Natchez, Part 4

Sunday, September 22nd

Today was church in the morning.  We attended Trinity Episcopal Church on Commerce Street.  This is the oldest church in Natchez.  Four of the stained glass windows are not only original Tiffany windows, they were also installed by Mr. Tiffany himself.  Pictures of the windows can be seen here.

From there we drove out to the Natchez Trace Parkway.
 

 Various parts of the original Trace are still visible along the Parkway.  The Trace was originally a series of trails used by local Native Americas, then became a trail north for people who had brought goods down the river to sell and were traveling home.

 Emerald Mound, the second largest Indian Mound in the United States.  The largest is found at the dig at Cahokia, across the Mississippi from St. Louis.

 The bluff on the left side of the photo contains soil that was deposited during the Ice Age, but has become eroded due to wind and rain.  This causes parts of the Trace to become sunken.

 
Mount Locust, an inn along the Trace.  It's located about 15 miles from Natchez, and housed travelers using the Trace to go north.

One of the rooms at Locust Point, complete with a set of child's dolls and a hat.

Implements and shoes/boots that would have been used in the 1800s by people staying at Locust Point.

Natchez, Part 3

September 21, 2014

We finished with the plantation early enough that we had time to return to Natchez and visit the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians.  Website is here.

This is a small park with a museum, three earth mounds and a replica of the Indians' homes.  Like many tribes along the Mississippi, the Natchez built mounds.  Often they built homes or temples on the mounds, although some mounds were used for burials. 

Archaeologists have excavated two of the three mounds here; the third one apparently wasn't used much by the locals, as it kept washing away.  It's been left for future excavations.

This is the larger of the two remaining mounds, and was used as the base for a temple, as well as burial.  French traders recorded two funerals in this village.  Both were for chiefs, or "Great Suns", and both involved human sacrifice of the chief's family and some servants. The second mound held housing for the Great Sun and his family.

Inside the museum are displays of pottery, hunting implements, and a history of the area.  There is also a place hosting items visitors can touch, such as feathers, stones, and pieces of pottery.

The replica of a Natchez house.

Plaques around the area provide information on the culture and history of the Natchez.  All of it is on level ground, and walking is easy.  Most of the grounds can be covered in half an hour or so.

There is also a picnic area, which doubles as a spot for community groups and families to hold events.  While we were there, the local Humane Society was wrapping up an annual fundraiser, and later several families set up for a Frozen-themed birthday party.

Natchez, Part 2

Saturday, September 20th


We of course have a list of things to see and do.  We decided to start with the places farthest away, so this morning we visited the Frogmore Cotton Plantation in Frogmore, Louisiana.

Website here: when you first log on, people are singing about picking cotton.  The song stops after 30 seconds or so.

The plantation has several tours; we took the Old Fashioned vs. Modern Day tour, which basically walks you around the plantation while the guide explains the purpose of each building and various facets of life in the 1800s and 1900s.  Our guide could actually sing and everything.  We found out later that she had a college degree in music and also produced the videos we watched.

I have a video of some of the buildings on the grounds.  No singing, though.

Just a few general pictures of the insides of buildings:

 Above: the laundry building, where clothes are cleaned, pressed, and sometimes made.  Yes, that is a quilting frame.

 The overseer's house.  This sometimes belonged to a white hired hand, but often belonged to one of the slaves who kept the others in line.  The house boasted a breeze along the front and back porches, and better quality furniture.

 Sacks for the harvested cotton.  Sacks held about 70 pounds of cotton, and slaves frequently picked between 250 and 350 pounds a day.

 The 3-hole privy.  This time period was long before indoor plumbing....

 A typical bed for a slave.  Mattress was stuffed with moss.

Planting machines in the "modern" era.  The one in front is a John Deere.

Part of the tour was a video showing current cotton farming practices.  No more slaves, thank goodness.  Now the work is done mostly by machine, which bales up the cotton the same way other farmers bale hay.  The seeds are purchased each year from a company and planted; the seeds the cotton plants produce are made into various products, like Crisco.  (Which stands for CRystalized CottonSeed Oil.  Been using the stuff for years and had no idea.)

Another part of the tour was the opportunity to pick a boll of cotton ourselves.  Free souvenir!

Natchez, Part I

So, this year's get-away is Natchez, Mississippi.  My first real vacation in two years.  If you haven't heard an account of last year's Misery at the Library, consider yourself lucky.  I won't talk about that here.  I am, after all, on vacation.

Mom and I boarded Amtrak in Syracuse on Wednesday, September 17th.  As usual, the train ran late.  By the time we got up the next morning, it was FOUR HOURS late.  Some of the folks riding with us barely made their afternoon connections.  We thought we were going to have just enough time to grab lunch and board our train, but discovered at the station that the schedule had been changed, and we still had a five-hour layover.  (We are seriously considering taking a Chicago city tour on our return trip, as we will have a nearly 12-hour wait, assuming the train is on time.  Yeah, right.)

We were about 25 minutes late getting into Brookhaven, MS, where we had reserved a car.  The station master was a little put out at this; he expected us to be in by 12:30 or so.  The station is open twice a day: from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and from 3:30 to 4:40 p.m.  That's when the trains pull in traveling south and north, respectively.

