I can't believe the vacation has ended and I'm back to the grind of mere survival again. Luckily, we missed all the really bad weather around Nashville, where we stayed for 8 days on West End on Vanderbilt campus. Had a lot of fun in Middle Tennessee where the historically significant sites abound. We took several side trips in the Nashville vicinity. Dickson, TN, for instance, has a wonderful new museum dedicated to its railroad past. Grant ordered the completion of that stretch of the rail during the war. Tennessee state parks are a true rival of the wonderful parks in AR. Tennessee state parks are well-maintained and exhibit a lot of pride and concern for publicly-owned places. I will be back if I live so long.
Pinson Mounds in Jackson is where we began the vacation. Saul's Mound is a spectacular piece of remaining evidence of pre-entrada life in North America. The nature trail was in a sad shape after the first wave of bad storms for that region, but a ranger had cleared the worst obstructions on his own time(Thank you!). It was a beautiful Sunday morning and was nice and cool, but still warm enough for my wife to take several shots of a snake in the grass. Along the I-40 corridor are signs for the TN historic sites, like Parker Crossroads, Johnsonville, and several others. Really enjoyed all the little side trips on the way to Nashville. My goal on this trip was to follow Maj. Gen. Cleburne to his death at the cotton gin at Franklin, TN, so I was eager to get there ASAP. Franklin is reminiscent of Fayetteville, but with much more wealth accumulated. Carter House, Lotz House, and Carnton Plantation are must-see locations on the south of city center. The bookstores and the staff are knowledgeable and helpful to the cause of understanding the past. 10,000 Americans reported as casualties in 5 hours is a horrible thought to behold. A shameful waste of America's best citizens and recent arrivals. The Civil War was a horrible occasion that I had to temper with a visit to a pre-Civil War historic site, the James K. Polk ancestral home at Columbia, TN.
Interestingly, Polk's presidency is considered to be the beginning of the end of the the unified nation, since he launched the war with Mexico that opened the rest of the continent to European and African settlement. The newly settled areas, wrestled permanently from native inhabitants and the Mexican government, would want to organize as territories and states where the issue of legalizing or banning slavery would become an issue. The slavery v. abolition factionism had existed since the very beginning of our democratic republic. The issue raged from 1788 to 1865 when ultimately the issue was resolved through bloodshed. Nevertheless, Polk house was still a respite from the gruesome actions of war. The widow Polk remained in the home throughout the Civil War and she was on neither side. Her husband was the president of the entire United States. Understanding the Mexican War is important for understanding the Civil War, so I begin that series of readings with a visit to Polk's home.
A great bookstore at the site boasts the friendliest guides and a pretty house and grounds to tour in a beautiful town that cast a broad shadow over Helena's past. Lucius Polk was a Confederate brigadier general Helena claims, though he was from Columbia vicinity. Gideon Pillow, a Columbia native, owned two plantations in Helena and his brother Jerome Bonaparte was a resident during the Civil War, where he looked after the plantations requisitioned by Maj. Gen.(later) Curtis where the Union authorities housed freed slaves (contraband, as described in the day) and put them to work on Pillow's lands. Lt. Gen.(post Civil War) Sherman mentioned the Pillow complaints in his autobiography and was appalled that a Confederate general in rebellion against the U.S. would petition a U.S. general on campaign against the rebellion to enlist his aid in receiving compensation for mules and other assets lost in the Union war effort to subdue his rebellion. Jerome had taken the oath of allegiance by then, so he was allowed to stay. Gideon Pillow was a political player of note among the Jackonian proponents of the national Democracy. He was instrumental in the nomination and subsequent elections of James K. Polk and Franklin Pierce (a brigadier general during the Mexican War along with Pillow). St. John's Church at Ashwood was built at the point where all the Polk plantation property lines met. It's a nice church and graveyard. I've been reading about Bishop Leonidas Polk (killed at Kennesaw Mountain and nephew Lucius was severely wounded again) who presided as Missionary Bishop of the Southwest, then Bishop of Louisiana in the Episcopal church. He was also credited with founding the University of the South, though it opened after his death. Helena's history, despite my absence, is still rather important to me and Columbia, TN was important to pre-Civil War Helena's history as well as the nation. Nashville to Columbia was a crucial stretch of road where there was a large accumulation of wealth that was home largely to Jacksonian Democracy advocates. Memphis was a center of Whig advocates and the mountains of Tennessee were Johnson country. Andrew Johnson would certainly have an interesting run in American political history.
My wife and I spent a great deal of time along the old pikes extant during the war. I will begin studying the Battle of Nashville that was scattered through various locations and will be a bit more of an effort to study, so I will have to return someday. Plenty of reading on the subject should lead me in the right direction. The catastrophe of the Army of Tennessee in the last days of 1864 and the poor leadership of Lt. Gen. Hood is sad to ponder on a strictly human level. Certainly, the politics of the war boiled down to moral issues, under a cloud of legal issues, but the humanity lost and scars that remained are important to me to remember. So many suffered the most shocking of reversals and ends during the conflict. In northwest Arkansas, there were no battles fought on the scale of Franklin and Nashville, but the human toll was nearly unbearable in the power vacuum that resulted from small numbers of occupying troops and the lawless wilderness full of bushwhackers and "guerrillas" who claimed allegiance to both sides of the conflict. Misery and death were widespread throughout the battleground states.
