Miller Civil War Tours

25/04/2022

BURN THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI !

In the Summer of 1864, Union General A. J. Smith was the third Union General tasked with catching Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Forrest, from January of 1864 to August, used Oxford as a base of operations. He was in and out of the town a good bit. In early August, Smith left Memphis on his way to Grand Junction, Tennessee, to then turn South on the Mississippi Central Rail Road, to go catch Forrest in Oxford. Forrest was way ahead of him. Forrest left Confederate General James R. Chalmers with about 2000 men North of Oxford on the Little Tallahatchie River to make A. J. Smith think he was in Oxford. Meanwhile Forrest went straight west to Batesville with 2000 Cavalry, and there he turned North and he raided Smith's base at Memphis.

Don't miss the irony, and hilarity, of what you just read! Smith leaves Memphis to catch Forrest at Oxford, Forrest gives him the slip, and Forrest raids Smith's base at Memphis! "The Wizard of the Saddle" strikes again.

Smith gets to Oxford on August 22, and that afternoon, a rider comes up to him, sitting on his horse on the North side of the courthouse, and tells him that Forrest was in Memphis the night before. Out of pure anger, and for no military purpose, Smith orders the Oxford Courthouse, all Square businesses, and several houses burned. He also orders the University of Mississippi burned!

Smith sent two young Cavalry Captains out to burn the University. They got out there and found only "literary material and scientific apparatus". They were also begged by two Professor/Caretakers not to burn the University. Finally they decided, "not to carry out such a vandal order". The University was saved by the guts and integrity of two Union Captains. That night, in the Union camp, Smith was very angry when he found out his order to burn the University had not been carried out. He said, saddle up your horses now! If we have to ride through Forrest's whole command tonight, we are going back and burn that University. After about 10 minutes of yelling and running around, he calmed down, and countered the order, and it was never mentioned again.

The University was able to restart in the Fall of 1865. It was never more needed than it was that year, for the returning Veterans to get their lives back on track. ONE University Grey DID return for Law School, Captain Frank Pope. The Lyceum, the Old Chapel, and the Old Observatory still stand today.

My friend Donald Hughes Sides found one of the two Union Captains reminiscences that told most of this story, as told here. Thanks Don. This is a GREAT contribution to Ole Miss history.

24/04/2022

BILOXI, MS, April 24, 2018– Mrs. Jane Sullivan has completed her book a biography of the Veterans, Wife’s and Widows that are interred in the Beauvoir Memorial Cemetery. Mrs. Sullivan will be at Beauvoir, located at 2244 Beach Blvd. Biloxi for a book signing on Friday April 27, and Saturday April 28, 2018. 9:00am till 1:00pm both days.

“Stories On Stone: Beauvoir Memorial Cemetery”

Mrs. Sullivan has worked on the book for several years; she has collected information through personal contact of the Veterans, Wife’s and Widow’s family members, genealogy, and census records. We are very excited about her book as it mini biography of every person in the cemetery. If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Kitsaa Stevens at (228) 388-4400 or [email protected].

24/04/2022

SITTIN' UP WITH THE DEAD

This is what I do most every night. I sit up with the dead. I chase dead Confederates. I want to "find" them all, and I try to understand them. I sit here in my quiet, dark, home office, some nights with the computer on. Some nights I am reading a book, other nights I am digging through 8 different books, or five files of photo copied material. Some nights everything is spread all over the place, computer on, stacks of books all over my desk, files all over the floor.

I write their stories because I have to. I find the most amazing, saddest, most ironic, funniest, and most pathetic stories I have ever seen, and I have to tell someone about them:

