Got the wintertime blues? Visit a museum!!!

I don't know about y'all, but for me, January can be a big let down after the holidays. After weeks of holiday cheer, not to mention all the calories, friends, and family coming to visit, once Christmas and New Years are over, so is the excitement. All of a sudden, things get really quiet as they revert back to "normal."

My remedy is to get out of the house! And what better place to go than the museum? Go somewhere you haven't gone before, see the surrounding sights, and experience past lives ... it can be fascinating.

My son and I recently visited the Pink Palace Museum is Memphis. What an awesome place! The mansion was built by Clarence Saunders, the founder of Piggly Wiggly grocery stores, but he went bust after a legal dispute in the 1920's. The city of Memphis purchased the extravagant castle and turned it into a museum. Along with a natural history section, the Pink Palace also has a planetarium, a Memphis history section, an entire wing dedicated to a local citizen who hand-carved a moving mini circus out of wood and pulleys, and an IMAX theatre. If you're ever in Memphis, check it out!

Riverboats and the Civil War

It is a well-known fact that riverboats were essential to Southern commerce before and during the War Between the States. Southern states used rivers to transport cotton to the north, and one of the most heavily-used rivers was the Mississippi. Old Man River took his share, as there are still many riverboats sunken into the silt of the mighty, muddy Father of Waters.

The Union Army's primary objective in the Western Theatre was to secure the Mississippi, thus strangling the Confederacy's ability to trade and ship wares to various states below the Mason-Dixon Line. By the middle of 1863, the Yankees had accomplished this feat by capturing Vicksburg.

At the end of the war, riverboats were used extensively to transport released prisoners. One such boat, the Sultana, has virtually been lost to history, but her story is fascinating. Overloaded to around 2,400, with a maximum capacity allowance of only 376, the boat chugged her way up the Mississippi until it reached Memphis. A few hours later, as she made her way to Cairo, Illinois, carrying POW's from Andersonville and Catalpa prisons, she exploded. Only a few hundred survived. Known as the worst maritime disaster in North American history, all that remains are a few markers, one of which is located at Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis.

More on Nathan Bedford Forrest

Last Sunday, local SCV camp and UDC chapter members gathered together at Nathan Bedford Forrest Park in Memphis to celebrate the illustrious general's birthday. This celebration has been marked every year, sometimes with noted speakers such as Shelby Foote, Jeff Shaara, and last year, Bertram Hayes-Davis, Jefferson Davis' great grandson.

This year's speaker was Judge Melvin McClure, who enlightened the crowd with his topic about General Forrest's horses. The general had 29 horses shot out from under him, and is quoted as saying he was one horse ahead (meaning he killed 28 Yankees). The first battle where General Forrest lost his mounts (2) was at Dover, Tennessee in February 1863, and the last horse killed was at Selma, Alabama in April 1865. At the battle of Chattanooga, "Highlander" received a fatal wound to his carotid artery. General Forrest plugged the hole with his finger until after the battle, whereby the horse immediately died.

Judge McClure's most amusing story was that of "King Phillip," a white horse with a dark mane and tail. This spirited animal hated the sight of anything in blue, and reportedly snorted, bolted, and snapped his teeth in the air while charging toward the Federals. One soldier told the general, "Your negroes fight for you and your horses fight for you." After the war, General Forrest was riding in a wagon which was being pulled by King Phillip, who saw police officers in blue. To the general's chagrin, the horse immediately charged after them, embarrassing his master. Sadly, King Phillip died of colic later that year. He is represented as a statue, standing regally with his master atop, in Nathan Bedford Forrest Park, which is represented in the above photos.

Confederate Decoration Day

This afternoon an inspiring event took place in Memphis. A large group of historians, reenactors, and spectators gathered at the Soldiers’ Rest in historic Elmwood Cemetery, where they paid homage to their ancestors. Known as Confederate Decoration Day, the event was attended by over sixty people.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy sponsored the occasion. Following a welcome, greeting, and invocation by Tennessee division chapter members, the audience was asked to participate in saluting flags, including the American Flag, the Christian Flag, the Flag of Tennessee, and the Confederate Flag. A wreath presentation came next, followed by music performed by the 52nd Regimental Band, who entertain at many local Civil War events.

Donald Harrison, past Commander of the Robert E. Lee SCV camp in Shelby County, gave a wonderful speech discussing why Confederate soldiers fought, why they should not be considered traitors, and why we should honor them by not questioning their motives, as things were quite different 150 years ago, just as ideals will be very different 150 years from now. After a special presentation to a local author, the Children of the Confederacy decorated the Confederate Monument with a bouquet of red roses. Morton’s Battery and the 51st Tennessee Infantry Regiment gave a musket salute, firing off three rounds to the spectators’ enthrallment.

It is events like this that keep the memory of our ancestors alive. Without them, fallen heroes and departed veterans will be lost to history. Although the Civil War is becoming more distant with each passing year, it is still relevant, and extremely important that we pay homage, or it will be forgotten forever. This is what could become of our blessed veterans to future generations: WWI and WWII vets could become extinct to memory, as well as Korean, Vietnam, and more recent battle-scarred soldiers. It has happened with the Revolutionary War, and it is happening with the War Between the States, because assumptions and simplifications have been made about the war’s motives. Let us always pay honor, lest we forget.

