Tennessee, Henderson County, Parkers Crossroads
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Forrest planned to encircle the Union position with artillery, using his guns to fight the battle rather than engaging his dismounted troops in close small arms combat. When Forrest deployed his troops following the engagement at Hicks' field he ordered a portion of Captain Samuel L. Freeman's Battery to take position here. Major Nicholas N. Cox's Tennessee Cavalry Battalion (dismounted) supported the battery. Freeman's cannon were placed on this low rise, which commanded a comprehensive view of the battlefield. Additional artillery was positioned to the southeast.
These guns proved extremely affective, as Colonel Cyrus Dunham later reported: The enemy at this time had one battery on a ridge in front of and parallel to our line; one on a ridge nearly perpendicular to but beyond our line to the right, so situated as to enable him to concentrate a fire upon several portions of our line and to enfilade a part of it, and his fire had become terrible in its intensity.
The Confederate artillery kept up a constant fire, notwithstanding efforts by the Federals to silence the pieces by shooting down the artillerists at the guns. Dunham twice ordered his right flank units to charge these guns but neither charge succeeded against the deadly fire of double canister. After the second charge faltered, Forrest ordered his troops to advance. The Federal troops fell back to a new position behind a split-rail fence at the edge of the woods visible to the south.
(War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
Forrest planned to encircle the Union position with artillery, using his guns to fight the battle rather than engaging his dismounted troops in close small arms combat. When Forrest deployed his troops following the engagement at Hicks' field he ordered a portion of Captain Samuel L. Freeman's Battery to take position here. Major Nicholas N. Cox's Tennessee Cavalry Battalion (dismounted) supported the battery. Freeman's cannon were placed on this low rise, which commanded a comprehensive view of the battlefield. Additional artillery was positioned to the southeast.
These guns proved extremely affective, as Colonel Cyrus Dunham later reported: The enemy at this time had one battery on a ridge in front of and parallel to our line; one on a ridge nearly perpendicular to but beyond our line to the right, so situated as to enable him to concentrate a fire upon several portions of our line and to enfilade a part of it, and his fire had become terrible in its intensity.
The Confederate artillery kept up a constant fire, notwithstanding efforts by the Federals to silence the pieces by shooting down the artillerists at the guns. Dunham twice ordered his right flank units to charge these guns but neither charge succeeded against the deadly fire of double canister. After the second charge faltered, Forrest ordered his troops to advance. The Federal troops fell back to a new position behind a split-rail fence at the edge of the woods visible to the south.
(War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
Christopher Columbus Slaughter was the first native born cattle king of Texas. While living on the west Texas frontier he was a ranger, Confederate beef supplier, and trail driver. His ranching empire, including the Long S and Lazy S ranches, totaled over one million acres. In the early 1870s he moved to Dallas, where he founded, and was an officer in, three early banks. An initiator of the Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Assn., he was also noted for his philanthropy to Baptist schools, churches, and hospitals, especially Baylor Hospital.
Close personal friend and family physician of Washington. Surgeon in Braddock's campaign, also with Washington throughout the Revolutionary War. Was at his bedside when he died and received his last messages.
The Wilkes Street Tunnel was part of the Orange & Alexandria Railroad, founded in 1848 to promote trade with western Virginia. The Orange and Alexandria inaugurated its track in Alexandria on May 7, 1851 with a run to the north end of Union Street to the Wilkes Street Tunnel. Thus, the tunnel linked the railroad to warehouses and wharves along the waterfront. Located nearby, the Smith and Perkins foundry manufactured locomotives for the Orange and Alexandria and other railroads.
Founded 1795
The area around duke street between Hooff's Run and the base of Shuter's Hill was once known as "West End." Originally subdivided and sold by John and Thomas West in the 1780s, West End became a thriving community well positioned for commerce along the Little River Turnpike (now Duke Street). The City of Alexandria annexed West End in 1915, and eventually its distinctive name was lost. With subsequent annexations, the current western portion of Alexandria became known as West End.
