Ship Island was used as a French base of operations for Gulf Coast maneuvers and later, during the War of 1812, by the British as a launching point for the disastrous Battle of New Orleans. But most memorably, Ship Island served as a Federal prison under the command of Union Major General Benjamin F. Butler during the Civil War. This volume traces this fascinating and somewhat sinister history of Ship Island. The main focus of the book is a series of rosters of the men imprisoned. Organized first by the state in which the soldier enlisted and then by the company in which he served, entries are listed alphabetically by last name and include information such as beginning rank; date and place of enlistment; date and place of capture; physical characteristics; and, where possible, the fate and postwar occupation of the prisoner.
TRAVEL RECREATION Mississippi's barrier islands claim some of the most remote and unspoiled sites along the Gulf of Mexico. The distance of East and West Ship Island, Horn Island, Cat Island, and Petit Bois Island from the mainland has sheltered them from extensive development. The inclusion of all in the roster of protected places in the Gulf Islands National Seashore Act has assured that they will remain close to their natural state long into the future. For those who love the seashore, the Mississippi Gulf Coast is an ideal place for adventure. The wilderness islands, the back bays and coastal rivers, and the Gulf of Mexico itself offer pleasure for boaters and nature lovers. This book will guide them to special places in these relatively shallow waters. Filled with detailed descriptions of many alluring settings, along with directions for navigation to secluded coves and coastal bayous, this book gives tips and pointers for a wide range of boaters, whether their preferred craft is a canoe, a sea kayak, or a luxury yacht. What are the best and safest routes? What are the weather patterns? How does one select the perfect craft? Here from an expert who has explored the coastal waters during a period of fifteen years are the answers, rich in anecdotes, along with information on charter boats, excursion boats, and other options for exploring and fishing. Scott B. Williams has been exploring Mississippi's marine waters and islands for more than fifteen years in sea kayaks and a variety of sailboats and has published numerous articles in Sea Kayaker. Williams builds wooden boats and does custom yacht and residential woodwork, dividing his time between Biloxi and Brandon, Mississippi. More information is avialable at his website at www.scottbwilliams.com."
Included in this audio-enhanced edition are recordings of the U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey reading Native Guard in its entirety, as well as an interview with the poet from the HMH podcast The Poetic Voice, in which she recounts what it was like to grow up in the South as the daughter of a white father and a black mother and describes other influences that inspired the work. Experience this Pulitzer Prize–winning collection in an engaging new way. Growing up in the Deep South, Natasha Trethewey was never told that in her hometown of Gulfport, Mississippi, black soldiers had played a pivotal role in the Civil War. Off the coast, on Ship Island, stood a fort that had once been a Union prison housing Confederate captives. Protecting the fort was the second regiment of the Louisiana Native Guards -- one of the Union's first official black units. Trethewey's new book of poems pays homage to the soldiers who served and whose voices have echoed through her own life. The title poem imagines the life of a former slave stationed at the fort, who is charged with writing letters home for the illiterate or invalid POWs and his fellow soldiers. Just as he becomes the guard of Ship Island's memory, so Trethewey recalls her own childhood as the daughter of a black woman and a white man. Her parents' marriage was still illegal in 1966 Mississippi. The racial legacy of the Civil War echoes through elegiac poems that honor her own mother and the forgotten history of her native South. Native Guard is haunted by the intersection of national and personal experience.
Just off the coast of the Gulf Islands National Seashore lies Cat Island, an isolated, T-shaped sliver of sand with a remarkable past. A coveted hiding place for Jean Lafitte's pirate treasure in the late eighteenth century and illegal booze during Prohibition, Cat Island also witnessed the first shots of the Battle of New Orleans, an encampment for Seminoles during the Trail of Tears and the first lighthouses on the Mississippi coast. As a child, author John Cuevas learned that his family had owned and lived on the island for three generations beginning with his ancestor, Juan de Cuevas, referred to as "The King of Cat Island," who received it by way of a Spanish land grant. In this engaging work, Cuevas chronicles the historic events that occurred on the island's shores and offers a tribute to the legacy of one of the Gulf Coast's pioneer families.
