Greenwood, Mississippi

Greenwood has a Great pre-war history and really didn't come into play till after the CS defeat at Corinth and the CS army fell back to Grenad and spent the winter there. In the spring of 63 when CS Troops were ordered to Vicksburg the direct route was thru Greenwood. I'm at a loss. It was not part of our CWT group and I thought you told me it was why you were 4 hrs late in meeting me at the hotel to get everything setup for the "Official Group"
Went to Greenwood on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning.
 
The courthouse monument actually has 4 smaller monuments around it on the base. Walked around it several times. DixieRifles pointed out a few things I missed at first glance. The monument deserved more time than I gave it. Ideally, I wanted to spend a whole day at Greenwood on my first visit but I couldn't pass up the chance to go there and do what I could do late on a Sunday and early Monday morning.

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In addition to it, could you describe for me where the Yalobusha (as described in bdtex’s picture of the historical marker above) is located in reference to Fort Pemberton below?
I'm not sure if that Google map is labeled correctly. The Yazoo River is described as: The river is 188 miles (303 km) long and is formed by the confluence of the Tallahatchie and the Yalobusha rivers, where present-day Greenwood developed.
That means it begins in the NorthEast corner of Greenwood.

The Yalobusha River passes thru Grenada to the North East of Greenwood. Remember that General Pemberton in 1862 set up his defenses along the Yalobusha River---aka "the Yalobusha Line"--- just north of Grenada. Now there is a dam on the Yalobusha that forms Grenada Lake.
So it approaches Greenwood generally from the NorthEast. It is barely visible in this map. You can probably imagine how Greenwood was impacted by the waters coming down the Tallahatchie and Yalobusha Rivers. The rushing waters had to take that hairpin turn so flooding was common in the South part of town.

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This maps show the 3 rivers and the RED dot marks location of Greenwood. Now those 4 lakes in North Mississippi were created in the 20th Century in an effort to control the floods. The Yazoo Pass Expedition began by entering the Tallahatchie River about where Arkabutla Lake is now currently located.
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Greenwood has a Great pre-war history
I was holding off posting more about Greenwood until after @bdtex finishes his War related tour. I will post how the town and the county got its name. Almost every state has a town named Greenwood---a nice name for a home in the woods. In the case of this town, it is actually named after someone.

No--its not named after Lee Greenwood.
 
What I thought was the last stop of the day was Greenwood Cemetery. I don't recall if DixieRifles had it planned that way but we actually made a quick stop at the Confederate Memorial Building first. It was definitely on my itinerary for Greenwood at some point. I guess I expected it to be a Monday morning stop for me with everything else we were hitting that Sunday afternoon. DixieRifles pointed out the CBF,First National Flag and Confederate Symbol at the top of the building. I jumped out and took a few quick pics before we moved on.

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I'm not sure if that Google map is labeled correctly. The Yazoo River is described as: The river is 188 miles (303 km) long and is formed by the confluence of the Tallahatchie and the Yalobusha rivers, where present-day Greenwood developed.
That means it begins in the NorthEast corner of Greenwood.

The Yalobusha River passes thru Grenada to the North East of Greenwood. Remember that General Pemberton in 1862 set up his defenses along the Yalobusha River---aka "the Yalobusha Line"--- just north of Grenada. Now there is a dam on the Yalobusha that forms Grenada Lake.
So it approaches Greenwood generally from the NorthEast. It is barely visible in this map. You can probably imagine how Greenwood was impacted by the waters coming down the Tallahatchie and Yalobusha Rivers. The rushing waters had to take that hairpin turn so flooding was common in the South part of town.

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This maps show the 3 rivers and the RED dot marks location of Greenwood. Now those 4 lakes in North Mississippi were created in the 20th Century in an effort to control the floods. The Yazoo Pass Expedition began by entering the Tallahatchie River about where Arkabutla Lake is now currently located.
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Thanks!
 
I was holding off posting more about Greenwood until after @bdtex finishes his War related tour.
Don't wait on me. It will probably be tomorrow before I finish that.
 
The courthouse monument actually has 4 smaller monuments around it on the base. Walked around it several times. DixieRifles pointed out a few things I missed at first glance. The monument deserved more time than I gave it. Ideally, I wanted to spend a whole day at Greenwood on my first visit but I couldn't pass up the chance to go there and do what I could do late on a Sunday and early Monday morning.

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Thanks for these images.

That's one of the most poignant Confederate Monuments within the State of Mississippi.
 
Well...we then walked over to the Courthouse. This is the best shot I got with the the marker and monument in it.

