The Hatchie River

[Robtweb1]

The Hatchie River starts down in Mississippi and flows north into Tennessee between Corinth and Grand Junction. It then flows west to the Mississippi River. At one time they moved bales of cotton on flatboats to the Mississippi for shipment down to New Orleans. You will see it mentioned in correspondence in the Official Record concerning the bridges crossing it near Corinth.

 

[Roland]

Thanks For Sharing!

 

[1SGDan]

The Battle of Hatchie (Davis) Bridge is an interesting study.

 

[NedBaldwin]

Nice photo. What part of the river is that -- Mississippi ? TN?

 

[Robtweb1]

Nice photo. What part of the river is that -- Mississippi ? TN?

Tennessee. It's wider in Mississippi - They have dammed it somewhere down there and made a wildlife refuge. This photo is what it looks like where Hwy 57 crosses it close to Corinth.

 

[DixieRifles]

The Hatchie River winds north west through an area designated the Hatchie National Wildlife Refuge--which stretches from Bolivar, TN to almost Covington, TN. Then it traverses West and drops to the SouthWest, entering the Mississippi River just below Fort Pillow. It separates Fort Pillow and Fort Randolph (near present day Randolph, TN).

I've always wondered how the names of the two rivers are connected: Hatchie and Tallahatchie??
Are they both Indian names or is the shorter one just a truncated version of the other name created by white dudes?

 

[DixieRifles]

By posting this story so close to Christmas, I run the risk of some readers writing this off as a cute story. However, it was documented. I had read about this last year but lost the article. Then it was published in a local paper.
Here goes.

Article published in "The Fayette Falcon" dated Nov 14, 2012. Original story published in Confederate Veteran Magazine early 1900's.

Fayette County's Civil War: A Baby Found on the Battlefield

By David Smith
As strange as it may sound, there is a story of an infant found abandoned amidst the smoke of battle during fighting over the Hatchie River bridge near Pocahontas, TN, Oct. 4th, 1862. That afternoon, Confederate General Earl Van Dorn's command was retreating westward after the Battle of Corinth, MS, and his men had to cross the Hatchie River somewhere in vicinity of the TN state line. But Union forces had cut off his avenue of retreat at the river. There was heavy fighting near the river until Van Dorn's scouts could discover a new route of escape further south.
An unnamed private soldier with the Union's 14th Illinois infantry regiment reported in a letter sent back home that someone in his unit (did not name finder as himself or anyone else), while fighting was still active, had discovered a baby near the riverbank, lying on the ground wrapped in a blanket! No visible sign of a mother or anyone else nearby. The writer said of the discovery, there was found 'a sweet little blue-eyed baby., sweet little thing, as I saw it there, hugging the cold earth, little tear on its cheek... unalarmed 'mid the awful confusion of that tearful battle."
His description went on to ascribe divine intervention as the only plausible answer for the infant's safety and discovery. The child was carried under protective custody to the rear where it was cared for by men of the 14th Illinois. The unnamed writer's letter that reported his miraculous discovery was apparently passed among the men of several units and copied by someone from the 14th Wisconsin stationed at Humbolt, TN. There it was published in a Union soldiers' newsletter called "The Soldier's Budget". From there, it became more widely circulated and was soon picked by both northern and southern newspapers. It appeared in the Canton, MS newspaper, the "American Citizen", on Dec. 12. 1862. People were flabbergasted by the account. Some went on to say that it was pure fabrication and nothing more than Northern propaganda designed to make Southerners appear woefully destitute and desperate.
Whatever the case, the story circulated... and it as a compelling story, even if a hoax. The writer went on to state in his letter. "Who would suppose that in the wild fierce battle of the Hatchic, where the field was strewn with the dead. and the shrieks and groans of the wounded rent the heavens with agony, a great army would pause in the thickest of the conflict to save a harmless and helpless child?"
But the story takes a twist. Just days later, after the Union soldiers had unofficially adopted the baby and made oaths to protect and rear the child, a young woman was taken in custody wandering the battlefield. She proclaimed to be the mother of the lost child! No historical accounts are given as to why or how she left the baby at the riverbank. Readers are left to wonder (or doubt) all the circumstances; was she interrogated in order to prove her parental rights? We don't know.
The source of this story went on to conclude in his writing, "Imagine if you can the wild exclamation of thanksgiving that burst from the poor woman's heart, when informed that her child had been rescued. I saw the mother receive her child; heard her brief prayer for the soldiers who saved it. With the blessings of a thousand men following her and hers, she took away our little baby… our little blue-eyed laughing baby."

(Note: The Soldier's Budge was published at Humbolt, TN, July 1862 through October 1862)

The article in the Confederate Veteran's magazine had a totally different ending. According to this earlier article, it stated the Union soldier sent the baby home to his family in Illinois or Iowa. The family raised the baby as their child. When he reached the age of 18, the young man made a trip back to Tennessee and inquired about his identity. He searched for a week or so and could not find anyone who knew anyone who may have lost a baby in that area. I have seen the Confederate Veteran article but I lost my copy of the article. As I recall, it gave the name of the Union soldier and the young man.
Maybe the latest article in "The Fayette Falcon" is more accurate than the older article in The Confederate Veteran. I tend to believe the Confederate Veteran but now I really don't know which is the correct story.

 

[PartywithArty]

The hatchie river flows directlys behind my property line about 20 miles east of the Mississippi river at randolph.