Before LC and Jamie and I headed for breakfast in Manchester, and before we went in search of and found the Beech Grove Confederate Cemetery, and before we took a long drive in the country from Beech Grove back to Tullahoma, we stopped briefly at the confederate cemetery in Tullahoma.
I have driven by this cemetery many times in years past without even realizing that it was there, and without realizing that ultimately it is located only a couple of miles from the house.
On a cloudy and very cool morning we found it, and spent a short while exploring the area eager to learn more about it.
The confederate section is only one part of a much larger cemetery.
Located in a poorer section of town, this place is thankfully still quiet and respectful and well maintained...........
LC and I walked Jamie briefly, hoping to calm her unbridled excitement and non-stop barking.
We have both learned from experience with our dog that she needs to first get that excitement out of her system before she can settle into a trip.
We soon loaded her into the back seat of the truck again and walked over to the fenced area to see what we could find..............
We found the stories of mens lives and mens deaths...............
As we pulled away from the cemetery we decided that we would head for breakfast and then search out the Beech Grove cemetery (which I wrote about in the blog previous to this one).
More information and many more pictures of the Tullahoma Confederate Cemetery:
While reading from the site I learned that the building that is today the Tullahoma Fine Arts Center, was actually a confederate hospital during the Civil War.
I took this picture of the Fine Arts Center earlier in January.............
At both Civil War cemeteries that we visited yesterday was a push-button information station.
When you push the buttons the recordings provided information on the war, each of the sites, other related information.
While we stood at the memorial at the Beech Grove Confederate Cemetery we heard the story for the first time of Old Isham and heard directions to where he was buried.
After leaving the cemetery LC and I went on the hunt for Old Isham.
The directions we had heard told us that we were only a few miles from the site, and we headed out onto unknown country roads.
This area was completely beautiful.
Land filled with endless rolling hills, farm houses, flat and quiet fields waiting for Spring plantings.
We were completely enveloped in rural Tennessee, counting the hills as we drove them as per the directions we had received from the unembodied voice in the little electronic box at the confederate cemetery.
After climbing the third hill we turned right, onto an unmarked side road.
There were no signs indicating that we were approaching anything historical and no real way of knowing for certain whether this was the road we were looking for or not.
We turned onto the road leading to more hills and more farms, driving on faith and driving in the knowledge that ultimately it really did not matter whether or not we found Old Isham.
It was a quiet Sunday afternoon, we were in beautiful country side, and we would find whatever we found.
Within only a minute of turning onto the side road I asked LC to pull the truck over onto grass on the side of the road, so that I could take pictures of a hawk that was sitting alone in the trees.
I climbed quietly out of the truck not wanting to scare him into flight, turned my camera on, turned it towards this beautiful and large bird...........and he extended his wings and took to the sky.
I spent the next couple of minutes shooting blindly in his general direction hoping to capture him in a picture, but only managed to get this one...................
Disappointed I stood along the side of the road anyway, snapping pictures of the hills and farms around me.
This was all new territory for both of us, and both LC and I were very glad that we had decided to go exploring on a cloudy day that had started out so uninspiring and turned out to be so incredibly interesting.................
We drove a mile down the road, followed the road as it took a sharp turn to the left, and were both completely certain that we were on the wrong road and that we were not going to find any Civil War horse burial ground anywhere.
This was straight up farm country.
And then just like that - in the middle of nowhere - we found it.
LC again pulled the truck over onto the mushy water-logged and grassy shoulder, I climbed out of the truck and took in the scene around me.
Horses. Farms. A very beautifully painted and very large barn. Hills and valleys and farm land.
And unexpectedly, Old Ishams grave site................
A very sweet horse who studied me closely while I wandered along the road taking pictures..............
And Old Ishams grave.
I found this information on a blog called Cemetery Of The Day:
Old Isham" was the honored mount of General Benjamin Franklin Cheatham, a native of Nashville and a Confederate General during the Civil War. The horse was named for Tennessee Governor, Isham Harris. After the war, Cheatham took Old Isham back to his farm in Tennessee. When Isham died, he was buried here with full military honors. Cheatham died in 1886 and is buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Nashville.
A link to the site:
And my curious horse once again..............
Noah Fork Creek running parallel to the two lane narrow country road that we were following................
We spent a few hours yesterday exploring places that we had not explored when we lived in Tennessee a couple of years ago.
Tennessee is rich is history.
And on a quiet Sunday we saw some of that history up close.
Two confederate cemeteries and the burial site of a treasured and honored military horse.
One last picture of one of the prettiest barns I have seen in a very long time..................
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