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Weather Report

     We had a chance to rest up from touring and make some plans for what to do with our remaining time here as Natchez ended up on the southern edge of the bad weather systems moving from the south up to the northeast this past week.  A couple of days of cold temperatures and freezing rain kept us off the roads and in the cottage.  The day after the ice storms it warmed up slowly and the melting began, making for a very interesting day of watching the ice drop slowly off the power lines and trees as the sun came out and slowly warmed things up.

Local History

     The Natchez Indians inhabited this area well before the first European settlers showed up.   A couple of fun facts about the Natchez Indians.  There were two classes in their society, the nobility and the commoners.  The commoners were called the "Stinkards".  Take that!  The second fun fact was that when the leader (the Sun) died, all the spouses (plural) and the servants of that Sun were sacrificed and buried with the deceased leader.  That would seem to create a serious incentive for the spouses and servants to do everything possible to encourage a long life for the leader.

Reconstruction of a dwelling at the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians

     The first chartered educational institution in the Mississippi Territory was Historic Jefferson College located near Natchez.  We visited the park in which it is located to learn more about its history and to hike the nature trail on the park grounds.

 

Vicksburg
     Today's excursion was to Vicksburg, about 60 miles to the north of Natchez.  A major event in the War Between the States was the surrender of Vicksburg by the Confederacy to the Union on July 4, 1863.  The Vicksburg National Military Park is the site where the two armies battled for control of the city.  The capture of Vicksburg allowed the Union army to gain control of the Mississippi and split the Confederacy in two.  We walked and drove all over the park following a guided auto tour.  Most importantly we learned the difference between a redan and a redoubt but not why that matters. 

     Monuments from all the states that sent soldiers to fight the battles commemorate the sacrifices of both sides to the effort.

battlefield terrain

Wisconsin Statue

Ohio Monument

Wisconsin Monument

Illinois Monument ( a smaller version of the Pantheon in Rome)

     A very interesting stop at the National Park was the Cairo Museum.  The Cairo was a Union gunboat sent as part of a small fleet to bombard Vicksburg during the seige.  It was the first warship of its kind to be sunk by a mine (a gunpowder loaded IED placed in the water and detonated by Confederate soldiers from the shore as the Cairo passed near it).  The Cairo sunk in minutes and about 90 years later it was salvaged from the silt at the bottom of the river.  What could be salvaged from the wreck is on display both outside (under the tent-like structure stands the remains of the warship itself) and inside the museum (all of the recovered artifacts used by the crew).

Old Courthouse building in downtown Vicksburg

A selfie (is it still a selfie if more than one person is shown?) from Valentine's Day lunch

Random Thoughts
 

     One stop on our visit to Nachez that wasn’t noted in an earlier posting was Stratton Chapel Gallery at the First Presbyterian Church.  The reason it wasn’t mentioned is that we don’t have any pictures from the inside of the gallery because photographs were not allowed.  There’s a certain irony in the “no camera” rule given that the collection itself is of historic photographs of people and scenes in and around the Natchez area.  There are more than 500 photographs displayed, representing the work of three photographers.  A doctor, Thomas H. Gandy, discovered in storage hundreds of glass and celluloid negatives from photos taken as early as the 1850’s.  He then developed a method for printing the pictures from these negatives and the pictures are displayed in this gallery and in other galleries around the country.  We spent a long time viewing the pictures and left with a much better understanding of what historical Natchez looked like.  web site with some of the pictures

     On a more personal note I’d like to mention our hosts, Carol and Braxton Hobdy.  Carol and Braxton own the cottage we are staying in for this month.  The cottage is located next door to their very lovely home on their property high up on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River.  For a few days recently we had a stretch of cool and cloudy days with substantial rainfall.  Then along came a great day with sunshine and warmer temperatures and we visited their home.  We sat on their sundrenched porch and got to know more about them, their family and history. Although the sunset over the river was beautiful in its golden glow on the water below, I was just a bit sad that it signaled the end of a very pleasant afternoon of company and conversation.

     I made a mistake in a earlier blog when I identified a flower on a tree in the city cemetery as a rose.  I'm sure everyone caught the fact that it wasn't a rose at all.  Sorry.