Crossroads of the Confederacy

Fiery fields, a famous Forrest in an adventure that goes deep into the fray.

When it came to fighting in the Mississippi Hills, the Confederate Army may have been outgunned, but it was the Union Army that got outfoxed, repeatedly, as the Confederates stayed in the game by staying on their toes:  their tiptoes, that is.  P.G.T. Beauregard sneaked his men out of Corinth in the dark of night to evade capture; in the light of early morning, Earl Van Dorn and his men sneaked up on Grant's forces at Holly Springs to devastate Union supplies. 

The March to Freedom

Out of bondage into brilliance: Let your eyes see the glory on a journey to freedom and greatness.

If American civil rights was a journey of a thousand steps, those first steps were taken here by some remarkable people. People like Ida B. Wells, who was born a slave and became a hero to millions as a crusading journalist and activist; and James Meredith, an Air Force veteran who’d answered his country’s call with honor and saw no reason for America to give a deferment to his own dream.

American Cultural Icons

A Nobel venture, a royal welcome on the road to musical and literary genius.

Let’s start with the facts: the artists of the Mississippi Hills rocked the world, and the roll call of genius you’ll meet on this tour is pretty amazing:

High Notes: Hernando, Olive Branch, Nesbit, Southaven

People from all over the nation came to be pronounced man and wife here.  Before he was a millionaire and Civil War legend, coroner Nathan Bedford Forrest pronounced people dead here.  Here, John Grisham wrote his first best-selling prose, and at the turn of the century a thriving community of musical talents arose, artists who migrated to Memphis when they weren't playing minstrel or medicine shows.