Day Three on the Trace

First battlefield

Confederate victory

Battlefield

Brice's crossing cemetery

Campaign strategy for Tupelo

Actual site of the village

Louise and her boyfriend-- and that other guy

Family church

Birth house

Museum entrance

Fountain of life

We stayed an extra day in Tupelo so that we could visit the area Civil War battle sites. For Brice's Crossing we backtracked 20 miles nw of Tupelo. The visitors' center staff was very friendly and informative. They directed us to an auto tour on cd for $10. Thus armed off we went learning about the battle movements as they occurred. The picture of part of the battlefield is very deceptive. At the time this area was a vast black jack oak forest with low growing interlacing branches. The foliage was so thick that the combatants couldn't see each other 5 feet away. The day was clear after 2 days of torrential rain so the footing was slippery and at times very muddy. The Confederates were outnumbered and under armed, but used that famous Rebel Yell to confuse the Yankees and convince them that their army was much bigger than it was. The grays were also better used to the hot humid weather. Col. Forrest was not trained as a military leader, but he knew enough to use all of his knowledge of his troupes and his territory to win the victory. After a couple of hours of history on the hoof, we headed back to civilization for food.

Back on the trace we stopped at a couple of sites we missed last night. One was the site of a Chickasaw village. The Chickasaw were one of the so called civilized tribes who had a government patterned after the American government in DC. Their buildings were well constructed. The large rectangular wall in the center was the fort where all the people fled for protection. The rectangular building was the summer house while the circular one was the winter house. A short interpretive trail told about some of the plants the people used in their everyday lives.

Next we drove into Tupelo to find the National Battlefield there. It was in the town proper, and a bit disappointing. We were ready for another big battle site. Instead we got a corner park with a couple of monuments. However, we did learn that although the south won the battle of Brices Crossing and the battle at Tupelo was indecisive, they were both very important to the north. They distracted the south away from the Nashville and Chattanooga RR, the main supply line for Yankee supplies into the south.

Since our corner battlefield only took 10 min. I decided we should check out Elvis's birthplace. This turned out to be a very nice area with museum, gift shop, time-line walk, his original family;y church, his birth house, a bronze statue of Elvis at 13 and a chapel (requested by Elvis) which contains his bible--all for $12 each. We toured the well-done museum before heading out to the little Pentecostal church. The church was moved there from a mile down the road and refurbished to its original look with the original pulpit. In the ceiling they added three large film screens and three projectors which all come down at once. Awsome! We sat in the pews as the film showed a reenactment of a typical Sunday service that Elvis and his family would have attended. The left and right screens showed people sitting there and the front showed us the preacher, song leader and people who would decide to sing that day. After a rousing prayer meeting it was time to see where Elvis was born. The house, a two room "shotgun" house built by Elvis's dad Vernon, sits on its original site. It was refurbished with weatherproofing and new wallpaper and linoleum. The furniture is facsimile because when the family moved to Memphis they sold all of their furniture. After our little tour we walked the circular sidewalk around the house. Around the outside there was one brick for each year of his life ( dates in the bricks) with timeline info for the first thirteen years. This lead to a Story Wall (8' tall x 60') with anecdotes about Elvis's life as a boy in Tupelo as told by his family and friends. In the center of the wall is the Fountain of Life. The thirteen upper waterspouts pour out over granite, symbolizing the thirteen years he lived in Tupelo and the enduring power of strong values learned during his formative years. The 29 lower spouts symbolizing Elvis's life in Memphis. They flow over limestone, a soft stone symbolizing the softer, better conditions of his life as an entertainer. The circle is completed as the lower set flows toward the upper set as a symbol of Elvis' continuing reference to the character he learned as a boy in Tupelo. Those traits of humility and generosity flow together with the remaining 29 years to form a complete circle. At one end of the wall is the museum, at the other is the memorial chapel. A chapel was added to the complex because before his death Elvis dreamed of having a place of meditation at the Park.

Enough for everyone,

Louise and Duane

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