Jeremiah Gage's sad death at Gettysburg.
Seventeen year old Captain William B. Lowry of the Greys.
Lewis Fant being up on crutches and falling on the pavement at Richmond, and dying of a ruptured blood vessel in his stump.
109 UM students and alumni at Shiloh.
The fact that 99% of the UM student body of 1860-'61 served in the Confederacy.
Oxford's St. Peter's cemetery.
UM graduate Burton N. Harrison who was Jefferson Davis' personal secretary.
The sad 1866 UM graduation for the 1861 Seniors.
The four 16 year olds in the Greys.
The sad death letter of James R. Montgomery.
UM graduate R. E. Wilbourn who got a tourniquet on Stonewall Jackson after he had been wounded at Chancellorsville, to give Jackson a chance to survive.
All the pre War UM student pranks.
The UM Hospital and it's dead, buried behind Tad Smith Coliseum.
Beautiful little College Church and Cemetery.
All the things that have happened on the Oxford Square, and it's burning in 1864.
The DEAD House on campus, used as a morgue at UM.
All the Confederate monuments and the women who erected them Nathan Bedford Forrest on the Oxford Square and out at the University.
The 432 Lafayette County boys who died in the War.
The University Greys in Pickett's Charge.
The 5 Taylor boys, from Taylor, Mississippi, in the University Greys. 82% of the College Hill boys killed or wounded in the War.
William Faulkner's connections to the Greys
And about a thousand other people, places, and happenings.

I know there are others spread across Mississippi and America, who do pretty much the same thing, and many of them have become my friends:
Grady Howell, Donald Hughes Sides, Donald Harrison, Steve Stubbs, Gregory T. Williams, Brandon Beck, Melvin McClure, Larry McCluney Jr, Bill R. Hinson, Bridgit Smith, Randy Bishop, Scott Bell, Cliff Valentine, Michael C. Hardy, Bobby Mitchell, and many others I am sure I am forgetting. I just wanted you to know I am not the ONLY crazy one! :-)

Here I am sittin' up with the dead again tonight. I should have a good story for you all tomorrow. I will go back to those boys, and not bore you with stories about myself. I have never been shot at by yankees, marched 20 miles, starved, frozen, burned up, been wounded, seen my friends maimed, been extremely dehydrated, won or lost a Battle, like my boys.

The picture is of the candle lighting for the Sharpsburg casualties that they put on every December. Sharpsburg had 3 University Greys killed, and 16 wounded out, of 20 present.

20/04/2022

A PAIR of REAL OLE MISS ROMEOS

In the Spring of 1861, Jeremiah Gage (left) and Henderson Jacoway (right) were Seniors in the University of Mississippi Law School. There was a War on the way, but they had much more important things on their minds. :-) Jeremiah Gage was engaged to "Miss Mary" Wendel, but he was not married to her yet!

Their neighbor across the hall, another UM Law School student, wrote this about Gage and Jacoway:

"This evening, March 29 (1861), Gage and Jacoway go to Holly Springs (on the train), and they will see Janice Edwards, who is the Belle of the place. Gage is in love with Ida E., and if she is heiress to a fortune, he will try very hard to marry her. Jacoway is too fond of Ladies socially to ever marry, and I expect he will live on in single blessedness until the fancies of his youth will fade into the substantial shadows of age, and he'll forget all his early flames."

Human nature does not change, and some Ole Miss boys will always be, Ole Miss boys! :-)

Gage was killed at Gettysburg in 1863, as a University Grey. Jacoway's father died in Memphis of an illness in 1862, while he was on his way to see his son in Virginia, who was of course a member of the University Greys. Jacoway survived the War to become a Lawyer in Colorado.

18/04/2022

"Old Times There Are Not Forgotten"

