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The Prattville Dragoons

December 18, 2013, 5:05 pm
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Alabama, Autauga County, Prattville
This boulder erected by
The Merrill E. Pratt Chapter U.D.C.
April 26, 1916,
marks the spot where
The Prattville Dragoons
assembled in April, 1861,
on the eve of their departure
to the war,
and is commemorative of their
patriotism in the Confederate service.

(War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
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Sidney Lanier

December 18, 2013, 5:10 pm
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Alabama, Autauga County, Prattville
Beloved teacher of Prattville Academy
1867 • on this site • 1868
whose memory will be forever
cherished by people of Prattville, Ala.
whom he loved and served

(Arts, Letters, Music • Education • Patriots & Patriotism) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
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A Land Divided

December 18, 2013, 9:32 pm
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West Virginia, Jefferson County, Harpers Ferry


The struggle of today is not altogether for today -
it is for a vast future also.
Abraham Lincoln

You are standing near what was once an international border. During the Civil War, the peak to your left lay within the Union state of Maryland. Loudon Heights to your right was claimed by the Confederate state of Virginia. Slavery divided the nation, and here at Harpers Ferry the two sides clashed over the meaning of freedom.

[Aerial photo caption reads]
Virginia's secession from the Union divided North from South along the Potomac River. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Harpers Ferry was home to the national armory and passageway for major railroad lines. These assets made it an important prize of war to both sides.

[Inset photo captions read]
The noise of army camp life once disturbed the quiet field before you. Both the Union and Confederate armies used this clearing as a campground and training field at different times throughout the course of the war.

Refugees from slavery flocked to the Union encampments in Harpers Ferry. Thousands of formerly enslaved people sought the protection of the Union army. Classified by the army as contraband, they faced an uncertain future.

(African Americans • Patriots & Patriotism • War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
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The Niagara Movement at Storer College

December 18, 2013, 9:58 pm
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West Virginia, Jefferson County, Harpers Ferry


The battle we wage is not for ourselves alone but for all true Americans.
W.E.B. DuBois

In 1906, the Niagara Movement held its second annual meeting on the Storer College campus.

The Niagara Movement was the first national organization of Negroes which aggressively and unconditionally demanded the same civil rights for their people which other Americans enjoyed.
Elliot M. Rudwick, historian, 1957

Symbolically important as the first meeting of the group on American soil, the conference organizers carefully selected the location of the meeting. They chose Harpers Ferry for its rich history, including the John Brown raid to end slavery, and Storer College for its commitment to education for people of all races.

We claim for ourselves every single right that belongs to a freeborn American, political, civil and social…
W.E.B. DuBois speaking at the 1906 Niagara Movement meeting

[Photo caption reads]
Attendees at the 1906 Niagara Movement conference posed at Anthony Hall, the building in front of you. General Secretary W.E.B. DuBois is seated fifth from the right.

(African Americans • Civil Rights) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
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Storer College

December 18, 2013, 10:15 pm
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West Virginia, Jefferson County, Harpers Ferry


That was the happiest time of my life.
Storer alumna Ruby Reeler

Female students arriving here at the Cook Hall dormitory were greeted with a welcoming letter that advised them, “Here you will come as a refuge from the strangeness or perplexities of campus life. Here you will fight your battles of adjustment to new surroundings. Here you will gain new understanding of community living and of friendships.”

Storer College provided a refuge from the pressures of segregated society. Students flourished within the structure of the Storer community. Football teams played on the field before you, and literary clubs and musical groups met in the buildings around you.

You loved the school…this building was you.
Storer alumus

[Photo caption reads] Storer students were active in a wide variety of clubs, societies, and athletic teams.

(African Americans • Civil Rights • Education • Man-Made Features) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
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Stephen Tyng Mather

December 18, 2013, 10:30 pm
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West Virginia, Jefferson County, Harpers Ferry


He laid the foundation of the National Park Service. Defining and establishing the policies under which its areas shall be developed and conserved unimpaired for future generations. There will never come an end to the good that he has done.