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As stated in this marker, the town and county were named after a person: Greenwood LeFlore. Greenwood was established in 1830's but Leflore County was not created until 1871 from portions of Carroll, Sunflower and Tallahatchie counties.

Greenwood LeFlore (or Le Fleur) (June 3, 1800 – August 31, 1865) was elected Principal Chief of the Choctaw in 1830 before removal. Before that, the nation was governed by three district chiefs and a council of chiefs. A wealthy and regionally influential Choctaw of mixed-race, who belonged to the Choctaw elite due to his mother's rank, LeFlore had many connections in state and federal government. In 1830 LeFlore led other chiefs in signing the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, which ceded the remaining Choctaw lands in Mississippi to the US government and agreed to removal to Indian Territory. It also provided that Choctaw who chose to stay in Mississippi would have reserved lands, but the United States government failed to follow through on this provision.

While many of the leaders realized removal was inevitable, others opposed the treaty and made death threats against LeFlore. He stayed in Mississippi, where he settled in Carroll County and accepted United States citizenship.
In the 1840s, LeFlore was elected Mississippi representative and senator. He was a fixture of Mississippi high society and a personal friend of Jefferson Davis. He was elected to represent Carroll County in the state house for two terms, and elected by the legislature as a state senator, serving one term. He became a wealthy planter and amassed a huge estate, where slaves worked acres of cotton.

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Malmaison
Leflore wanted a manor house that befitted his status as a wealthy planter. He had the house designed in French style. When he sought a name for the house, "he decided on the name of the Château de Malmaison, ten miles west of Paris on the Seine." The house was built 9 miles East of the town of Greenwood in 1854. LeFlore called his Carroll County home Malmaison.

To furnish his mansion, LeFlore imported most of the furniture from France, where it had been made to order. Silver, glass, and china came in sets of dozens. The drawing room set was of 30 pieces of solid mahogany, finished in genuine gold and upholstered in silk damask. The house held mirrors, tables, large four-poster beds of rosewood with silken and satin canopies, and four tapestry curtains depicting the four palaces of Napoleon and Josephine: Versailles, Malmaison, Saint Cloud and Fontainebleau.

LeFlore occupied the mansion until his death in 1865. He was buried wrapped in the American flag, on the estate. His body was later moved by angry members of the Choctaw nation, and buried face down in an unknown area. He left in addition to the mansion, an estate of 15,000 acres and 400 slaves. With emancipation after the war, the slaves became freedmen, but many may have stayed on the plantation to work for his descendants.

LeFlore descendants used the mansion until it was destroyed in a fire in 1942.

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As stated in this marker, the town and county were named after a person: Greenwood LeFlore. Greenwood was established in 1830's but Leflore County was not created until 1871 from portions of Carroll, Sunflower and Tallahatchie counties.

Greenwood LeFlore (or Le Fleur) (June 3, 1800 – August 31, 1865) was elected Principal Chief of the Choctaw in 1830 before removal. Before that, the nation was governed by three district chiefs and a council of chiefs. A wealthy and regionally influential Choctaw of mixed-race, who belonged to the Choctaw elite due to his mother's rank, LeFlore had many connections in state and federal government. In 1830 LeFlore led other chiefs in signing the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, which ceded the remaining Choctaw lands in Mississippi to the US government and agreed to removal to Indian Territory. It also provided that Choctaw who chose to stay in Mississippi would have reserved lands, but the United States government failed to follow through on this provision.

While many of the leaders realized removal was inevitable, others opposed the treaty and made death threats against LeFlore. He stayed in Mississippi, where he settled in Carroll County and accepted United States citizenship.
In the 1840s, LeFlore was elected Mississippi representative and senator. He was a fixture of Mississippi high society and a personal friend of Jefferson Davis. He was elected to represent Carroll County in the state house for two terms, and elected by the legislature as a state senator, serving one term. He became a wealthy planter and amassed a huge estate, where slaves worked acres of cotton.

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Malmaison
Leflore wanted a manor house that befitted his status as a wealthy planter. He had the house designed in French style. When he sought a name for the house, "he decided on the name of the Château de Malmaison, ten miles west of Paris on the Seine." The house was built 9 miles East of the town of Greenwood in 1854. LeFlore called his Carroll County home Malmaison.

To furnish his mansion, LeFlore imported most of the furniture from France, where it had been made to order. Silver, glass, and china came in sets of dozens. The drawing room set was of 30 pieces of solid mahogany, finished in genuine gold and upholstered in silk damask. The house held mirrors, tables, large four-poster beds of rosewood with silken and satin canopies, and four tapestry curtains depicting the four palaces of Napoleon and Josephine: Versailles, Malmaison, Saint Cloud and Fontainebleau.

