BGuthrie Photos: TN -- Memphis -- Confederate & Jeff Davis Park

TN -- Memphis -- Confederate & Jeff Davis Park:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. CONFPK_130228_008.JPG: Naval Battle of Memphis, 1862: Atop these bluffs in the early morning hours of June 6, 1862, the citizens of Memphis gathered in excited anticipation as the Confederate River Defense Fleet steamed out into the Mississippi River to meet the descending Union Gunboat Fleet. The "cotton-clad" Confederate fleet, under the command of Captain James E. Montgomery, was comprised of 8 converted wooden paddlewheel steamboats (Little Rebel, Colonel Lovell, Sumter, General Price, General Beauregard, General M. Jeff Thompson, General Bragg, and General Van Dorn), and was armed with a total of 18 cannon and protected by 'armor' of cotton bales and oak planking. The Union fleet (Carondelet, Benton, Cairo, Cincinnati, Louisville, Mound City, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis), commanded by Commodore Charles Henry Davis, carried 79 cannon and was clad with iron plating. These ships were followed by nine new unarmed Ellet" rams. At approximately 5:30am the fleets engaged in a fierce long-range cannon duel, fighting for 90 minutes with little effect. Suddenly two unarmed Union rams darted through the smoke and joined the action. The Queen of the West immediately sank the Colonel Lovell but was rammed by the Beauregard. The Monarch damaged other vessels, while the ironclads closed to a deadly range. The citizens' exuberance turned to gloom as, one after another, the outgunned Confederate ships were knocked out of action. The raging battle wound to a close with three "cottonclads" sunk, three grounded, one captured, and one escaped. On the Union side, one ram was run aground and another heavily damaged, the rest of the fleet suffered damage but all ships remained afloat. Charles Effet Jr., the designer and commander of the Union Ram Fleet, was the only Union casualty, dying a few days later from a marksman's gunshot wound. The city of Memphis, with Confederate troops having previously been ordered away to Corinth, Mississippi, was now defenseless, and US marines were sent ashore to occupy the city. Mayor John Park refused to surrender but conceded that he was powerless to prevent the city's fall. The loss of Memphis, the Confederacy's fifth-largest city, home of a naval manufacturing yard, and a key Southern industrial center, now opened up the Mississippi River to Union invasion all the way south to Vicksburg, Mississippi, and opened West Tennessee to occupation.
2. CONFPK_130228_011.JPG: Confederate Park Reunions and Memorials Opened in 1906 as part of the Memphis Park and Parkway System, Confederate Park commemorates the Battle of Memphis. When Confederate forces retreated to Mississippi after the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862, unfortified Memphis became vulnerable to attack. From these bluffs and those at what is now Chickasaw Park, on June 6, 1862, thousands of civilians watched the naval battle on the Mississippi River below. Within 90 minutes, the Union fleet defeated the Confederates. Medical Cadet Charles R. Ellet and a small party entered the city and raised the U.S. flag over the post office. The Federals held Memphis for the rest of the war. In May 19???, the United Confederate Veterans held a reunion here in an 18,000-seat structure named Confederate Hall. More than 125,000 visitors participated in activities, including parades ??? general John B Gordon, Fitzhugh Lee, and Joseph Wheeler. ??? the Progressive era, Park Commissioner Robert Galloway suggested that Confederate Park be one of three small urban parks within a 1,750-acre system. Civilian Conservation Corps workers built the rock wall in 1937. The park contains a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, who lived in Memphis temporarily after the ???, and a bust of Captain J Harvey Mathes, who served in the Army of Tennessee and later edited the Memphis Public Ledger. The park also honors Elizabeth Avery Meriwether, an enthusiastic Con??? supporter and suffragist, and Virginia "Ginnie" Bethel Moon, a Confederate spy who escaped from Union forces here and continued her espionage in Washington DC and New Orleans.
3. CONFPK_130228_024.JPG: Capt. J. Harvey Mathes 37th Tenn CSA
4. CONFPK_130228_045.JPG: Jefferson Davis President of the Confederate States of America 1861 - 1865 Before the War Between the States, he served with distinction as a United States Congressman and twice as a United States Senator. He also served as Secretary of War of the United States. He was a true American Patriot.
5. CONFPK_130228_055.JPG: Elizabeth Avery Meriwether 1824 - 1917 Born in Bolivar, Elizabeth Meriwether spent much of her life in Memphis. A noted author, her more famous works include The Master of Red Leaf, Black and White, and Recollections of 92 Years. Mrs. Meriwether toured many states lecturing in support of woman suffrage and was granted the right to vote in the election of 1872.
6. CONFPK_130228_059.JPG: Virginia ("Ginnie") Bethel Moon 1844-1926 The daughter of a Confederate sympathizer, Ginnie Moon was a noted Southern Civil War spy. Born in Ohio, Ginnie moved to Memphis with her mother in 1862. She was arrested for spying soon after the Federal Army occupied the city, but escaped to continue her work elsewhere. Ginnie returned to Memphis after the war and was a heroine of the yellow fever epidemics of the 1870s. She died in New York City.