(Environment) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
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"The Natchez Burning"

December 19, 2013, 7:21 am
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Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez
(side 1)
One of the deadliest fires in American history took the lives of over 200 people, including bandleader Walter Barnes and nine members of his dance orchestra at the Rhythm Club (less than a mile southeast of this site) on April 23, 1940. News of the tragedy reverberated throughout the country, especially among the African American community, and blues performers have recorded memorial songs such as “The Natchez Burning” and “The Mighty Fire” ever since.

(side 2)
"The Natchez Burning" Few events in African-American history have been as memorialized as the Natchez fire of 1940. In addition to a monument, markers, museum exhibits, and annual local ceremonies in remembrance of the dead, the fire has inspired both prose and poetry, as well as songs by blues and gospel singers. Just weeks after the disaster, the Lewis Bronzeville Five, Leonard “Baby Doo” Caston, and Gene Gilmore recorded the first commemorative songs in Chicago. The most well-known song to address the topic, “The Natchez Burning,” recorded in 1956 by Howlin’ Wolf, led to versions by Natchez bluesmen Elmo Williams and Hezekiah Early, rock performer Captain Beefheart, and others. John Lee Hooker, blind ballad singer Charles Haffer of Clarksdale, and Louisiana guitarist Robert Gilmore also sang about the tragedy on various recordings.

The blaze reportedly began when a discarded match or cigarette ignited the decorative Spanish moss that hung from the ceiling of the Rhythm Club (also called the Rhythm Night Club), a corrugated metal building on St. Catherine Street. Windows had been nailed shut, and when the flames erupted, hundreds of frantic patrons stormed the only door. Bandleader Walter Barnes was hailed as a hero for trying to calm the crowd while he and the band continued to play the song “Marie.” When the mass of bodies blocked the exit, victims suffocated or were burned or crushed to death.

Barnes, a Vicksburg native, had moved to Chicago in 1923 and recorded with his Royal Creolians band in 1928-29. He developed a successful career taking his dance music to small southern towns where big-time entertainers rarely performed. In keeping with the musical fashion of the era, by 1939 he had renamed his unit the Sophisticated Swing Orchestra. Barnes recruited musicians from several different states for his final tour. The impact of the holocaust hit home not just in Natchez and Chicago, but all the way from Texas to Ohio when the musicians’ bodies were sent home for funerals. Fellow bandleader Clarence “Bud” Scott, Jr., Barnes’s guest, also perished in the flames.

The Chicago Daily Defender, the nation’s leading African-American newspaper, covered the Natchez story extensively. Barnes had also been a columnist for the Defender, and the paper reported that more than 15,000 people attended his funeral. The first monument to the victims was dedicated on the Natchez Bluff on September 15, 1940, by the Natchez Civic and Social Clubs of Chicago and Natchez. A state historical marker was later erected at the former site of the Rhythm Club.

(African Americans • Arts, Letters, Music • Disasters • Entertainment) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
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Thomas Etholen Selfridge

December 19, 2013, 7:32 am
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Virginia, Arlington County, Fort Myer

First military officer in the world to pilot an airplane, solo, in flight
May 19, 1908
Hammondsport, New York

First person in the world to lose his life as the result of an airplane accident
September 17, 1908
Fort Myer, Virginia

Born in San Francisco, California February 8, 1882; graduated from the United States Military Academy, 1903; First Lieutenant, Field Artillery. Assigned to the Signal Corps for aeronautic duties, United States Army. Lt. Selfridge had enthusiastic interest and extended experience in aeronautics. In 1907 he ascended 168 feet in a large tetrahedral kite developed by Alexander Graham Bell. Lt. Selfridge made a number of balloon ascensions, qualified as pilot of the Army’s first dirigible airship. Studied the science of flight. Participated in the design of four airplanes and wrote detailed accounts of aviation progress. He was age 26 when he died. Had he lived he would have been one of our army’s most brilliant leaders in aeronautics. He was buried with full military honors in nearby Arlington Cemetery.

