Confederate officer in charge at Vicksburg was Lt General John C. Pemberton.  Despite holding their own, Pemberton had lost men,  had few supplies, and couldn't feed his troops. Pemberton would find a note under his door saying, “ If you can’t feed us, then surrender us, signed your soldiers".  The Battle of Vicksburg started officially May 18 and ends with Pemberton’s surrender on July 4.  The Military Park also had on display the USS Cairo, the ironclad ship which was used during the Civil War for the Union sunk by the Confederates,  which was found in the mud in 1964 and raised.  Amazingly, there was no loss of life on this ship.  There is a National Cemetery at Vicksburg closer to the River by the battlefields.  The Union soldiers known and unknown are buried here. 

 The majority of soldiers in these battles were from the midwest.  Each state had to provide their own memorial as well as finance it.  Some were very minimal and others grand.  This is from Illinois who also had the most soldiers fighting at Vicksburg.  It was stated that there are over 1300 monuments throughout the park.  Some are based on state versus regiments.

On the grounds, there is a general Confederate memorial to all those that fought for the south.

The Confederate dead are buried known and unknown in Cedar Hill Cemetery a couple miles away.  In the Confederate Cemetery, they have broken the markers up by state.  I walked the areas of Kentucky, Virginia, and Texas to see if I could find any names famaliar to me.  I found this in the Kentucky section…my brother in law, Tim, is looking into this as neither Danny or Tim are aware of Kentucky relatives.

One of the areas where fighting occurred just prior to Vicksburg was Milliken's Bend where black men from Mississippi fought for the Union.  They held their positions against the Confederates  and were incorporated into the Union troops and named the 1st and 3rd Mississippi regiments, African descent.  There is a Memorial in Vicksburg for them.

Danny enjoyed his Key City Brewery with 3 light beers- Mississippi Blonde Ale, Super! (German lager) and Mr Sippy (Pilsner) and had a great dinner at 10Rooftop to look out on the very low Mississippi River.  Needless to say it was difficult to imagine the flooding noted in the past on the wall at the River.

Another interesting item about Vicksburg, Joseph Biedenharn, owner of a candy store (started by his family) which served Coca-Cola as a fountain drink became the first person to bottle it in 1894 and sold it through rural areas of Mississippi.  The family would later have multiple franchises of Coca-Cola.

Natchez, Mississippi

Further south along the Mississippi River, we stopped at Natchez.  Beautiful homes and little damage of the large Antebellum houses as there were no big battles here but some homes were used as hospitals for both sides.  The National Park Service runs the tours at an Antebellum house, Melrose.  A lawyer from New York, moved to Natchez as he believed the cotton business would provide work for him.  While this home was not a plantation it did have slaves about 25 for the running of the house and the land.  The guide discussed that there was no interest in Natchez of succeeding from the US due to business interests.  He also mentioned that many were members of the Whig Party which was a common position that this group took towards the South leaving the Union.  Once the states left the Union, those in their respective states, went along with the decision. 

This is the home known at Melrose.  This particular room is the dining room.  The large fan, extending from the ceiling, is known as a punkah.  While the picture is somewhat dark, if you look in the left hand side, you can see a rope draping down towards the wall.  The guide said that 2 children would stand on each side of the room and pull the rope throughout the meal.  If it was too fast, the candles would blow out and too slow, it would not help with the heat.  Interestingly, the guide said there is a woman in New Orleans, age 80, who did this when she was a young child in the evenings.

I walked into St Mary's Cathedral which is the only Cathedral in Mississippi.  Beautiful blue color inside.  This building has been in existence since 1843.

Outside of downtown Natchez  is an area called "Forks of the Road".  The area was where the slave trade was conducted from 1830-1863.  Many slaves were sold from the East Coast.  The main slave trader in this area was from Alexandria, Virginia.  This is the only item which makes a statement at the Forks of the Road marker.  As an aside, Natchez is the site of the most deaths from a tornado unofficially.  This happened in 1840 when the slaves were recorded as property not people therefore; Natchez officially is the 2nd deadliest tornado in US history.

The Natchez Parkway is a trail that goes from Natchez to Nashville.  While we did not get on the Parkway due to time issues, we did see where it starts.  It ends in Nashville as this commemorative stone mentions.

Danny and me took a selfie on the banks of the Mississippi River in Natchez after lunch at The Camp.

Marian, Alabama

The last place to visit was Marian, Alabama.  I had read about a guy named Scott Peacock who was a chef in Atlanta and he bought a house in Marian, Alabama.  Lauded as a great chef, he also lived with Edna Lewis, a famous chef, in her last years in Atlanta.  He uses a house named "Reverie" mansion to talk about the history of Alabama and making biscuits.  It called "The Biscuit Experience".   Danny got dragged along and admitted he enjoyed it too!  You can see my autographed book with the chef and the final product with sugar raspberry sauce and we had another with Edwards ham.  Scott said it is the only ham to eat and I would AGREE!  I took a number of pictures of the house in and out.  A man named Hunter Lewis, an economist who lives in Charlottesville, Virginia owns the house.  It was used as a HQ for the Union officers at the end of the Civil War.  

                             

                                     

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Scott explained the importance of biscuits in Southern culture.  Flour was expensive and was a status symbol in the south.  For most Southerners, biscuits were made for special occasions; otherwise, it was cornbread as corn was plentiful.  Scott discussed the types of flour for baking that are attempting to be brought back that were available from the 1600's in Virginia.  Some examples he mentioned were white lammas, reedman lammas, and purple straw wheat see flour.  He had many stories about the town of Marian which were fascinating as well as more Alabama history.

The fascinating history of Marian, Alabama includes:

• Nicola Marshall, an artist, who developed both the flag and the Confederate uniform was from Marian.  The uniform was actually sewn here.

• Several houses down from Reverie, Nathan Bedford Forrest hid on horseback in a ravine.

• The 1st Congregational Church built by 16 freed slaves after the Civil War in 18 weeks had as members, Coretta Scott (King) and Jean Childs Young, wife of Andrew Young.

• James Childs bought his freedom in the 1880's returned to Marian after learning to bake in New York City.  He opened a successful bakery for both blacks and whites.  This was Jean Childs grandfather.

• When Andrew Young was the UN ambassador for the United States and Chinese relationships were not great, the Chinese asked where they could find good Southern food.  Jean Young called her mother in Marian who loaded her car with food.  In New York City, both Jean Young and her mother cooked for 2 days to present a dinner to the Chinese delegation.

Originally, we had planned to stay in Natchez one night before heading back but on our way out to Vicksburg, we stopped off the Interstate at Meridian, Mississippi.  It was a quaint town with an art deco hotel that had been redone and gorgeous.  We decided to drive and stay there instead.  Straight across the street was a "famous" Alabama restaurant in business since 1870 called Weidmann's.  It was excellent.  We left Meridian on a Sunday morning and met many people who had been to Ole Miss football game the day before.  They mentioned it was better to stay here and drive because of the cost of rooms if you could find them in or near Oxford.  Most were from the Florida and Alabama panhandle so it certainly was closer to home on Sunday.

                                       

We will make our way down the rest of the TomBigbee River to Mobile Bay. While there, Danny wants to have some maintenance done at Dog River Marina to the engines on the west side of the Bay. Then we will travel over to the east side of the bay to stay a few days in Fairhope, Alabama before we travel to the Florida panhandle.  Once at Mobile Bay, we will have completed Segment 1 of the Great Loop.