We contact the Herz rental office, and a nice young man drove over and picked us up.  I then signed the rental papers, and we were given a larger car than we had asked for, since the car they wanted to give us wasn't ready.  (No complaints -- the car we have handles beautifully.)

We headed south to Natchez, and managed to find the Visitors' Center, which doubles as the National Parks office as well.  Bonus!  Picked up maps and brochures, got information on tours, and got directions to our hotel.  (For some reason, the GPS has no idea what hotel I'm talking about.)  Oh, and we found out why it was so difficult to get rooms this weekend -- there's a HOG convention in town.  HOG=Harley (Davidson) Owners Group.  Yup, motorcycles everywhere.  All weekend long.  Yee-haw.

Will post more when I start getting pictures uploaded.

Georgia, Part 6

Actual date,Sunday, December 9th.

Oh, wait, we DID get to visit Kennesaw Battlefield after all!

We finished up at the Harris house around 1:30 in the afternoon, and since the battlefield didn't seem that far away (about a 40-minute drive), we decided to add it to the itinerary.

Kennesaw is on the outskirts of Atlanta, and was  the first position used by the Confederate Army, led by General Joseph Johnson, to delay the advance of General William Sherman's Union Army.  The battle was fought from June 19th to July 2nd, 1864.

The battlefield has four areas; the Kennesaw Mountain artillery position, Pigeon Hill, Cheatham Hill, and Kolb's Farm.

A shuttle will take you to the top of the Kennesaw Mountain position, or you may walk the road.  There is also a steep hiking trail.  Naturally, we rode.  Above is a picture of the cannons and fortifications at the top of the mountain.  Confederate and Union troops traded cannon fire for nearly a week, but neither seemed very effective.

The next part of the battlefield was down the road at Pigeon Hill, but that site was a hike into the woods, and we were running out of daylight.  So we skipped ahead to Cheatham Hill.
















Cheatham Hill was the "bulge" in the Confederate lines, and became a focal point of the battle.  The Southern army erected barriers and dug trenches.  They also camouflaged a set of cannons, with gunners given the order not to fire until specifically told to do so.

There are two kinds of plaques on the battlefield: the "slate" markers, seen at right, and a "table" marker common to National Park sites.  The "slate" markers usually present a single person and his contribution to the battle.


Cheatham Hill saw the bloodiest fighting of the battle.  Union troops made several attacks and were repulsed each time.  Finally a Confederate colonel, William P. Martin, called a cease-fire and instructed troops on both sides to come and remove their fallen comrades.  The next day, Union commanders presented Martin with a set of pistols to thank him for his humanitarian act.

Several monuments stand in the park, commemorating various regiments who fought here.  At left is the Illinois Monument.

The cannons above represent the hidden cannons.  They remained silent for over a week before the order to fire was issued.  The battle actually raged around them.  When they did fire, however, they were shooting into the middle of Union troops, and proved to be very effective.

Kolb's Farm, pictured at left, was actually the opening scene of the Battle at Kennesaw.  Confederate cavalry repulsed Union troops.  Sherman wanted to bypass the area and proceed to Atlanta, but later decide that Confederate troops were spread so thin that an attack would cripple the Southern Army.


The farm house, pictured above, was eventually purchased by the National Park Service and restored to its 1860s appearance.  Now it houses offices, and is not open to the public.  If anyone wants to check out the NPS Kennesaw site, click here.

Georgia, Part 5

 Actual date: Sunday, December 9th

We had planned to visit the Kennesaw Battlefield, but opted instead to travel to The Wren's Nest, the home of author Joel Chandler Harris, best known for his Uncle Remus stories.

The site is named for the fact that birds used to (and apparently still do) build nests in the Harris' mailbox.

The house is pictured at right.  For once, we caught a break; December 9th is Harris' birthday, so the site is not only open on a day it's normally closed, but there is also no admission.



If we wanted, we could stay for storytelling sessions, but we were mostly interested in Harris' biography and a tour of the house.  At left is the harp player in the front parlor.  The schedule of events was posted as follows:

"Tours every hour, history every half hour, cider available throughout the day, harp playing intermittently, or whatever actually happens."

At right is the family room, with a round table decked with a wreath for Christmas.  If you have very good eyes, you can just make out the picture of Br'er Rabbit on the chair behind the table.  (If you don't have good eyes, join the club.  And ask to see our trip photos when/if we get home.  I have a much better version of this photo on my laptop.)



 For the official website, click here.

At left is the dining room.  Harris and his wife had nine children, six of whom survived to adulthood.






Below is the girls' room, where the daughters slept.  Like the rest of the house, this room is decorated for Christmas in the style of the 1870s.

Joel Chandler Harris and I shared a birthday together.  He would have been 167.  I turned 51.





By the way, lunch today was at the Q-Time Restaurant, which had a cafeteria-style service and seating.  Roast chicken, ribs, beef tips, and vegetables.  If you go home hungry, it's your own fault.  It's right down the street from the Wren's Nest.

Georgia, Part 4

Actual date, Sunday, December 9th

First order of business, go to church.  We attended Corpus Christi Roman Catholic Church in Stone Mountain.  Anyone who doesn't believe in "the browning of America" needs to go to mass here.  It's a regular United Nations.  Most folks are quite friendly, however.

This video is from the small garden display at the front of the church.