24.11.04 Here we go again... Destination Corpus Christi, Texas.
Driving
here we note…
…there is a Dollar General every 5
miles and a church on every block!
The Tennessee River Museum is
located in the historic old post office building immediately west of the
courthouse in downtown Savannah. The building was constructed in 1939 and is
currently listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Cherry
Mansion was built by David Robinson on top of an Indian mound in 1830. Savannah
was named after Savannah Georgia, the hometown of the first owner’s wife,
Elizabeth Robinson. Using slave labor, the 18-inch-thick walls were built of
bricks made on the banks of the Tennessee River and a rock wall was constructed
surrounding the house. The two-story house, facing the Tennessee River, has 12-foot
ceilings, eight fireplaces with hand carved mantels and all of the floors are
pine of varying widths. There is an open staircase and much carved molding and
chair rails.
In 1842 the
house was given to Robinson’s youngest daughter, Sarah and her new husband,
William Cherry, as a wedding gift. Mr. Cherry was a merchant and cotton broker
who operated a shipping line on the Tennessee River. His river boats were named
the William H. Cherry and the Edgar Cherry after his only surviving child by
Sarah who passed away in 1850. In 1855 William married Annie Irwin.
In the next
few years tensions were building between the North and South. William was known
for his pro-Union feelings and as with many families, his wife Annie and her
family were pro-Southern. On April 12, 1861 the first shots rang out at Fort
Sumpter by Confederate forces and over the next years of fighting (1861-1865),
America lost over 600,000 lives.
The Cherry
Mansion was used as a Union Headquarters but social life went on and Union
Generals were welcomed and extended Southern hospitality by Annie and Mary
Cherry. The sisters made no secret of their feelings for the Confederacy and
out of respect for these Southern ladies, General Grant would remove his
uniform coat when spending time with them. Grant was having breakfast at Cherry
Mansion the morning of April 6, 1862, when he heard shots in the direction of
Pittsburg Landing he stated “Gentlemen, the ball is in motion”, the start of
the Battle of Shiloh had begun. A total loss on both sides of almost 24,000 men
killed, wounded or missing made it one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil
War.
A field
hospital was set up in the yard of Cherry Mansion and by April 9 hospital boats
were moored below the house. The Cherrys and other families in Savannah cared
for some of the wounded, both Confederate and Union.
Mr. Cherry moved to Memphis after the war but descendants of the Cherry family lived in the house and by the turn of the century it had fallen on hard times and was reduced to a boarding house and by the 1930’s the years of neglect had taken their toll. Mr. Bob Guinn purchased the property from the Cherry descendants and started restoration. In 1977 the Cherry Mansion was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Today it is a private home owned by Anthony and Mary Gilchrist, daughter of Bob and Martha Guinn. Once again it seems to need a bit of TLC. We did not go in but the landscaping was run down and the windows looked in disrepair. It may have just been the rainy day but I don’t think so.
Shiloh
National Military Park
This is a 5200-acre
park with a visitor center that has many displays and a 49-minute film
presentation (very worth watching!); a library and book store. Shiloh National
Cemetery, established in 1866, is a 10-acre final resting place for more than
500 Union soldiers, 2 Confederate soldiers, a Revolutionary War soldier and
hundreds who fought in WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam. There is a 13-mile
self-guided auto tour with pull-offs and many wayside exhibits. There are 20
Tour Stops with many markers along the way including 156 monuments, 600 troop
position markers and 229 cannon.
The displays in the museum and the information I researched, including the National Park Service brochure, use the terms Union Army and Federals for the northern soldiers. When I asked the park service employee what the difference is, she said they use the terms interchangeably and they mean the same thing. Not exactly the history I learned.
Fought April 6th and 7th, 1862, Shiloh (also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing). There is so much information that I can’t even decide what to share. In the end the Confederate soldiers retreated and the Union soldiers did not follow. The bloodiest battle of the Civil War was over and history says the Confederates lost this battle.
Total Estimated Casualties 23,746
Union 13,047 Total (1,754 killed 8,408 wounded 2,885 missing
& captured)
Confederate 10,669 Total (1,728 killed 8,012 wounded 959 missing & captured)
The Wisconsin Monument
The Shiloh
Indian Mounds are the remains of a prehistoric town that was occupied about 800
years ago. The ancient society was believed to have been inhabited between 1050
and 1400 A.D. The mound complex contains three mound types: 6 Ceremonial Mounds
which would have been platforms for the town’s most important buildings such as
a council house, religious buildings, and the houses of the Chief and Noblemen;
a Burial Mound reserved for the chief and town leaders; and several smaller
House Mounds on the outskirts for the lower-class members. Around 1400 AD, the
inhabitants of the town deserted the area and the society collapsed. Since no written
records exist, the reason for desertion is unknown. There is no hard evidence
but these prehistoric people are believed to have been the ancestors of modern
societies such as the Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Creeks.
Catfish Hotel… We drove back in the woods so far we could hear banjoes!
(Watch the movie “Deliverance”)
On this spot in 1825, Henry Hagy and his wife Polly docked
their flat boat, laid claim to several acres of bottom land, and began to build
a farm and family. Later their son John built a rough log shack next to the
river to store items that were to be shipped by steamboats. The shack was
occupied by Union soldiers during the Battle of Shiloh.
The shack earned the name “Catfish Hotel” during the early thirties when Norvin Hagy entertained friends at cookouts. He became well known for the delicious catfish, hushpuppies, and hospitality he served up. Guests who had arrived by river were often forced to spend the night after becoming engrossed in yarns spun and darkness made it unsafe to travel the river, thus the nickname Catfish Hotel.