7. CONFPK_130228_082.JPG: Mud Island: Mud Island, across the old Wolf River channel before you, began to be formed by the Mississippi River around 1900. By 1916 there was concern that it would grow so far south that it would block access to the harbor, so the island was connected to the mainland and the Wolf River was diverted to run between Mud Island and the mainland to keep the channel open. In 1958, much of the western portion of the island was removed to make way for the new Hernando DeSoto Bridge (Interstate Highway 40), and the Wolf River was cut through the north end of the island, creating the present still-water harbor you see. Mud Island Park, directly in front of you, is owned by the City of Memphis. Construction began in 1977 and was completed in 1982 at a cost of $63 million. It celebrates the history and the culture of the lower Mississippi River and contains a museum, an amphitheatre, shops, restaurants, play areas, and a scale model of the Mississippi River which runs the length of the park. Access is by the pedestrian bridge or monorail to your right. There is a second entrance on the north end just south of Auction Avenue.
8. CONFPK_130228_093.JPG: Jefferson Davis Park: When Riverside Drive was constructed in the mid-1930's, this park was built on what had been an old dumping ground for construction debris and dredge spoil. It was enlarged to its present size in 1937, using more material dredged from the river. The park was named after Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy who lived in Memphis from 1869 to 1878 and who was president of an insurance company here. He lived at two houses on Court Avenue between Third and Fourth Streets, both of which were demolished in the mid-1930's. The park was improved in 1983, using City and County funds, as the first phase of a Riverfront Promenade. Improvements included connections to the parking areas north of the park and to the cobblestones to the south, the installation of the concrete walks, and new lighting, landscaping, signage, and furnishings.
9. CONFPK_130228_098.JPG: Cobblestone Landing: There were several boat landings in this general area during the nineteenth century. An 1827 drawing shows a public landing approximately one-half mile north of this spot, but changes in the "batture" or built-up bank caused by the river moved the desirable landing areas, further south. These included ??? Landing at the west end of Poplar Avenue (near the Convention Center), the Court Street Landing immediately in front of you, and Hart's Landing at the foot of Beale Street. Concessions were granted by the City to moor ??? boats and ferry slips on the landings. Ferries operated from landings at Washington Avenue and Monroe Avenue. Other spots were reserved for wharf boats-floating docks that adjusted their mooring cables with the rising and falling river levels. Until 1860, everything from old boat gunwales to gravel was used to pave the surfaces of the landings. In that year, the City authorized stone paving between Adams and Jefferson and between Union and Beale, as well as the installation of 14 anchoring rings (many of which are still visible, as is the former official river gauge, set into the stones at Beale Street). Other paving in the area was contracted for as late as 1896.
10. CONFPK_130228_119.JPG: Wedding of the Waters: A great celebration marking completion of the Memphis & Charleston Railroad occurred near here on May 1-4, 1858. These festivities attracted 25,000 spectators and included a symbolic "wedding of the waters" at the Court Street Wharf, with firemen from cities along the Memphis & Charleston route pumping Atlantic Ocean water, drawn from
11. CONFPK_130228_123.JPG: (continued) Charleston Bay, into the Mississippi River. One contemporary account hailed the celebration as "the greatest demonstration of popular joy" ever witnessed in the Mississippi Valley. Numerous Memphians, including Col. John T. Trezevant, Robert C. Brinkley, and W.B. Greenlaw, were important investors in and promoters of this railroad, which was highly successful.
12. CONFPK_130303_069.JPG: Confederate History of Memphis This bluff was fortified by Gen. Pillow May 1862. Thirty seven companies were equipped here for the Confederate service. The Confederate Ram, Arkansas, one of the first ironclad battleships in the Navy was built and partially armored here, but fearing capture she was sent down the river to be completed and was not ready for action at the time of the attack of the Federal fleet June 6, 1862. The Confederate fleet of 8 boats protected only by cotton bales and carrying 18 guns gallantly resisted this attack of 6 armored gun boats, 4 rams and 20 mortar boats carrying 84 guns. The engagement lasted 90 minutes and was the first battle between steam rams in history. At dawn Aug. 21, 1864, Gen. N. B. Forrest made his grand strategic raid into Memphis, which was then held by Federal general's with 10,000 men. His object being to check the advance of the Federal army into Miss. Arriving here with only 1500 picked men, spent with 50 hours continuous marching, he sent this telegram: "Forrest holds Memphis" to the Federal headquarters in Miss. The Federal officers, taken by surprise, rushed from their bedrooms and secreted themselves about the city. After spending 2 hours here, Forrest cut the wires, and left the city taking 500 prisoners, and large quantities of supplies. His loss was only 25 wounded and 8 killed, while the enemy's loss was 90 wounded and 30 killed. Pres. Davis was a resident of this city for 9 years after his release from prison. Palms for the Southern Soldier Crowns for the veteran's head and loyal love and honor for our Confederate dead
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