I remember more football games there, than I can count. Those game days were filled with family and friends.
I fondly remember my student days.
I remember the beautiful Fall and Spring afternoons, on all my research trips.
I remember, and love, "Doc" Sansing, as I affectionately called him.
I remember my friend, General/Doctor, Jim Cook.
I remember the Trustees, and Professors, who started the University, and who poured their lives into this University.
I remember the pre Civil War students.
I remember, and love, most of all, the University Greys.
I remember University Grey Jeremiah Gage, 1860 graduate, 1861 Law School graduate, his fiance, "Miss Mary" Wendel, and his sad death at Gettysburg.
I remember that the Greys won for themselves, "Imperishable Glory" at Gettysburg, with 100% casualties in Pickett's Charge.
I remember a hospital in every University building, before, and after Shiloh.
I remember those boys in the University Hospital Cemetery, out behind Tad Smith Coliseum.
I remember the yankees and Confederates who camped on campus, including Nathan Bedford Forrest and his men.
I remember the guts and integrity of two Union Captains, who were ordered to burn the University in 1864. They "refused to carry out such a vandal order".
I remember every University Grey who did not come home, 50 out of 150.
I remember the Trustees, and Professors, who restarted the University after the Civil War, and who poured their lives into this University.
I remember the post War students, only one of whom was a University Grey.
I remember, and love, the UM and local Ladies, who spear headed the monuments to the Greys, other University students, the University Hospital dead, and Lafayette County men who died in the War.
I remember an 1897 graduate, Professor's wife, local Historian, and author of, The University Greys, Maude Morrow Brown.
I remember another UM student, Miss Elma Meek, who in 1897, gave us our beloved name of Ole Miss.
I remember beloved Chancellor Alfred Hume, who courageously saved the University from Bilbo.
I remember a UM student named Faulkner, who wrote about, "his little postage stamp of soil", and about the University Greys.
I remember Blind Jim, who "never saw Ole Miss lose a game".
I remember a Texan, named Johnny Vaught.
I remember a red haired kid, from Drew, Mississippi.
I remember, a small Southern State University, "Ole Miss: Where everybody speaks".
I remember the Chi O's and their walk on Highway 6. :-(
I remember the love the University community had for a poor kid from Alabama, named Chucky Mullins. "Never Quit!"
I remember Dixie, the Battle Flag, and Colonel Rebel.
I remember ALL the traditions stolen from the students and Alumni.
I remember, and experience every day, as the proudly unofficial Historian of Ole Miss, the love of so many Alumni. I deeply thank you all. I am the most fortunate Ole Miss REBEL, in existence.
Last but not least, I remember that monument in this picture.

Old times there are not forgotten!

15/04/2022

This is reposted for Lane Noel Meeks. I want you to understand where you stand, and the price those Mississippians paid to advance "ALL THE WAY" in Pickett's Charge, to Bryan Barn. I cried the first time I stood there.

14/04/2022

SHILOH TOUR THIS SATURDAY

Short Notice: I have 2 spots that have come open for my Shiloh tour, this Saturday, April 16. We start at 9 AM in the Shiloh visitors parking lot, we go to about 4:30. Lunch, not included is at Hagy's Catfish Hotel, on the River, next to the Park. That is very nearly worth the trip! Cost is $75 per person.

I do what no one else in the world does. We follow one University's students and alumni through one Battle. I cover many of the 109 Ole Miss students and alumni in 34 Southern Regiments at Shiloh. They are all over that field, so this tour is also a good general tour of that Battle.

Everybody ought to go to Shiloh once. If you are an Ole Miss REBEL, you really need to go on this tour to understand Ole Miss history. I will not live forever. Catch me while I am up and going! :-) Nobody else in the world knows this information. It only took me 32 years to find it all. Email me if you are interested. Thanks! [email protected]

13/04/2022

This is reposted for Lane Noel Meeks, who has a Gettysburg trip coming up. EVERY Ole Miss Alumni should know this story!

OLE MISS, and a YOUNG MISS

Jeremiah Gage was an 1860 University of Mississippi graduate. He then went to UM Law School in the 1860-1861 school year. Sometime, there at the University, he met, courted, and fell in love with Miss Mary Wendel. Gage's Father had died in 1860, right before his graduation. Mary's Mother had died in 1860 also. I am sure that drew them closer together.

In the Spring of 1861, when the Civil War came, Jeremiah Gage joined the University Greys. He fought at First Manassas, at Seven Pines, and then he was wounded in the hip at Gaines Mill, in the Summer of 1862. He came home to Pickens, in Holmes County, Mississippi, on wounded furlough. During that furlough he came to Oxford to see Mary. He asked her to marry him, but she told him they should wait until the War was over.

Gage rejoined the Greys in the late Fall of 1862. In the Summer of 1863 he marched North with them towards what we now know would be the battle of Gettysburg. The family story is that he limped to whole way North, due to his old hip wound. He often had to fall out during the day and catch up at night. He would not let his friends go get into a major fight without him.