LeFlore occupied the mansion until his death in 1865. He was buried wrapped in the American flag, on the estate. His body was later moved by angry members of the Choctaw nation, and buried face down in an unknown area. He left in addition to the mansion, an estate of 15,000 acres and 400 slaves. With emancipation after the war, the slaves became freedmen, but many may have stayed on the plantation to work for his descendants.

LeFlore descendants used the mansion until it was destroyed in a fire in 1942.

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Malmaison was indeed a spectacular plantation home.

And Greenwood LeFlore (or Le Fleur) . . . was one of the most colorful figures in Mississippi history !
Very wealthy, French & Choctaw linage. . . . and able to mix in both worlds.

What's not to like about this man ?

:smoke:
 
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As stated in this marker, the town and county were named after a person: Greenwood LeFlore. Greenwood was established in 1830's but Leflore County was not created until 1871 from portions of Carroll, Sunflower and Tallahatchie counties.

Greenwood LeFlore (or Le Fleur) (June 3, 1800 – August 31, 1865) was elected Principal Chief of the Choctaw in 1830 before removal. Before that, the nation was governed by three district chiefs and a council of chiefs. A wealthy and regionally influential Choctaw of mixed-race, who belonged to the Choctaw elite due to his mother's rank, LeFlore had many connections in state and federal government. In 1830 LeFlore led other chiefs in signing the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, which ceded the remaining Choctaw lands in Mississippi to the US government and agreed to removal to Indian Territory. It also provided that Choctaw who chose to stay in Mississippi would have reserved lands, but the United States government failed to follow through on this provision.

While many of the leaders realized removal was inevitable, others opposed the treaty and made death threats against LeFlore. He stayed in Mississippi, where he settled in Carroll County and accepted United States citizenship.
In the 1840s, LeFlore was elected Mississippi representative and senator. He was a fixture of Mississippi high society and a personal friend of Jefferson Davis. He was elected to represent Carroll County in the state house for two terms, and elected by the legislature as a state senator, serving one term. He became a wealthy planter and amassed a huge estate, where slaves worked acres of cotton.

View attachment 333124


Malmaison
Leflore wanted a manor house that befitted his status as a wealthy planter. He had the house designed in French style. When he sought a name for the house, "he decided on the name of the Château de Malmaison, ten miles west of Paris on the Seine." The house was built 9 miles East of the town of Greenwood in 1854. LeFlore called his Carroll County home Malmaison.

To furnish his mansion, LeFlore imported most of the furniture from France, where it had been made to order. Silver, glass, and china came in sets of dozens. The drawing room set was of 30 pieces of solid mahogany, finished in genuine gold and upholstered in silk damask. The house held mirrors, tables, large four-poster beds of rosewood with silken and satin canopies, and four tapestry curtains depicting the four palaces of Napoleon and Josephine: Versailles, Malmaison, Saint Cloud and Fontainebleau.

LeFlore occupied the mansion until his death in 1865. He was buried wrapped in the American flag, on the estate. His body was later moved by angry members of the Choctaw nation, and buried face down in an unknown area. He left in addition to the mansion, an estate of 15,000 acres and 400 slaves. With emancipation after the war, the slaves became freedmen, but many may have stayed on the plantation to work for his descendants.

LeFlore descendants used the mansion until it was destroyed in a fire in 1942.

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Great post. I recall reading some about him and the mansion at the museum but I spent most of my time there in the Civil War exhibit.
 
I recall reading some about him and the mansion at the museum but I spent most of my time there in the Civil War exhibit.
Yes. I think the Museum had some furniture from the home. I also heard stories that there were some chairs or something taken from the Star of the West that was at someone's residence or or display somewhere. Never got the details on that story.
 
I also heard stories that there were some chairs or something taken from the Star of the West that was at someone's residence or or display somewhere. Never got the details on that story.
We know it was stripped of everything useful before it was sunk in the Tallahatchie. All that stuff ended up somewhere.
 
There is a section of Confederate memorial gravestones at Greenwood Cemetery. I take it that they are known to have been buried there but the exact location of their graves is unknown. It is a fairly large cemetery with relatively few gravestones for its size. I failed to take a picture that illustrates that. Somebody has been chiseling on the bottom of the flatstone marker.

