An Old Familiar Place

Decoration Day   An amazing sequence of events began to unfold the first year after the end of the War Between the States. As far back as April 25, 1866, some southern women from the little North Central Mississippi town of Columbus were decorating the graves of Confederate soldiers who had fallen at Shiloh, one of the bloodiest battles of the War. They placed fresh spring flowers on the graves of their fallen heroes, soon realizing the graves of the Union soldiers were bare because there were no family members to care for their burial sites and to memorialize them. The women began to lay flowers on the Union soldiers’ graves as well as the graves of their own Confederate dead. It was a day of remembrance of the young soldiers who had been reluctant to fight a cruel war that meant they would have to kill or wound their fellow countrymen. Three years after the end of the War, in May of 1868, modeling the tribute paid by the women of Columbus, Mississippi, Un...

"Sense of Place" I was elated when I learned I would be getting an endorsement for JOAB.  JACK LAMAR MAYFIELD, OXFORD, MS  I met Jack Lamar Mayfield last year in Oxford, Mississippi. My friend from high school days, Emmie Lou Mooney Greene, a prominent Oxonian herself, introduced me to him and we spent several hours getting a grand tour from an historical perspective. I fell in love with the beautiful university town situated in the rolling hill country of northeast Mississippi. Of course, I had been to Oxford many times, but never having known such things as Jack Mayfield shared that day. Jackie, as known by his friends, is a fifth generation Oxonian. His family came to Oxford shortly after the Chickasaw Cession of 1832. He is a former history instructor and writes a weekly column for the local newspaper The Oxford Eagle . His column is entitled "Sense of Place" and is solely about the history of Oxford and Ole Miss. He is the author of a book ...

From Chapter 16 JOAB When the house doth sigh and weep, And the world is drowned in sleep, Yet mine eyes the watch do keep, Sweet Spirit, comfort me. Robert Herrick The night was long and Joab slept little. Tossing and turning, thinking about the task at hand reminded him of the sleepless nights in Sarepta before he returned to Oxford Town. Was this the true meaning of bittersweet? He was fond of Will and felt a kindred spirit because of the war. Not only that, without motive of any sort, he was hopeful he could help Will. The purpose of the trip to Shiloh was to try and bring an end to the harbored hate and hostility. It was not Joab’s intention to stir up a hornet’s nest of a different sort, one that could potentially do even more damage. On the other hand, he was so in love with Aggie he couldn’t see straight. In moments of reprieve from sinister thoughts of how it would play out with Will Cavanaugh, Joab remembered the scene on the Stephens’ porch. The touch...

JOAB From Chapter 4   Listening long for voices that never will speak again, hearing the hoofbeats come and go and fade without a stop … Donald Davidson Said of General Lee after the War   The muffled drum’s sad roll has beat The soldier’s last tattoo; No more on life’s parade shall meet That brave and fallen few. From Bivouac of the Dead Theodore O’Hara Joab spent the night on the bank of the Tennessee River, rose with the first light of day, rolled his blanket, and rode up the hill in knee deep grass to Shiloh. The rain had stopped and the early sun cast cheerful rays through hundreds of live oak trees whose fresh green leaves glistened with every drop that clung for moments and then dropped to the acorn-covered ground. He was seeing the beautiful state of Tennessee for the first time. If not for the sickening thought of blood and treasure strewn across the hills of Shiloh, it wo...