The 11th Mississippi and the Greys were put into line to make Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg, on the third day of that battle. Before the Charge, Confederate General R. E. Lee ordered a cannonade of the Union line. The union gunners replied with every gun they had. Gage was hit by the Union cannon fire and he was taken back to a field aid station. His left arm was hanging on by some muscle, and his left side was torn open.

There was nothing the Doctor at the aid station could do for Gage. Before the Doctor put Gage out of his misery with some black drop, morphine mixed with alcohol. He asked Gage if he had any message to leave. Gage asked for pen and paper, and with his good arm he wrote:

My Dear Mother,
This is the last you may ever hear from me. I have time to tell you that I died like a man. Bear my loss as best you can. Remember that I am true to my country and my greatest regret at dying is that she is not free and that you and my sisters are robbed of my worth, whatever that may be. I hope that this will reach you, and you must not regret that my body cannot be obtained, it is a mere matter of form anyhow. This is for my sisters too, as I cannot write more. Send my dying release to Miss Mary...you know who.

J. S. Gage Co. A, 11th Miss.

P.S. This letter is stained with my blood.

Gage finished the letter, pressed it to the wound in his side, and gave it to a Doctor he knew, to get it to his mother for him.

The Greys went on into the Charge and they were all killed or wounded.

Mary heard about the letter, and sitting at home in Oxford in September of 1863, (the house pictured here) she wrote to Jeremiah Gage's oldest sister. Mary wrote in part:

"you can grieve for him as a brother, but although my whole life was mapped on his love - the cold etiquette of society will not allow me to mourn for him as my betrothed. Yet you may just assume that his image will never be supplanted in my heart."..."And will you not send me a copy of the letter Jere wrote to your mother just before he died. I hear that my name is mentioned. Although we have never met, our love for Jere, and our grief at his death has made me love you as a sister, will you not love me? You can have no idea of the dissolutions I feel, no mother upon whose sympathizing breast I can lean and pour out my sorrow. And all dark is the future."

Mary Wendel married Marshall Hairston, in late 1865 after the War. Marshall had served in the 15th Mississippi. They had one daughter. I have tracked down the descendants. Mary is buried in Odd Fellows Cemetery in Grenada. I go by to see her every chance I get. I tell her she is not forgotten. A rubbing of her tombstone is currently on the wall to my left. I guarantee she thought about Jeremiah Gage to the day she died.

I believe Gage's body got removed from Gettysburg in the Summer of 1871, '72. or '73, along with about 3000 other Confederates from Gettysburg. They are buried back in Southern soil at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond. Those Richmond Ladies could not stand to have those boys buried in Northern soil, so they had them removed. God Bless them!

Gages letter, and Miss Mary's are in the Ole Miss Archives. I have found the barn, on private property at Gettysburg, where Gage wrote the letter, and where he died. I have held that letter in my hands. I have met the Gage family descendants. A brick from his family home in Pickens sits on my desk. This story haunts me everyday.

Miss Mary's home today is right off the Oxford Square. Today it is Jones at Home, furnishings. That is Jim Hendrix photo.

I do not understand those who are ashamed of the University Greys.

Good Lord, what else is left to say about this?

13/04/2022

THE SUPERIOR MARKSMANSHIP OF THE 11TH MISSISSIPPI and a FEW OTHER ANECDOTES

Colonel Pender, of the 6th North Carolina, complained in early 1861 that the 11th Mississippi had shot a hog within the lines, against orders. General Whiting asked the North Carolina Colonel what evidence he had of this. Colonel Pender replied that he had heard a gunshot, and then the squeal of a hog. General Whiting said, " I am satisfied that you are mistaken Colonel. When an 11th Mississippian shoots a hog, it don't squeal!". :-)

A member of Company K, Judge William Hemingway (there is a stadium named after him), used to say this about the University Greys after the War, "they were impulsive and undisciplined: nobody in the Army ever knew what they were doing, or where they were, except in battle. Then they were fighting, and in the front!".

