AR Civil War 150- Gaze and Graze- last one!!!

Saturday morning we got up and headed down the road to where we used to live.  We lived near Pine Bluff for 10 years.  Andrew wanted to see our old house, the baseball field and the library.  I didn't put up a picture of our house because I don't know who lives there.  He was surprised how short the road to our house was.








Our library has a new front!!

We then went to the Pine Bluff Museum.  We had been there before but neither one of us remembered much that was there.  The building is an old railroad depot.

We remember seeing her swing when she up on a billboard.

I loved this super sized poster and wish I had one! 

 Since we had already been to one Depot we decided to take a picture inside by the poster that I wanted.

 A wonderful Confederate cemetery near Sulfur Springs.  Their tomb to the unknown soldier was very moving.  My pictures don't do it justice.  Look how well kept the grave markers are.  Uncle John- look where this guy died!

 Our last stop!  Here we are getting our last stamp.  She had never seen one completed and asked about our journey.  She was tickled to be a part of it.

These are the remains of a WWII plane that went down near here.

Lots of fun animals here.  An otter for Kaitlin!

 One of the many great thing about doing this trip the way we did it is the things we saw in one place were repeated or more info was added in another.  The above picture is the only place we saw the one star confederate flag that we saw the words for the song for in Prescott, that Andrew told me was the only song that was not allowed to be played after the war.


This is the battle site for this stamp.

Here is our completed passport!

Our last picture!!!!

What a trip of a life time!  Andrew, I am ready for our next trip!

AR Civil War 150 trip- Gaze and Graze 50!

 I realized when I started doing this post that Andrew and I covered some ground on Friday the 19th!  We woke up at our cabin on Lake Chicot.  We didn't take our picture til that morning.  Notice the jackets we had to don because the temps dropped and it was chilly.

We saw many downed trees as we drove that day.

There are 23 sites to be seen and stamps to get in the passport we did, but there are also 39 others sites near those 23 that we did many of.  One that is near Lake Village is the fighting that took place near the Ditch Bayou- who thinks of these names???
In this battle the Union soldiers had had enough of the Confederate troops sniping their ships as they came around the bends in the river at Lake Village.  The Confederate troops would fire at ships from one bend in the river then as the ship went further down the river they were waiting there too.  The Union sent in several thousand troops to stop this problem.  The Confederate forces set up just past a bayou that was hidden in the tall grass.  Many of the Union troops ended up in the bayou.  They lost many that day.



Our first stop of the day was the Japanese American Relocation camp site.  Very well done. You truly get a picture of how it was set up.

cemetery for those who died here

Besides the cemetery the only other thing left from the camp is a tower.  It is located between the break in the trees in the picture above.  It was on the other side of the camp.

a faux guard tower-very well done.

We came to Arkansas Post many times with all the children.  Andrew has very fond memories of what all he learned here.  They have a very informative movie and lots of open spaces.

I love Hudson Bay Blankets.  I have one that was my daddy's and Carl bought me one a few years ago.  It was fun to some here.

Andrew took about 5 shots of us at every stop.  We got into saluting.  I love the smiles on our faces.  Notice the jackets, the wind was whipping off the water.

This next stop was where the deadliest single shot of the entire Civil War took place.  We are in St. Charles, AR.  The museum was well done.  I loved the above diorama so we could see how the river played a part in the town and the war.  We had a very informative lady stamp our passports. She even told us where a Confederate cannon was that had be brought up out of the river.

  The monument above in at the spot where the deadliest shot was fired.  A confederate cannon fired a shot that hit the boiler of a Union tin clad that was sailing down the river.  It blew up and killed the 149 men on board.  The placement of the monument was funny to me because it is in the middle of the road!  Below is the Confederate canon.

Here is a spot that Andrew found to eat. It is on highway 49 in Barton.  It was yummy!!!  Highly recommend.

Andrew and I then went to Helena/ West Helena.  There were two stamping sites here.  The first we visited was the Delta Cultural Center.  Lots of stuff on Jazz and very cleverly displayed.  They have very nice restrooms too!

Andrew and I took a picture on the front porch that is set up inside for musicians to gather and play.

Next we went to the Philips County Museum.  Again another diorama telling of the importance of the water.  This was a very important area for both sides in the Civil War.  Below, Andrew and I are standing in a replica of a fort that stood in the city.  The fort stood, during the Civil War, on the land that the Baptist Church is currently on.

Andrew is getting our passports stamps by the cutest stamper ever.  She told us all about the museum.

After the museum, we drove all around the city looking at other sites.  We then went to the Confederate cemetery.  It was beautiful.  Several of the generals pictured above are buried here.

On our way home, Andrew and I stopped at the Louisiana Purchase State Park.  We were here about 20 years ago and much has been done to improve it.  I didn't know that baseline road in Little Rock was just that, a baseline for the Louisiana Purchase.

Whew!  Andrew and I had a busy Friday and we are just two stamps away from a full passport!  We spent the night at home and slept well!  Last day tomorrow!

