Mud Island

Mud Island in Memphis is a neat place to go for two reasons. First it has a museum about the Mississippi river valley which includes a pretty good section on the Civil War. The Civil War exhibits are pretty neat too in that there are quite a number of scale models of ships and that the gallery takes you onto the gundeck of an ironclad, and then takes you up to the artillery position firing on the ironclad. Its dark in there so this is the best picture of the gundeck I have and none of the artillery position.


Then you go outside to find a scale model of the Mississippi River. You can walk the entire length of the river. This is a kid friendly area and even adults take off their shoes to cool off a bit.


Here's Cairo:


Its not just a model of the river it also tells you a lot about the river. Some markers are historical in nature. Here is the sign for battle at Belmont. You then find the corresponding marker to see exactly where B and C are.

In this case they are very close to each other. C is on the left.

At the end of the journey is a Gulf of Mexico, and a little farther on is a display of flags for all the nations that have controlled the Memphis area. They were at half mast because I was there during the mourning period for President Reagan.

According to this marker the naval battle for Memphis, the Battle of Plum Run Bend, was off in the distance. It was a Union victory and sealed the fate of the city. If the Confederates had won they would have held onto the city a little longer but ultimately they probably would have had to abandon it.

Memphis National Cemetery

The Memphis National Cemetery is a rather large cemetery. There are currently over 42,000 internments. I'm not sure the number of Civil War burials here but by sight it seemed like a lot. After initially being buried at Elmwood the Sultana victims were moved here. The story told at the cemetery is that the names were written on the coffins as they were removed from Elmwood so that they would be properly identified at the national cemetery. While the coffins were waiting to be reinterned a rain storm came up. Unfortunately the names had been written on the coffins in chalk so all the names washed away with the rain and the Sultana victims all lie in graves marked unknown.

The Minnesota monument, surrounded by soldiers from Minnesota.

The Illinois monument.

It was obviously a time of resodding at the cemetery.

Forrest Park

It is a source of continued controversy in Memphis but it also a nicely done statue. In 1905 the remains of Nathan Bedford Forrest and his wife were moved from Elmwood Cemetery to this park. Many people, led by the NAACP, want his remains moved back to Elmwood (I guess the statue would be moved there too) as they detest Forrest's life (slave trader, leader of the Confederates at Fort Pillow and the involvement with the KKK). But for now nothing will happen as the park has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places, an event that happened about a month ago.

If you go be advised that this is not a great area of town. There were a number of bums on one side of the park. I parked across the street at an office supply store, took my pictures and got out before anyone knew I was there. Knowing the hatred blacks have for the park I figured being alone in the park with several bums was not the smartest thing I've done. I only have these four pictures, wish I had more, but maybe I'll go again in a group and will feel more secure.

Jefferson Davis Park

Along the riverfront in Memphis is a little park for Jefferson Davis. Davis lived in Memphis after the war (1869-1878) and there is a nice monument of him in the park.

The park also has this monument to J Harvey Mathes of the 37th Tennessee. James Harvey Mathes later became city editor of the Memphis Daily Argus and then later with the Memphis Public Ledger. He also wrote a book on Forrest that I found on google books. I have not read it but downloaded a copy so that I can read it. I also found online that his grandfather, William Mathes, was one of the first white children born in Tennessee.


Finally there are gun emplacements to protect the city from a river navy. Oh wait, those are modern guns. In one of my guidebooks it said that there were cannons here during the Civil War, the wall was different but the location is right. During the scrap metal drives for World War 2 the cannons were melted down. After the war cannon surplus was again given to the park but the vintage was wrong.

Elmwood Cemetery - Memphis

Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis is in a rundown part of town but it is well worth the visit. It is the oldest cemetery in Memphis and has quite a few Civil War generals buried there. Also all sorts of important people from Memphis' history are here, mayors, governors, senators, etc.

This is the Confederate section for common soldiers. The monument also has memorial plaques for some Confederate generals who are buried here but were from Memphis.

There are 20 Confederate generals buried here, as well as two Union generals. I don't have pictures of all of them, very few actually.

Here is Patton Anderson:

Nathan Bedford Forrest was buried here but was later moved to his own park (which has been quite the source of controversy for many years). The rest of his family though is buried here, including three brothers who were Confederate officers.

The victims of the Sultana were buried here but were later moved to the national cemetery.