The Civil War was important to me in this trip, but not so much from my wife's perspective. Cheekwood Gardens and Museum is one of the gems of the region. A visit there will keep you busy for an afternoon. I've tried my hand at gardening and my yard still looks as if it was once carefully maintained(careful embellishment). When I've had time, digging in the soil and promulgating life was an enjoyable exercise. Life is preferable to death in my view, and I hope most humans feel the same way. We must have taken hundreds of photos of the grounds (no photography in the galleries, however); Rebecca probably took at least 90 percent of the photos. Nashville has been a cultural center of the Middle South for generations and a city of such prestige should have its share of great museums and botanical gardens. I regret not making it to Frist Museum, the Tennessee State Museum, Fisk University (Crystal Bridges?), the Parthenon, the Vanderbilt museum, the Hermitage,....(the list of regrets could be rather long, after several months of visits for Tennessee because there are so many worthy activities and sites)
Ernest Tubb Records, Ryman Auditorium, and the thoughtfully mixed architecture of downtown, ranging from mid-19th century architecture to modern glass and steel high-rises, were fun destinations we visited. It's nice to see the riverfront predominated by the old, while spires in the sky are tucked behind the old districts enhancing the view. Urban "renewal" hadn't destroyed the past as effectively as cities like Memphis and Little Rock. It was unbelievable to fathom the thought that the old Ryman was nearly demolished. What a tragedy that would have been. It must be holy ground because it experienced a miracle in its survival, and those gorgeous stained-glass windows beam today in the sunlight. The banks of the Cumberland were tame during our stay, but not so long ago the place was under water. Hardly noticed evidence of the disaster.
Centennial Park is a beautiful part of the west end of the city and was full of life, particularly joggers from Vanderbilt and surrounding neighborhoods and we were happy to take a walk and take lots of pictures of the arboretum on the grounds of the Parthenon. Natchez Trace Parkway is a truly remarkable biking magnet for the intense roadriders. It would be a bit of a challenge for folks like me who get all their mileage in the saddle of a mountain bike. I will need an actual roadbike to have a great time on the Trace. I enjoyed hiking practically every hiking trail from the northern origin to near the AL border during our stay. There were hundreds of photo opportunities along the Parkway. The Trace all the way to Natchez is a month long visit in the least to do everything related to the Parkway. The sidetrips to the neat towns and historic sites could require a visit of several months.
Things happened and our trip had to be cut short, however, I'm not complaining. We had to cut through Helena to see family and my brother, who had taken ill during our trip. I decided to avoid I-40 the day of our return from Nashville and opted to take I-65 south to Hwy 72 through AL and MS to Hwy 278 because no rain was expected and it was a beautiful drive. We just missed the worst of the rain as it reached Nashville. The day after we passed through AL and MS, the tornado outbreak destroyed much of the lovely sun-splashed landscape we saw as we drove the previous day. At least we got to visit a favorite city of my wife and I, Oxford, MS. I love Ajax and 208 on the square. 208 has the best duck soup next to the one my wife made with pure duck stock (not chicken or beef or any other stock or broth). Ajax had excellent home-cooking along with some really good cheesy grits. Square Books and Off Square Books are favorite bookstores. I usually stock up on Hannah, Faulkner, and Welty, but only had time for several photo books and Barry Hannah novels I hadn't seen stocked anywhere in Fayetteville. Not real proud of our first graduate of the MFA writer's program at UA apparently, since the new UA Bookstore on Garland didn't have any of his books in the UA graduate or professor's section of the shelf. Sad. One of the great Southern fiction writers of our day should be on their shelf.
On our way back to Fayetteville from Helena, we were caught by one of the weather systems that nearly destroyed the Southeast, but all the tornadoes had been spotted north of I-40. We still encountered some harsh winds at Brinkley. Rebecca was born and raised in one of the worst tornadic regions, KS, and she was deeply troubled about this storm, but we made it. No hidden tornadoes at nightfall twisted us to death at least this time. We have a penchant for driving through floods and tornadoes on our return trips from vacations. Hwy 166 and Route 66 in southern KS and SW MO was flooding on our way back from Dodge City a couple of years ago, but we made it to AR before a stretch of road we followed south from Joplin was closed because of flash flooding. All-in-all we had things happen to our vacation that was suited to saving our necks in harsh weather, so no complaints about cutting our vacation short in Tennessee. I missed Old Stone Fort in Manchester, Stones River Battlefield in Murfreesboro, and Chucalissa Village in Memphis. I had planned trips to Parkin, Wilson, and Wapanocca to see entrada sites, but another day I hope will lead us to those historic places.
We took a lot of photos, bought a bunch of books and enjoyed the cultural center of the Middle South and I was glad to have taken this trip. Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama are calling my name. I must visit every possible site in all those states, including my home state AR before I draw my last breath, or my life's mission will have been a failure. We missed all the decent live music of Nashville because no one we like was performing, except Marty Stuart at the Opry with god-knows-who. Lady Gaga was performing whatever ritual of screeching at the moon (I'd rather hear Hank Williams howl at the moon) with canned noise she describes as music at the Bridgestone; we opted to no-show (just like Goerge Jones) that venue for the evening.
We remedied our dearth of live music performances by pre-ordering tickets to Billy Joe Shaver and Lucinda Williams at Fayetteville, so we had a musical treat to top off our two weeks of bliss-away-from-home on our last Sunday night of vacation. Just an old chunk o' coal down at Green Gables hawkin' them tables honky tonk heroes like me wacko from Waco is my love still in Helena eatin' sweet potato pie I changed the locks on my front door born and raised in Pineola from Nagacodoches that's in East Texas not far from the border but he told everybody he was from Lake Charles... a great night for words and writers and excellent musicians. Two weeks well spent. If only we lived longer, worked less, and could play more with limitless funds. Ah, the life of leisure. Live life every day.
Fayetteville, May 8, 2011
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