My parents were living in Artesia, Mississippi at the time, running a gasoline service station right in front of the M&O Railroad two-story Station Terminal. My father told me of the box cars and flatbed rail cars filled with the dying and injured from the 1936 tornado. He thought thought that the destination was The Mattie Hearse Hospital in Meridian.
It must have been a scene right out of that other event in April, 1862:The Battle of Shilo Hill. According to whom I call the “shirtsleeves historian of Columbus, Mississippi,” Gary Lancaster, the dying and wounded soldiers from the Shilo battlefield were loaded onto railcars to be transported South along the M&O railway. Since Mr. Lancaster has never publlshed his findings, I can only assume that town locals along the way volunteered to take in the wounded and bury those who had died along the route. In particular, he did note that Crawford, Mississipi was the site of a Confederate Army Supply Depot where food rations were avalable. I think that the number of soldiers that embarked there was around 1500. There was a hospital there at the time, too. I’m assuming that the Confederate-Union Cemetery site at Lauderdale is the mass burial site of the dead from Shilo Hill.
Mr. Lancaster is a county engineer for Columbus. He has published papers on the gun forticications around Columbus that were revealed– then lost–, as land development increased through the years.
Preservation in Mississippi 
So amazing … Thank you for sharing this video.
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My parents were living in Artesia, Mississippi at the time, running a gasoline service station right in front of the M&O Railroad two-story Station Terminal. My father told me of the box cars and flatbed rail cars filled with the dying and injured from the 1936 tornado. He thought thought that the destination was The Mattie Hearse Hospital in Meridian.
It must have been a scene right out of that other event in April, 1862:The Battle of Shilo Hill. According to whom I call the “shirtsleeves historian of Columbus, Mississippi,” Gary Lancaster, the dying and wounded soldiers from the Shilo battlefield were loaded onto railcars to be transported South along the M&O railway. Since Mr. Lancaster has never publlshed his findings, I can only assume that town locals along the way volunteered to take in the wounded and bury those who had died along the route. In particular, he did note that Crawford, Mississipi was the site of a Confederate Army Supply Depot where food rations were avalable. I think that the number of soldiers that embarked there was around 1500. There was a hospital there at the time, too. I’m assuming that the Confederate-Union Cemetery site at Lauderdale is the mass burial site of the dead from Shilo Hill.
Mr. Lancaster is a county engineer for Columbus. He has published papers on the gun forticications around Columbus that were revealed– then lost–, as land development increased through the years.
LikeLike