In 1938 Norvin held a political campaign gathering at the site for his old friend Gordon Browning, who was seeking his second term as governor. Upon tasting the catfish and hushpuppies, Gordon recommended Norvin open a restaurant. With the help of his wife, Dorothy, and sons Jack and Bob, the restaurant became a success. Several additions were made to the original shack to accommodate the growing business. Norvin and Walter Hagy Photo
In 1975, fire destroyed the original structure. The present building opened as the Catfish Hotel a year later. The Catfish Hotel is one of the oldest family owned restaurants in the country.
Buford Pusser was born on December 12, 1937 and died in a car
crash on August 21, 1974. He was a 6'6" lawman who served as sheriff from
1964 to 1970 and constable from 1970 to 1972. Pusser was known for his efforts
to rid McNairy County of organized crime, including moonshiners, gamblers, and
prostitutes and other vices along the Mississippi–Tennessee state line. He
destroyed 87 whiskey stills in 1965 alone. He was shot eight times, stabbed
seven times, and killed two people in self-defense. His wife, Pauline, was
murdered in an ambush in 1967.
He joined the United States Marine Corps when he graduated
from high school. His service ended during his United States Marine Corps
Recruit Training, when he was given a medical discharge for asthma.
In 1957, he moved to Chicago, where he was a local wrestler known as "Buford the Bull". He married Pauline Mullins on December 5, 1959. Pusser returned home in 1962. He was Adamsville's police chief and constable from 1962 to 1964. Pusser was elected sheriff of McNairy County, Tennessee, becoming the youngest sheriff in Tennessee's history. Pusser promptly began trying to eliminate the Dixie Mafia and the State Line Mob. In his first year as sheriff he raided forty-two stills and arrested seventy-five moonshiners. In subsequent years he expanded his attempts to clean up the crime-ridden state line area by prosecuting prostitution rings and illegal gambling houses.
Pusser survived several assassination attempts. On February 1, 1966, Louise Hathcock attempted to kill Pusser during an on-site investigation of a robbery complaint at The Shamrock Motel. Hathcock fired on Pusser with a concealed .38 pistol. Pusser returned fire and killed Hathcock. On January 2, 1967, Pusser was shot three times by an unidentified gunman.
While he was already a local hero, Pusser's "war" on the State Line Mob was brought to national prominence when his wife, Pauline, was killed on August 12, 1967, during an assassination ambush intended for Pusser and instigated by Hathcock's common-law husband. Pusser named Kirksey Nix as the contractor of his wife's killers, although neither Nix nor anyone else was ever charged with the crime. Pusser shot and killed an intoxicated Charles Russell Hamilton on December 25, 1968, after responding to a complaint that Hamilton had threatened his landlord with a gun.
Pusser was ineligible for re-election in 1970 due to the term limit then in effect. He was defeated in his bid for sheriff in 1972. Pusser blamed the loss to incumbent Sheriff Clifford Coleman in part on the controversy surrounding the making of the semi-biographical movie Walking Tall. He was re-elected as constable of Adamsville by a majority of voters, who wrote in his name on their ballots. He served as constable for two more years (1970–1972).
According to Pusser, his phone rang before dawn on the
morning of August 12, 1967, informing him of a disturbance on New Hope Road in
McNairy County; Pusser responded and his wife Pauline rode along. Shortly after
they passed the New Hope Methodist Church, a fast-moving car came alongside
theirs and the occupants opened fire, killing Pauline and leaving Pusser for
dead. Doctors said he was struck on the left side of his jaw by at least two,
or possibly three, rounds from a .30-caliber carbine. He spent 18 days in the
hospital before returning home, and needed several more surgeries to restore
his appearance.
Despite vowing to bring his wife's murderers to justice, Pusser was unable to bring Kirksey Nix or any of the accused to trial. Nix was sentenced to the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola for the 1971 Easter Saturday murder of New Orleans grocer Frank J. Corso. While imprisoned, Nix ordered the 1987 murder-for-hire of Judge Vincent Sherry and his wife Margaret, in Biloxi, Mississippi. His conspirator, Biloxi Mayor Pete Halat, had, in his capacity as Nix's attorney, stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars that Nix had amassed in a massive lonely hearts scam, blaming it on his law partner, Judge Sherry. Nix was later sentenced to isolation for the rest of his life. According to a 1990 AP story in The Town Talk, a newspaper in Alexandria, Louisiana, Nix denied being involved in the drive-by ambush on the Pussers.
Pusser died on August 21, 1974, of injuries sustained in a
one-car automobile accident four miles west of Adamsville. Earlier that day, he
had contracted with Bing Crosby Productions in Memphis to portray himself in
the sequel to Walking Tall. That evening, returning home alone from the McNairy
County Fair in his specially modified Corvette, Pusser struck an embankment at
high speed that ejected him from the vehicle. The car caught fire and burned.
Local speculation as to the cause included rumors of sabotage to the steering mechanism and the tie rods. The state trooper who worked the accident, Paul Ervin, later became McNairy County sheriff. Ervin claimed that Pusser's death was caused by drunk driving without a seat belt, which was ironic since Pusser was against moonshiners and vices. Buford’s daughter, Dwana Pusser, a passenger in another car, came upon the scene of the accident minutes later. No autopsy of Pusser's body was performed making you wonder how the investigating sheriff suspected drunk driving.
The story of Pusser's life was adapted into several Hollywood
movies, including Walking Tall (1973), which was followed by two remakes and a
final movie in 2004 starring Dwayne Johnson. Pusser only lived to see the first
movie.
