Even Mississippi textbooks rarely mention the part Mississippi men and women played in World War I. Mississippians in the Great War presents in their own words the story of Mississippians and their roles. This body of work divides into five sections, each associated with crucial dates of American action. Comments relating to various military actions are interspersed throughout to give the reader a context of the wide variety of experiences. Additionally, where possible, Anne L. Webster provides information on the soldier or sailor to show what became of him after his service. Webster examined newspapers from all corners of the state for “letters home,” most appearing in newspapers from Natchez, Greenville, and Pontotoc. The authors of the letters gathered here are from soldiers, aviators, sailors, and relief workers engaged in the service of their country. Letter writing skills varied from citizens of minimal literacy to those who would later become published authors and journalists. These letters reflect the experiences of green, young Mississippians as they endured training camp, voyaged across the Atlantic to France, and participated in horrific battles leaving some scarred for life. To round out the picture, Webster includes correspondence from nurses and YMCA workers who describe drills, uniforms, parades, and celebrations.

In Mississippi in the Civil War: The Home Front, Timothy B. Smith examines Mississippi's Civil War defeat by both outside and inside forces. From without, the Union army dismantled the state's political system, infrastructure, economy, and fighting capability. The state saw extensive military operations, destruction, and bloodshed within her borders. One of the most frightful and extended sieges of the war ended in a crucial Confederate defeat at Vicksburg, the capstone to a tremendous Union campaign. As Confederate forces and Mississippi became overwhelmed militarily, the populace's morale began to crumble. Realizing that the enemy could roll unchecked over the state, civilians, Smith argues, began to lose the will to continue the struggle. Many white Confederates chose to return to the Union rather than see continued destruction in the name of a victory that seemed ever more improbable. When the tide turned, Unionists and African Americans boldly stepped up their endeavors. The result, Smith finds, was a state vanquished and destined to endure suffering far into its future. The first examination of the state's Civil War home front in seventy years, this book tells the story of all classes of Mississippians during the war, focusing new light on previously neglected groups such as women and African Americans. The result is a revelation of the heart of a populace facing the devastating impact of total war.

From the first Union attack on Vicksburg in the spring of 1862 through Benjamin Grierson's last raid through Mississippi in late 1864 and early 1865, this book traces the campaigns, fighting, and causes and effects of armed conflict in central and North Mississippi, where major campaigns were waged and fighting occurred.

“This epic account is as thrilling and fast-paced as the raid itself and will quickly rival, if not surpass, Dee Brown’s Grierson’s Raid as the standard.” —Terrence J. Winschel, historian (ret.), Vicksburg National Military Park Winner, Operational/Battle History, Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Book Award Winner, Fletcher Pratt Literary Award, Civil War Round Table of New York There were other simultaneous operations to distract Confederate attention from the real threat posed by U. S. Grant’s Army of the Tennessee. Benjamin Grierson’s operation, however, mainly conducted with two Illinois cavalry regiments, has become the most famous, and for good reason: For 16 days (April 17 to May 2) Grierson led Confederate pursuers on a high-stakes chase through the entire state of Mississippi, entering the northern border with Tennessee and exiting its southern border with Louisiana. Throughout, he displayed outstanding leadership and cunning, destroyed railroad tracks, burned trestles and bridges, freed slaves, and created as much damage and chaos as possible. Grierson’s Raid broke a vital Confederate rail line at Newton Station that supplied Vicksburg and, perhaps most importantly, consumed the attention of the Confederate high command. While Confederate Lt. Gen. John Pemberton at Vicksburg and other Southern leaders looked in the wrong directions, Grant moved his entire Army of the Tennessee across the Mississippi River below Vicksburg, spelling the doom of that city, the Confederate chances of holding the river, and perhaps the Confederacy itself. Based upon years of research and presented in gripping, fast-paced prose, Timothy B. Smith’s The Real Horse Soldiers captures the high drama and tension of the 1863 horse soldiers in a modern, comprehensive, academic study. Readers will find it fills a wide void in Civil War literature.

The Union inland navy that became the Mississippi Squadron is one of the greatest, yet least studied aspects of the Civil War. Without it, however, the war in the West may not have been won, and the war in the East might have lasted much longer and perhaps ended differently. The men who formed and commanded this large fighting force have, with few exceptions, not been as thoroughly studied as their army counterparts. The vessels they created were highly specialized craft which operated in the narrow confines of the Western rivers in places that could not otherwise receive fire support. Ironclads and gunboats protected army forces and convoyed much needed supplies to far-flung Federal forces. They patrolled thousands of miles of rivers and fought battles that were every bit as harrowing as land engagements yet inside iron monsters that created stifling heat with little ventilation. This book is about the intrepid men who fought under these conditions and the highly improvised boats in which they fought. The tactics their commanders developed were the basis for many later naval operations. Of equal importance were lessons learned about what not to do. The flag officers and admirals of the Mississippi Squadron wrote the rules for modern riverine warfare.

This is an accounting of the experiences of the soldiers of Hardcastle's 3rd Battalion Mississippi Infantry from enlistment to the end of the war. It includes their mid-war incarnation as the 45th Mississippi Regiment and the role they played in Cleburne's fabled division during almost every major engagement of the Army of Tennessee. Told as much as possible from the point of view of the soldier, the book shows what motivated the original volunteers to join and continue fighting to the end.

A critical exploration of the effects and influence of America's wars upon the works of the Nobel Prize laureate

By the time the Great Depression was well underway, Mississippi was still dealing with the lingering effects of the flood of 1927 and the Mississippi Valley drought of 1930. As Pres. Franklin Roosevelt took office in 1933, Mississippi senator Pat Harrison, chair of the Senate Committee on Finance, oversaw the passage of major New Deal legislation, from which Mississippi reaped many benefits. Other Mississippi politicians like Gov. Mike Connor initiated measures to improve the treatment of inmates at Parchman Prison in the Delta and Gov. Hugh White established the Balancing Agriculture with Industry initiative. Women also played an active role. The Natchez Garden Club successfully spurred tourism by starting the state's first pilgrimage in 1932. Mississippians found employment through the Public Works Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps, which stimulated economic development through new and add-on construction in urban and rural areas and the construction of nine state parks. For black Mississippians, segregation and discrimination in New Deal benefits and jobs continued, but what they did receive from the federal government spurred a determination to fight for equality in the Jim Crow South.