Another member of the 11th said this about the Regiment, "No more disorderly mob of men ever got together to make am Army!".

And finally, General Whiting used to cuss whenever he spoke of the 11th, but he always concluded his remarks with: "Damn 'em! I wouldn't go into battle without 'em".

Hotty Toddy!

13/04/2022

A UNIVERSITY GREY TRADES WITH THE ENEMY

In early 1863, the 11th Mississippi, and Company A, the University Greys, were part of a Confederate force surrounding Suffolk, Virginia, Southeast of Richmond. The Union had maintained control of the town. Robert E Lee needed every pig and stalk of corn down in that area, to feed the Army of Northern Virginia, and to feed a much, war time, swollen Richmond. Confederate forces contained the yankees in the town, while the Confederate Commissary Department scoured Southeast Virginia.

The University Greys were sent out on picket duty one day, nearest the town. One of the Greys that day called out, "Yank", to get attention. Then both sides, by yelling at each other agreed there would be no firing that day. Before long, Jeremiah Gage of the Greys held up a newspaper. That was a sign for a trade of newspapers, and anything else. Gage cautiously walked out, and when he was not fired on, several others of the Greys walked along behind him. Soon they met a crowd of yankees, and the swapping of papers, buttons, Southern to***co and yankee coffee began. A game of poker was even proposed!

The boys were greatly enjoying themselves until a yankee officer came running down saying, "What does all this mean?". He threatened the Confederates with artillery fire, if they did not leave. Another yank officer told the Confederates, "not to pay any attention to that damn fool". And the two sides shook hands, and parted peacefully. The 11th was pulled out of the line that night, probably because of that impromptu "truce".

Jeremiah Gage of the Greys wrote a letter home a few weeks later telling that, two men of the Greys had been wounded while on picket duty. He wrote that he wished he had gotten the wound that one of them had gotten, a minor flesh wound. That would have gotten Gage a furlough. Gage went on to write that the other man had his jaw shot off.

Jeremiah Gage was mortally wounded at Gettysburg.

The source for this story of the "truce" is Confederate Veteran, volume 19, page 225.

12/04/2022

NEVER QUIT

(the first two parts of this are from Confederate Veteran, volume 33, page 10)

After the loss at Gettysburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee was worried about the spirit of his troops. He asked some of his commanders to try to feel the men out.

General Lafayette McLaws visited Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade. He asked the boys how they were doing, and then he remarked that there were a lot of yankees still close by, and they might come to "visit" sometime. The general asked the boys what they would do if that happened. He wanted to know if his boys still had the spirit to fight. One of his men told the General that if the yankees came to "visit" that they would "just make the ground blue with 'em, just manure this man's land with 'em!". General McLaws asked them all if he could rely on that answer? He was told, "You can just bet your life on that General.", "We'll receive 'em in good style". McLaws replied, "Good night boys, I am satisfied". I am sure he gave Lee those good words. :-)

When the 11th Mississippi crossed the Potomoc, after the defeat at Gettysburg, 18 year old Gabe Smithers from Oxford, a Lamar Rifle, Company G of the 11th Mississippi, looked at the 11th Mississippi Band leader, as he climbed up out of the water. He loudly said to the band leader, "Stewart, by blood, play Dixie!". As those notes hit the air, the men in, and on both sides of the River, let loose with Rebel Yells! They had lost a Battle, but they were not beaten. They were ready to fight again another day.

Lastly, I found a letter written by a University Grey, in the Archives of the University of North Carolina. He had been wounded in late 1864, and he had healed up and was now returning to what was left of the Greys, (probably about 6 of them) and the 11th Mississippi. He wrote a letter home to his mom from the trenches below Petersburg, about 45 days before the Army of Northern Virginia would be totally broken, and have to surrender on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox. That University Grey in his letter home was talking about the War going on for another year or two! He was giving his mom advice on how to get through another year or two of War. He said he was ready to keep fighting. There was NO quit in him. That letter amazed me. What a Spirit.

NEVER QUIT!

11/04/2022

Here is what happened to the dead University Greys, from Gettysburg. God Bless Rufus Weaver!