Dedicated by the Early Birds of Aviation
as a memorial to Lieutenant Selfridge
and to all who have sacrificed their lives in the development of human flight

October 29, 1970 • Sculpture by Captain Ralph S. Barnaby, USN

(Air & Space) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
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Fort Myer Historic District

December 19, 2013, 7:37 am
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Virginia, Arlington County, Fort Myer
has been designated a
Registered National
Historical Landmark

Under the provisions of the
Historic Sites Act of August 21, 1935
This site possesses exceptional value
in commemorating or illustrating
the history of the United States

U.S. Department of the Interior
National Park Service

1973

(Forts, Castles) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
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Legion Memorial Park

December 19, 2013, 2:17 pm
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Minnesota, Meeker County, Litchfield
Legion Memorial Park
1994
In Memory Of And
Dedicated To
Veterans Of All Wars

American Legion
Post 104

(Military) Includes location, directions, 7 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
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Oak Bowery

December 20, 2013, 5:33 am
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Alabama, Butler County, near Fort Deposit
In March 1863 Francis and Sarah Sheppard gave 3 acres of land to Methodist Episcopal Church South as a place for worship and burial. 2 more acres given by Alexander and Mary Sheppard Oct. 1868. Property sold to County Line Primitive Baptist Church May 1907, with cemeteries excepted. This church relocated to Fort Deposit in early 1920's and building was then used by a black congregation. Vacant for many years, structure was destroyed by strong winds in 1981. Cemeteries are still tended by Sheppard descendants and a reunion is held the first Saturday of June each year. Marker erected on church site by Oak Bowery Memorial Cemetery Association, June 4, 1983.

(Cemeteries & Burial Sites • Churches, Etc.) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
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First Flight of an Airplane on a U.S. Army Installation

December 20, 2013, 5:43 am
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Virginia, Arlington County, Fort Myer

(Panel 1: topside of monument)
Commemorating
the
Fiftieth Anniversary
of the
First Flight of an Airplane
on a
U.S. Army Installation
September 3, 1908
(Panel 2: east face of monument)
This Wright Brothers Flyer
Built under an Army Signal Corps
contract was repeatedly test-flown
from these grounds during
September 3-17, 1908

The airplane, Orville Wright at the
controls, took off near this point on
the Fort Myer parade ground on the
first flight, September 8, 1908

Dedicated by the U.S. Army
September 3, 1958

(Rendering of the Wright Flyer in flight)

(Air & Space) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
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Surrounded at the Coulee

December 20, 2013, 4:52 pm
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Minnesota, Renville County, Morton

This monument was dedicated in 1894 as a testament to U.S. soldiers and civilians who fought and died in the Battle of Birch Coulee. The U.S.–Dakota Conflict of 1862 started when Dakota Indians, frustrated over broken treaty promises and efforts to change their traditional way of living, made an attempt to drive out all the settlers of southwestern Minnesota. A burial party was sent out to bury the dead from previous battles, search for survivors and determine the whereabouts of the hostile Dakota. The battle that ensued would turn out to be one of the deadliest for the U.S. Army during the conflict.

The Battle
On Sunday, August 31, 1862, 170 U.S. soldiers and a few civilians, under command of Major Joseph R. Brown, moved upriver from Fort Ridgely. Captain Hiram Grant commanded one company and Captain Joseph Anderson commanded the other company. Their orders were to bury the dead, search for survivors and determine the whereabouts of the hostile Dakota. They buried over 70 settlers, soldiers and traders over two days on both sides of the Minnesota River. Seeing no signs of the Dakota, Grant set up camp at the head of Birch Coulee. Brown re-crossed the river and joined Grant.

Near dawn, one of the sentries saw Dakota soldiers moving in the grass surrounding the camp and fired at them. While the men had slept, Dakota soldiers led by Zitkahota (Chief Gray Bird), Wanmdi'tan'ka (Chief Big Eagle), Husasa (Chief Red Legs), and Mankato (Chief Blue Earth) had surrounded the camp.