Shantyboat is the story of a leisurely journey down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans. For most people such a journey is the stuff that dreams are made of, but for Harlan and Anna Hubbard, it became a cherished reality. In their small river craft, the Hubbards became one with the flowing river and its changing weathers. This book mirrors a life that is simple and independent, strenuous at times, but joyous, with leisure for painting and music, for observation and contemplation.
Site of the landing of Pierre LeMoyne Sieur d'Iberville in February 1699 and the birthplace of the French colony la Louisiane, Biloxi has been nurtured by the waters of the Gulf of Mexico for more than three hundred years. Located almost due north of the mouth of the Mississippi, on a coast laced with small rivers, bays, and bayous, the historic peninsula city owes much of its fortune and growth to the bountiful waters and pleasant salt-air ambiance of the Mississippi Sound. Although Biloxi garnered its earliest fame as a seaside antebellum resort, the arrival of the railroad in 1870 led to the meteoric rise of a seafood industry which, by the end of the nineteenth century, had allowed the city to lay legitimate claim to the title "Seafood Capital of the World." Since the 1880s, a large Biloxi fishing fleet has harvested the Mississippi Sound and adjacent Gulf waters, keeping the city's seafood among the most highly prized in the nation. Today, a bustling new casino gaming industry, resort hotels, and myriad outdoor recreational activities have promoted the city to a world class tourist and retirement destination.
This comprehensive history fills an important gap in the story of the Civil War. Too often the war waged west of the Mississippi River has been given short shrift by historians and scholars, who have tended to focus their attention on the great battles east of the river. This book looks in detail at the military operations that occurred in Louisiana—most of them minor skirmishes, but some of them battles and campaigns of major importance. The Civil War in Louisiana begins with the first talk of secession in the state and ends with the last tragic days of the war. John D. Winters describes with great fervor and detail such events as the fall of Confederate New Orleans and the burning of Alexandria. In addition to military action, Winters discusses the political, economic, and social aspects of the war in Louisiana. His accounts of battles and the men who waged them provide a fuller story of Louisiana in the Civil War than has ever before been told.
From prehistory to the present, people have harvested Mississippi's trees, cultivated and altered the woodlands, and hunted forest wildlife. Native Americans, the first foresters, periodically burned the undergrowth to improve hunting and to clear land for farming. Mississippi Forests and Forestry tells the story of human interaction with Mississippi's woodlands. With forty black-and-white images and extensive documentation, this history debunks long-held myths, such as the notion of the first settlers encountering "virgin" forests. Drawing on primary materials, government documents, newspapers, interviews, contemporary accounts, and secondary works, historian James E. Fickle describes an ongoing commerce between people and place, from Native American maintenance of the woods, to white exploration and settlement, to early economic activities in Mississippi's forests, to present-day conservation and responsible use. Viewed over time, issues of conservation are rarely one-sided. Mississippi Forests and Forestry describes how the rise of "scientific" forestry coincided with the efforts of some early lumber companies and industrial foresters to operate responsibly in harvesting trees and providing for reforestation. Surprisingly, the rise of the pulp and paper industry made reforestation possible in many parts of the state. Mississippi Forests and Forestry is a history of individuals as well as industries. The book looks closely at the ways the lumber industry operated in the woods and mills and at the living and working conditions of people in the industries. It argues that the early industrial foresters, some lumber companies, and pulp and paper manufacturers practiced utilitarian conservation. By the late 1950s, they accomplished what some considered a miracle. Mississippi's forests had been restored. With the rise of environmentalism in the 1960s, popular ideas concerning the proper management and use of forests changed. Practices such as clear-cutting, single-age management, and manufacturing by chip mills became highly controversial. Looking ahead, Mississippi Forests and Forestry examines the issues that remain heated topics of conservation and use.
"This book is useful to historians of the Civil War who wish to draw on it for an authoritative account of this campaign, and Civil War buffs will want it in their libraries". -- James M. McPherson Princeton University
A revelation of the art and mind of a unique artist lost and alone in the world of nature, this beautiful book records Anderson's experiences on one of the barrier islands in the Gulf of Mexico over a period of twenty years. Revised edition.