For three hot summers, Rufus Weaver toiled to retrieve remains from battlefield graves. His efforts to get paid for proved to be nearly as difficult.

08/04/2022

"Shiloh, Place of Peace, Piece of Hell: 'Likenesses' of the Battles of Shiloh and Corinth" (Limited Edition) First Edition Hardcover with Dust Jacket; Illustrated (Color & B&W).,160 pp. Will autograph on request. $60.00 (plus s/h).
Order by email: [email protected]

08/04/2022

A History of the "Bloody Sixth" Mississippi Infantry- C.S.A.

"I want you to know that I am glad for the attention you have given Mississippi troops in the Civil War-Especially the 6th Miss. which has ever held a special place in my heart."
-Shelby Foote

$ 30.00 if purchased in person or $ 34.00 mailed.
Order by email: [email protected]

05/04/2022

SHAME

I was out at the University of Mississippi Campus Confederate University Hospital Cemetery out behind Tad Smith Coliseum on Sunday. If you have ever been there, you know people leave flowers in vases, whiskey bottles (like on Faulkner's grave), and other small mementos.

This is the mess I found on Sunday. Someone had broken everything they could and scattered it to some extent.

This is a Cemetery holding about 390 Confederate Soldiers, who died from sickness and wounds, from Shiloh, second Corinth, a few from prison camp after Fort Donelson, and sick Soldiers from North Mississippi in 1862. It also includes Forrest's men from 1864, and other Soldiers from 1863, and 1864. Last but not least, it includes one University Grey who had his leg amputated in Virginia, who died after he came home, as well as one University alumni who had his jaw shot off at Shiloh, who was put on the train to his University Hospital, who it took 10 days for him to die here.

About one third of those men buried there were either drafted, or driven into service by the announced April 1862 draft. They did not want to be there, but they went and did their duty. Kind of like a bunch of Vietnam Vets I have known.

My first thought was to clean it up, but I got a picture made of it, and I decided to leave it as I found it.

Take a good long look at it. Put it on the cover of the Ole Miss annual, and the Alumni Review. Put it in Ole Miss prospective student literature. Put it on the cover of the Oxford Eagle and the Clarion Ledger. Put it on the gates of the University.

SHAME.

02/04/2022

Shiloh, Place of Peace, Piece of Hell: Likenesses of the Battles of Shiloh and Corinth

02/04/2022

Here is another one of my old stories, about rose bushes, for the Oxford Garden Club, and for Brandall Laughlin.

THE HOWRY HOUSE on UNIVERSITY in OXFORD

This is the James M. Howry House in Oxford, Mississippi, on University Avenue. Howry was an Attorney in Oxford, and he was one of the original Trustees of the University of Mississippi, and he was also the Treasurer for the Board. The story is told that Howry rode his horse from Jackson. Mississippi, in 1846, with a sack full of gold coins to pay the contractor for beginning to build the first University buildings. It was written that he put the coins in an old dirty sack, and he muffled them with rags. When he stayed in boarding houses on that journey, he just threw the sack in a corner like there was nothing valuable in it.

Howry built this house in 1858. As was the custom for many small town Doctors and Lawyers in America at the time, he built his Law office in the front yard. It is still there on the left.

When the Civil War came, his two oldest sons joined Confederate Companies. One joined the Lamar Rifles, Company G of the 11th Mississippi Infantry. He fought in all their battles and was never wounded. The other joined the 29th Mississippi Infantry and he was wounded twice, and he survived the War.

In December of 1862, when Union General Grant was on his way towards Oxford with 80,000 men, Howry was holding the University gold and he did not know where to hide it. He told his wife he was going to bury it in the crawl space under the house. She told him that was the first place the yankees would look, so he asked her where he should hide it. She thought for a while, and then she gave him THE plan. She had the servants dig up her rose bushes behind the house, and there they buried the University gold, as well as their family gold coin, and their silver ware and serving pieces. They went into the woods behind the house, and gathered light colored top soil and leaves to camouflage the recent digging. When the yankees came to town, and they saw in University catalogs that he was THE Treasurer, they went straight to his house. First they looked all under the house. (his wife was right) Then they thoroughly searched the house. Then they dug up most of the front yard, and much of the back yard. They never even looked at the thorny rose bushes. The University had money to restart in the Fall of 1865 largely due to Howry's wife's good sense.