The Dakota fired a deadly hail of bullets into the half-awakened camp. Brown's Army was severely weakened, with many men wounded and almost all of the 90 horses killed. The U.S. soldiers used the dead horses for cover.

The firing was heard by sentries at Fort Ridgely, 16 miles in the distance. A relief column of 240 soldiers, led by Colonel McPhail, was sent out from Fort Ridgely only to be stopped by Chief Mankato and Dakota soldiers. A messenger was sent back to Fort Ridgely. Colonel Sibley led all of the remaining troops out to finally relieve the battered burial party at about 11:00 a.m. that next morning. According to most accounts, thirteen members of the burial party were killed and 47 severely wounded. It is believed that the Dakota lost three men.

The Birch Coulee Battlefield is located 2 miles northwest of this monument, just east of State Highway 71. It has a self-guided interpretive trail.

The two Morton monuments, dedicated to the soldiers who fought at Birch Coulee and to those who aided the settlers, agency employees, or missionaries in... unreadable due to truncation

Struggles for a Home
The Minnesota River Valley has a story to tell about indigenous people struggling to make a home amid a changing environment. The Minnesota River Valley also has a story to tell about the struggles of the pioneering immigrant families who eventually created one of the most productive agricultural areas in the world.

The Minnesota River Valley Scenic Byway
Funded in part by Federal Highway Administration
logos of: America's Byways; Renville County; Scenic Byway Minnesota River Valley
www.mnrivervalley.com

(Wars, US Indian) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
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Giant’s Causeway and Bushmills Railway

December 20, 2013, 5:07 pm
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United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, County Antrim, Bushmills


The Giant’s Causeway railway provides a passenger link between the historic town of Bushmills and the famous basalt stone columns of the Giant’s Causeway World Heritage Site.

The Railway is an interesting heritage experience and travels along a panoramic stretch of coast. The Railway was laid to the Irish narrow gauge of three feet and runs for two miles along the track bed of the former Giant’s Causeway Tramway.

From the Bushmill’s Railway Station the line passes through the Bushfoot golf course and over the re-installed and extended bridge. It crosses the River Bush and then through the sand dune system of Bushfoot Strand. From this elevated position there are fine views towards Co. Donegal.

The line runs through a lightly wooded area before approaching the traditional styled station, which is just below the Nook Public House and Restaurant. A cycle track (National Cycle Network 93) and a footpath run alongside the line.

The History of the Tram

Recent History
The new Railway utilises equipment originally assembled by Lord O’Neill for a tourist line at Shane’s Castle, County Antrim, which closed in 1994. The idea of using this to revive part of the old tramway was largely conceived and promoted by David Laing. The Giant’s Causeway and Bushmills Railway Company is a not-for-profit organisation with charitable status. Clearance of the track bed commenced at the end of 1999 and the new railway carried its first passengers in 2002.

In the summer of 2010 The Giant’s Causeway and Bushmills Railway took delivery of a customised diesel powered locomotive together with three new coaches capable of accommodating eighty four passengers. These were designed and manufactured by Servern Lamb UK Ltd in Warwickshire.

The line follows the picturesque two mile extension of the original Giant’s Causeway and Bushmills Hydro-electric tram route. Both the new locomotive and passenger coaches have been designed to recreate as much as possible the passenger experience of the original hydro-electric tram. This provides a nostalgic journey linking the town of Bushmills to the UNESCO World Heritage Site at The Giant’s Causeway.

Originally, a tram line ran from the station to the market yard in the centre of Bushmills. A steam tram was used to transport local produce on this section of the track. Unfortunately this short extension to the line was no longer financially viable in 1890, due to a decline in the mining industry and a drop in local farm production. The extension was only in use for seven years.