Slave Haven

A fascinating relic from the War Between the States still exists in downtown Memphis. Known as Slave Haven, or the Burkle Estate, the small white clapboard house (built between 1849 and 1856) on 826 N. 2nd Street is believed to have been a way station of the Underground Railroad. The house was built by Jacob Burkle, a German immigrant, who also assisted slaves to their freedom by hiding them in a cellar until they could escape north through tunnels leading to the Mississippi River. Slaves then obtained passage on boats traveling up to the Ohio River.

There are four underground tunnels in Memphis that were major arteries of the Underground Railroad. The house is marked by two large magnolia trees that were a signal to slaves because of their evergreen leaves. The house is furnished with Victorian furniture, and one room displays quilts that were used by slaves as maps to their freedom. In 1978, the family revealed that the Burkle Estate had been part of Underground Railroad, and the house was opened as museum in 1997.

Haunted Jeff Davis

Keeping in the spirit of Halloween (for just one more week), I'd like to devote some attention to the late great (and only) president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis. As most of you know, the president had an illustrious career, but he also suffered great loss and personal tragedy. He was a West Point Graduate, served in the Mexican War, was elected Secretary of War under Franklin Pierce, and served as U.S. Senator of Mississippi. When the War Between the States broke out, he reluctantly gave up his Senate seat, and accepted the position of President of the Confederate States of America. Mr. Davis had premonitions about this acceptance, but surrendered the decision as being that of divine will.

Davis' first wife, Sarah, daughter of President Zachary Taylor, died shortly after their secret marriage took place.Ten years later, he married Varina Howell, who was half his age. Despite his ill health, brought on by malaria he had contracted and that had killed his first wife, Davis held his position with great esteem. But soon, another tragedy befell him, as his son, Joe, fell from the second story balcony to his death at the White House of the Confederacy in Richmond. (Davis subsequently had the balcony removed from the house and destroyed.)

Upon the fall of Richmond, the Davis family was forced to evacuate, and traveled into Georgia to escape persecution. However, it wasn't long before President Davis was captured. He was held prisoner at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, where he suffered much humiliation and degradation, confined by leg irons in solitary confinement for the first four months. His incarceration lasted two years. Upon his release, he and Varina went up to Canada and traveled to Europe. After several years, Jefferson Davis returned, and lived in Memphis. He served as president of Carolina Life Insurance Company, and lost another son in the yellow fever epidemic of 1878. He retired to Beauvoir in Biloxi, where he wrote his memoirs. Davis died in 1878 in New Orleans, and his funeral was the biggest event ever witnessed in the South. Varina had his remains moved to Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond. However, his spirit supposedly isn't at rest with his body.

Strange things have reportedly happened at Ft. Monroe. Civil War soldiers, as well as President Lincoln, are said to haunt the place, and the sounds of phantom boots clunking have been heard, as well as phantom skirts rustling, and laughter echoing within the ancient walls. The apparitions of President Davis and Varina have also been witnessed near the room that confined him while he was imprisoned there. His spirit has been seen in the form of eerie mist near his grave as well. And his son, Joe, haunted the Confederate White House until his body was exhumed and buried beside the grave of his father. Then, inexplicably, the haunting stopped.

Memphis Queen

My son and I recently took a trip down the Mississippi River on a riverboat aptly named the “Memphis Queen.” Although the vessel is only five years old, it resembles boats of days gone by. Our tour guide, an African-American gentleman with a strong Memphian accent enlightened us on local history, and the use of steamboats on the Mighty Mississippi, the “Father of Waters.”

Riverboats were widely used as a major mode of transportation during the eighteen and nineteenth centuries. They are glamorized today, even though they were extremely dangerous. Most ran on a boiler system that had a tendency to explode if the combination of steam, water, and air wasn’t properly balanced. In fact, the worst maritime disaster in American history took place in such a way.

The Sultana was docked off the Memphis shore on April 26, 1865, and loaded to six times her capacity with Union soldiers who had been released from prison, and were being transported back up north. No one knows what actually caused the explosion, but around 2 a.m. the boilers exploded, the boat caught fire, and nearly 1,800 people lost their lives. This terrible event has virtually gone unnoticed, primarily since it happened in the final days of the Civil War, and the country was preoccupied with Lee’s surrender, Lincoln’s assassination, John Wilkes Booth’s capture, and tired of hearing about death.

Another interesting tidbit we learned from our guide in relation to the War Between the States is that Mud Island, which is where the Wolf and Mississippi Rivers meet at Memphis, was formed by a Union ironclad that ran aground. The mud and silt built up around it, and once the ship was finally removed, the island remained. Mud Island is now a river park complete with a museum and amphitheatre that hosts top name musical acts.

If you’re ever in the neighborhood, I strongly recommend you take a riverboat ride on the Mississippi, and experience for yourself what it’s like to step back in time. There is nothing so serene as floating slowly down the river with the cool breeze wafting by, and imagining what our ancestors experienced.