Tupelo is probably the smallest battlefield I've ever visited, or rather the officially preserved part is the smallest I've ever visited. This was on my first battlefield trip. We were on our way from Vicksburg to Shiloh and it said there was a park at Tupelo so we stopped. Its probably as big as the yard of my house. There is this one monument and two plaques. If you walk away from that understanding the battle better than you are truly talented.
The problem is that it appears Tupelo has grown a ton since the war and has paved over most of the battlefield. I saw on the Civil War Preservation Trust's website that there is an opportunity to purchase land where the battle ended on Mt Vernon Road. Those 12 acres will be nice but won't provide a ton of opportunity for interpretation, but any interpretation is better than the scant amount I saw the last time I was there.
2 comments:
Tupelo is my 3 girls, well ladies now, with their own kids, battlefield. I knew how small it was before I took them and you should have seen their faces when I said, "this is it." Ah, just to have them walk Chickamauga just one more time in the heat...well there is always the g-kids
Thanks for all your work
Barry Summers
Tupelo Battlefield is tiny. I remember visiting in 1993 and thinking how small and hard to understand the flow of the battle. Later we went to Brice's Cross Roads when it was originally just an acre also but since it has added something like 800 acres and has a nice visitor center. But on the same trip was my first visit to Shiloh and it really was love at first sight. Shiloh is definitely one of my favorite battlefields. I just feel lucky to be able to visit awesome battlefield parks like Shiloh.
Chris
Post a Comment