William Traill
The original Giant’s Causeway Tramway was created by the vision and enthusiasm of Colonel William Traill of Ballyclough. He was a keen supporter of the railways and kept up to date with engineering and technological developments. Colonel Traill asked the Siemens Company to develop the electric railway at the Giant’s Causeway after seeing their display of the first electric railway system at the Berlin Trade Fair in 1879.

Colonel Traill built the generating station at the Walkmills Falls in Bushmills and installed water turbines to produce the necessary electrical power for the tram. The Tramway opened in 1883 and was acclaimed as the first commercially run hydro-electric powered tram system in the world. Although hydro-electric power was used, two Wilkinson Steam Locomotives pulled the carriages most of the time (steam haulage ended in 1916). It originally ran from Portrush to Bushmills with a later extension added to the Giant’s Causeway. In 1899 the live rail, which ran alongside the track, was replaced by an overhead electric wire. The Tramway, which was called the first long electric tramway in the world, ran for 65 years before finally closing down in 1949.

(Industry & Commerce • Man-Made Features • Railroads & Streetcars) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
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Andrew Marschalk

December 21, 2013, 6:24 am
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Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez
Site of the printery of “father of Mississippi journalism.” Printed first book in state, 1799. Became first public printer and in 1802 founded famed newspaper, “Mississippi Herald.”

(Communications • Industry & Commerce) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
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Site of Bank of Mississippi

December 21, 2013, 6:36 am
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Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez
Chartered in 1809 as the only bank in Mississippi Territory and given a monopoly as the official state bank in 1818. It occupied this site in 1826 but was supplanted by Planters' Bank in 1831. Closed solvent.

(Industry & Commerce) Includes location, directions, 1 photo, GPS coordinates, map.
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The J.L. Hand Gazebo

December 21, 2013, 6:56 am
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Georgia, Harris County, Pine Mountain
The handsome gazebo was given in loving memory of Mr. and Mrs. J. L. Hand and placed in the Gardens in January, 1972. Constructed of longleaf pine, it was originally the belvedere atop the now demolished J. L. Hand home in Pelham, Georgia, the childhood home of Mrs. Cason J. Callaway, Sr. The house was designed by Gust E. Leo of Atlanta and begun in 1895, requiring four years to complete. The plans are now in the archives at Thomasville, Georgia. The wrought-iron fence around the gazebo originally served as a trim for the roof line of the house, Before it succumbed to modern progress, the home was a landmark of Pelham and southwestern Georgia, the scene of many happy occasions for the family and their friends. During her lifetime, Mrs. Florence Hollis Hand devoted equally of her time to her family and to the azalea and camelia gardens which surrounded her home.

(Landmarks) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
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Lafayette

December 21, 2013, 7:08 am
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Georgia, Troup County, LaGrange
Born at the Château de Chavaniac Auvergne, France, on September 6, 1757, Gilbert Motter De Lafayette became at age 19 a Major General on Georgia Washington's staff. He Played a vital role in the defeat of General Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown, October 19,1781, ending the American Revolution.

Later in France Lafayette was Commanding General of the National Guard. Leader in the movement that gave France Republican form of Government. Author of the Declaration of the Rights of Man, and designer of the “Cocarde of Liberty” which he holds in his hand.

LaGrange, Georgia, was named for Lafayette's home, The Chateau De LaGrange on motion of Julius Calford. When the city was chartered on December 16, 1828, honoring Lafayette, who crossed the Chattahooche below LaGrange on March 30, 1825.

This statue of Lafayette is an exact copy of the original by Ernest -Eugene Hiolle C1834-1886) that stands in Le Puy, Auvergne, France. It was cast by American sculptor Harry Jackson at his Wyoming Foundry Studios, Camaniore, Italy, in 1974.

Permission to cast the statue was granted by Mayor Celestin Qiomcoei and the city council of Le Puy. It is the property of LaGrange College, on permanent loan to the city of LaGrange. The Statue and Renovation of Fountain are a gift of Callaway Foundation, Inc.