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Major Allen was originally the Captain of Company F. He was promoted into the Field & Staff with the 30th Mississippi Infantry.
Company A, Neill's Guards, were recruited from Black Hawk, Carroll County, where my ancestors lived.
Leflore County was created from part of Carroll County but did not include Black Hawk. I'm assuming that John Allen moved into the Greenwood area after the War. {Edited: Oh, Allen was in Company F, which means he was probably from a different town--maybe Greenwood.}

Battle of Resaca: " Lieut.-Col. J. M. Johnson was wounded on the first day, Major J. K. Allen on the second. Adjutant Powell was specially commended for gallantry. The casualties of the Thirtieth were 10 killed and 29 wounded."

Battle of Franklin: "November 30- Brantley's Brigade(under S D Lee) suffered more than any other in the terrible night battle along the Federal parapets, losing 76 killed, 140 wounded, 21 missing. As Brantley's Brigade approached the works in the darkness the men were met with a deadly volley that seemed to sweep away half their numbers, but they responded gallantly to the order to charge, and entered the ditch just outside the parapet, which for hours they struggled to gain. Union and Confederate troops, Mississipians, Ohioans, Illinoisans, Indianians, fought hand to hand in the dark for possession of the parapets and their flags. Part of a Michigan regiment came out to the ditch and opened a deadly fire along its length. Lieut.-Col. J. M. Johnson, commanding the regiment, was wounded and Major J. K. Allen was missing."
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As the sign says, Lt. Azro A. Stoddard, who scuttled the Star Of The West in the Tallahatchie River is buried in Greenwood Cemetery.
I couldn't resist---I had to look at his records in Fold3.

Allen A. Stoddard[aka Azro A. Stoddard] (age 34 yrs) enlisted into Capt. Daniel Russell's Company, aka Carroll Guards, of the 20th Mississippi Regiment. He enlisted at Carrolton on April 19, 1861 as 2nd Sergeant.
This became Company C of the 20th Mississippi. On 18 Dec 1861, he was elected 2nd Lieutenant.
He was taken prisoner at Fort Donelson.
Wounded at Kennesaw Mountain.
Wounded at "Lovejoy Macon RR" on 17 Sept 1864.

NARA notes:
The 20th Regiment Mississippi Infantry was mounted about April 29, 1863, and dismounted about June 14, 1863.
About April 9, 1865, this regiment was consolidated with the 15th, 16th and 23rd Regiments Mississippi Infantry and formed the 15th Consolidated Regiment Mississippi Infantry.

There is one record for Azro Stoddard in the files for the 15th (Consolidated) Mississippi Regiment.

I did not find any notes about him serving with the Star of the West. The above NARA note that they were mounted matches up with the Battle of Fort Pemberton.
There was this "order" in his files where he requested leave to return to his family in Greenwood but it is dated December 1863.


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I would like to see documentation or a journal that tells about his service with the Star of the West. Someone on our Tour thought he was the Captain. That doesn't appear to be the case. He was likely present at Fort Pemberton and could have volunteered to pull the plugs to sink the ship.
 
I couldn't resist---I had to look at his records in Fold3.

Allen A. Stoddard[aka Azro A. Stoddard] (age 34 yrs) enlisted into Capt. Daniel Russell's Company, aka Carroll Guards, of the 20th Mississippi Regiment. He enlisted at Carrolton on April 19, 1861 as 2nd Sergeant.
This became Company C of the 20th Mississippi. On 18 Dec 1861, he was elected 2nd Lieutenant.
He was taken prisoner at Fort Donelson.
Wounded at Kennesaw Mountain.
Wounded at "Lovejoy Macon RR" on 17 Sept 1864.

NARA notes:
The 20th Regiment Mississippi Infantry was mounted about April 29, 1863, and dismounted about June 14, 1863.
About April 9, 1865, this regiment was consolidated with the 15th, 16th and 23rd Regiments Mississippi Infantry and formed the 15th Consolidated Regiment Mississippi Infantry.

There is one record for Azro Stoddard in the files for the 15th (Consolidated) Mississippi Regiment.

I did not find any notes about him serving with the Star of the West. The above NARA note that they were mounted matches up with the Battle of Fort Pemberton.
There was this "order" in his files where he requested leave to return to his family in Greenwood but it is dated December 1863.


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I would like to see documentation or a journal that tells about his service with the Star of the West. Someone on our Tour thought he was the Captain. That doesn't appear to be the case. He was likely present at Fort Pemberton and could have volunteered to pull the plugs to sink the ship.
Nice work. I don't subscribe to fold3 anymore but I have been thinking about re-upping my subscription. Pretty sure I would get a lot less reading done though if I do that. There's a trade-off.
 
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