Funded by the U.S. Public Housing Administration and built by the Alexandria Housing and Redevelopment Authority (ARHA) between 1954 and 1959, the James Bland Homes was Alexandria's fourth public housing project, and it more than doubled the city's stock of racially segregated public housing units intended for its African American citizens. Alexandria's public housing emerged from an effort to improve substandard or "slum" housing associated with President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal of the 1930s. Many felt that the slums contributed to high crime rates and posed serious public health problems. The James Bland Homes project was preceded on the site by a World War II era federal Public Housing Authority trailer camp established in 1943 for African American residents of properties condemned during a 1941 program of slum clearance in downtown Alexandria. The establishment of the James Bland Homes required the condemnation of 57 parcels in a n area known as "the Hump." Many residents of this historically integrated working class neighborhood fought to preserve or receive fair compensation for their homes.
Three railroads developed in Alexandria during the mid-19th century, a period of limited industrial expansion for the City. Alexandrians had a invested heavily in the Alexandria Canal which opened in 1843, giving the city access to the rich Cumberland coalfields via the Chesapeake & Ohio canal by 1850. Only then did they begin to invest in railroads, the newer form of transportation, to link Alexandria with the Shenandoah Valley farmland. But the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, which reached Harpers Ferry by the mid-1830s and Cumberland by 1842, diverted much of the trade to Alexandria's rival Baltimore. Nevertheless, Alexandria's railroads contributed significantly to the city's economic prosperity prior to the Civil War by transporting passengers, mail and freight to and from western Virginia.
John Adair 1757-1840: Pioneer, soldier, and statesman, Adair was a veteran of the American Revolution, was 8th governor of Kentucky, and represented that state in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. He fought at the Battle of the Thames and was subsequently rewarded for his service, being appointed adjutant general of Kentucky.
John Watts Young, NASA astronaut, Gemini veteran, Apollo moonwalker, and space shuttle commander, was the first American to travel in space six times. As an Orlando High School student, Young lived in this house at 815 West Princeton Street from 1945 until graduation in 1948. In 1965, he co-piloted Gemini-Titan III, a program that directly benefited Project Apollo's development and the first voyage to the moon. In 1972, Young was aboard Apollo XVI, the fifth manned landing on the moon, and was the ninth person to walk on the moon. He was commander on the first human-guided test flight of the first space shuttle, Columbia STS-1 in 1981 and the Challenger STS-9 in 1983, which carried Spacelab-1, a removable science laboratory. Young became the Special Assistant to the Director of the Johnson Space Center for Engineering, Operations and Safety in Houston, Texas, in 1987.
James Johnson 1774-1826: The brother of Richard Johnson, James was elected as a Kentucky State senator in 1808. He served as a lieutenant colonel in Johnson's Mounted Infantry and led the charge on the British lines at the Battle of the Thames along with his two sons. Following the war, he served in the U.S. House of representatives.
Isaac Shelby 1750-1826: Shelby was the 1st and 5th governor of Kentucky and a veteran of the American Revolution. As governor and at 63years of age, Shelby personally led the Kentucky Militia at the Battle of the Thames.
Built in 1945 for $468,700, Carver Court was a public housing development set up by the Orlando Housing Authority in an effort to stimulate the economy, resolve growing slum and housing problems, and meet local demands associated with the massive defense buildup that had occurred during World War II. The development consisted of 16 one-story buildings and 12 two-story buildings. Carver Court was a prime example of a planned residential community, reflecting important urban planning and housing design theories of the period. As a well-defined group of affordable, multi-family, residential buildings organized around open spaces, Carver Court exemplified public housing projects constructed throughout the country during the late 1930s and 1940s. A team of Orlando’s most prominent architects and landscape architects, including Arthur Beck (1899-1990), the first Jewish architect in Orlando, Herbert L. Flint, landscape designer for the first public housing complex in Jacksonville, and F. Earl DeLoe (b. 1893), designed the housing complex. Originally built to house African-American families, Carver Court reflected attitudes toward segregation and the housing of low-income families that were characteristic of the time.
In 1905, while drilling for coal on this property now owned by the descendants of Jesse S. Eutsey, an artesian well was found. It became known as "The Drill". Please use "The Drill" with care and help keep this area clean and free of litter. Renovated and maintained by The Bullskin Township Historical Society 1998