Also in late December of 1862, a Confederate Cavalrymen, not knowing a few yankees were still in town, came looking for breakfast at the Howry house. Two Union men had knocked on the door earlier that morning demanding breakfast. They left their single shot muskets in the entrance hall and the sat down in the front dining room. The Confederate Cavalryman rode up to the front of the house and he hitched his horse to the front gate, and he walked towards the front door to ask for breakfast. The two Union men saw him out the window, and they ran into the front hall and grabbed their muskets, and they threw the front door open. The Cavalryman saw them and he started ducking, dodging, and running. Both yankees fired, and they both missed him. The Cavalryman had a revolver with 6 shots, so now the tables were turned. He fired at the two yankees who now had empty muskets. The Cavalryman hit and wounded one, the other fled into the house, and out the backdoor to raise the alarm. The Cavalryman got on his horse and "got out of town".

The family dragged the wounded yankee into the Law office for some reason, and sent to the Square for a Union Surgeon. They feared retaliation, but were spared.

You cannot swing a dead cat in Oxford without hitting some Civil War history!

01/04/2022

Here is something I just found, the types and locations of all the trees in The Grove, and The Circle. I bet you Ladies are way ahead of me on this! This enlargeable map is of course at, Ole Miss Landscape Services. CLICK on the picture here, and it will enlarge and be readable.

01/04/2022

The Colonel says good mornin' to y'all!

31/03/2022

Here is a great tool for Shiloh research!

29/03/2022

IF YOU ARE GOING TO SHILOH THIS APRIL FOR THE 160TH ANNIVERSARY

You get out of a Battlefield visit what you put into it. If you do nothing before your visit, then go watch the Park film, visit the museum, and take their driving tour, you will have a nice day in a historic, manicured Park.

If you will read a book, and/or watch a video, about the Battle before you go, you will get much more out of the Battlefield.

If you will read several books and watch several videos, you will get a great deal more out of your visit.

At the bare minimum, I suggest gong onto Youtube, and watching the Park documentary, Shiloh Fiery Trial. (It is incorrectly labeled Shiloh: Fiery Trail) It takes about 50 minutes to watch. It is well worth it. It will give you a good basic understanding of the Battle. For you old timers, for fun, the old 1956 Park film, Shiloh: Portrait of a Battle is on Youtube also. That film is like seeing and hearing an old friend to many of us.

I also strongly suggest watching the two hour video, here, with Stacy Allen, Shiloh Historian, showing Shiloh to C-Span 3. It is the best film I have ever seen run on the Battle. C-Span 3 also has two other excellent shows shot on the 150th anniversary of the Battle. One is a round table of Shiloh authors, and the other is Mr. Allen showing what is in their museum and Archives. Go search, "Stacy Allen Shiloh" on C-Span 3.

If you want to see more, I strongly suggest watching any of the American Battlefield Trust videos on Shiloh, on Youtube. And if you are "crazy and obsessed" like a few of us, go watch all the Tim Smith Shiloh hikes you can find on Youtube!

Finally, if you can read, go find, Shiloh: In Hell Before Night, by Mcdonough. It is a good general history of the Battle. It runs about 225 pages, so you can read it in a few days. Get it new from Amazon for about $25, or used from ABE Books online for as little as $5. Just be sure to check the condition. Those condition reports are true, from my experience. I have bought nearly too many books from ABE Books! But then, you can't have too many books. :-)

CLICK on the picture below to watch an EXCELLENT video on Shiloh. Don't forget the popcorn!

The Civil War Battle of Shiloh took place April 6 and 7, 1862, in Hardin County, Tennessee, and resulted in a Union victory over Confederate forces attempting to defend two major western railroads servicing the strategically important Mississippi Valley region. Nearly 110,000 troops took part in the...