(Patriots & Patriotism • War, US Revolutionary) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
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Bud Scott

December 21, 2013, 7:29 am
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Mississippi, Adams County, Natchez
(side 1)
Clarence “Bud” Scott, Sr., led one of the most popular dance bands in the Mississippi-Louisiana region for several decades beginning around 1900. Scott (1876-1938), a lifelong Natchez resident, was renowned among both white and black audiences. Although the dances were segregated, the entire community could hear Scott when he sang from the balcony of the Natchez Confectionery at this site. Scott’s son, Clarence, Jr., (1908-1940), also known as Bud, led the band in its later years.

(side 2)
Bud Scott was the most famous African American musician in Mississippi during the early decades of the twentieth century. Across the state and in Louisiana, newspapers that rarely covered African Americans advertised and reported his appearances in glowing terms; some ads promoted his band as “the best orchestra in the South—bar none.” The 1938 Federal Writers’ Project called him “Mississippi’s own pioneer in jazz” and named him among the six most nationally prominent Mississippi-born musicians. He achieved such stature strictly through his legendary live performances—he apparently never made a record or published his songs. Scott was in demand for the busy Natchez schedule of society affairs at mansions, hotels, clubs, and halls, as well as on riverboats. He played for three U.S. presidents and entertained throughout the region at pageants, military balls, political rallies, conventions, graduations, rodeos, town pavilions, ballrooms, theaters, and fairs. A New Orleans reporter later reminisced, “In Mississippi, a Bud Scott dance was to die for.” Serenading was another Natchez tradition championed by Scott’s band and others who played on the steps of antebellum homes and also strolled the black neighborhoods.

Scott, born on October 25, 1876, was also known as “Professor,” a title accorded respected orchestra leaders of the era. Best known for his singing, he was also a composer who played mandolin and other instruments. His band, which often carried twelve to fifteen pieces, used various names, including the Syncopators and, on one 1902 theatrical bill, Bud Scott and his Senegambian Assistants. The group kept pace with the times, evolving from a ragtime string band into a hot jazz outfit and then a swing orchestra with a horn section. Such bands’ repertoires commonly included blues, rendered as both vocals and instrumentals, and Scott’s versatility extended from ballads to cakewalks to the latest Broadway hits. His music made headlines in 1919 when his sizzling rendition of “Eliza Jane” (“L’il Liza Jane”) turned a sedate Meridian affair into a near-riot as dancers broke rank with the old waltzes and square dances to do the shimmy, hesitation, and tickle toe.

Several band members, including Scott’s son Clarence Jr., son-in-law Walter King, Jim Ferguson, and Alonzo Skillens, lived at or next to Scott’s house on Union Street. Pianist Tom Griffin was among the bandsmen who went on to lead their own groups or perform as featured acts. Other bands active in Natchez by the 1930s included Monk Hoggatt and his Revelers and the Otis Smith Orchestra. Scott, who died on November 23, 1938, was in poor health in his final years and unable to sing, but Bud Scott, Jr., and the band continued to perform. Scott, Jr., was preparing for an upcoming show with the band in Greenville when he perished in the famous Rhythm Club fire of April 23, 1940. Arthur “Bud” Scott (1890-1949), a renowned New Orleans jazz musician, was not related, but biographies of the various Bud Scotts have often been confused.

(African Americans • Arts, Letters, Music • Entertainment) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
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12th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry

December 21, 2013, 7:42 am
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Virginia, Arlington County, Fort Myer
This tablet erected
by
the 12th Penna. Vol. Infantry
in memory of
the officer and men of the Regiment
who died in service
during the Spanish-American War
at Fort Myer, Va.—Camp Alger, Va.
and elsewhere.

Dedicated May 12th, 1937
on the thirty-ninth anniversary
of the muster of the Regiment
in the service of the United States. (Emblem) Spanish War Veterans 1898-1902
U.S.A.• Cuba
Philippine Islands • Porto Rico

(War, Spanish-American) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
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