AR Civil War 150- Gaze and Graze 30- Laurie and Barry!

This was our first stop on Thursday.  This was one of my favorite stops of our trip.  This house was the first house built in Camden that was not a log cabin, it was a saw cut board house!  This house just had two owners and they left or have donated back to the house many of the original furnishings which really helps you get the vision of what the house looked like back then. 

The docent told us many stories about the Chidester family.  When Union armies were approaching Camden, General Steele decided he would stay at the McCollum-Chidester house.  He sent ahead a patrol of men to tell Mrs Chidester of her 'soon to be guest'.  She was a fast thinker!!  She had a money belt that she put all their money in and then put it on her most trusted slave.  She then gave the slave the baby and had her sit by the fire to keep warm.  Mrs. Chidester then hid the silver in the back yard.  When the Yankees came, they patted down everyone in the house looking for money, but they never found Mrs. Chidester's!!!  Below is her silver that they didn't find either!

 

 Mr Chidester was the Post Master of Camden.  He had southern sympathies so he let the Southern command read the mail.  For some reason :) the Federal government didn't like that!  They sent a patrol of Union soldiers to bring Mr. Chidester in.  He hid in the second story of his house, in a closet.  The soldiers arrived and they began their search.  They couldn't find him.  One soldier stayed behind because he felt sure Mr. Chidester was in the house.  He fired several shots into the upstairs closet.  No sound.  The soldier left.  Mr. Chidester, who had been hiding in the closet, came out and was never captured.  You can still see the bullet holes.

 Things didn't go too well for the Union soldiers in and around Camden and they soon retreated back to Little Rock.

 Marks' Mill was a place where another battle occurred over a supply train that included 240 wagons and was heavily guarded by 240 cavalry and 4 artillery pieces.  Using tactics like the ones they used at Poison Springs, the Confederates attacked the flank.  By now the Union had 1600 troops engaged and the Confederates had 2500.  It was a brutal battle.  The Union lost 1300 men while the Confederate losses were fewer than 500.  The Confederates found themselves with the entire supply train- 1500 horses and mules, ambulances, four guns, plus valuable official reports concerning Steele's army.

After Marks Mill we drove east.  Andrew had picked out a place for us to eat lunch in Lake Village.  I refused to go in.  Andrew did come back saying that he was probably the only one in there with all his own teeth.  Andrew said the tamales were amazing.  He got me a hamburger and it was yummy! 

 Andrew got a dozen tamales and brought some home to Carl.

 He also got us dessert there.  This is a single serving pie.  Andrew got half sweet potato/ pecan and he got me all pecan.  They were really good!

 We ate our lunch while we waited for our tour of Lakeport Plantation.  It is the only ante-bellum plantation home still standing in Arkansas.  It was built in 1831 by a group from Kentucky.  So many folks from Kentucky settled around this area that the bend in the river became known as the Kentucky Bend.  This group included Seviers, Conways and Johnsons and they dominated Arkansas politics from 1836 til the Civil War.  The Lakeport plantation house became vacant in 1972 and was never remodeled or extensively modernized so you can truly get a picture of what life was like when it was built.

 The storms from the night before come into play during this visit.  Our tour guide lost a car and part of her house during the bad storms.  Lakeport Plantation has tours a 10 and 2 everyday.  We were planning on taking the 2 o'clock tour.  Andrew and I found our selves waiting with a delightful lady named Anne.  Anne shared that she would be 80 this month!  We had a wonderful conversation about Anne's home, her grandchildren- some of whom Andrew knew from AUBURN, how she buys Christmas gifts, how she was meeting a daughter to go to Ladies Night at Paul Mitchell.  We waited for quite awhile.  Anne was getting a little undone and then she realized that the Lakeport Plantation used the same security system that she has at her house.  Upon mentioning that she knew how to get someone to the house, Andrew sprang into action!  I am not sure who he called but even after our tour he got a few phone calls asking about our tour.  Our tour guide arrived and gave us a wonderful tour.  I highly recommend this stop.

 ASU is doing a 6 million dollar restoration.

 Here is an oil cloth that was in the foyer.  It was discovered by accident.  One of the ladies working on the restoration tracked in some mud and as she was cleaning the mud off the floor this was discovered. Our tour guide has a love for this house and the restoration and it showed as she was so thrilled to tell us many fun stories like this one.

 After Lakeport we went to Lake Chicot State Park.  The stamping site was in the visitor center of the park.  It has several cool displays.

Here is the view out the front door of our cabin.  I want to go back.  So peaceful.

 Here is the inside of our cabin and the back.

After we checked in we drove over to Greenville, MS to eat supper at the original Doe's with our long time friends from Little Rock, Laurie and Barry.  Very much a highlight of our trip.  The bad storms of the night before had knocked out their power.  Barry made us a reservation and we ate in the kitchen. That was great fun.  They saw many friends there.  Laurie is a reader and she introduced me to one friend who has enjoyed D. E. Stevenson as much as I have.

So far Andrew and I have 18 stamps in our passports with 5 more to go.