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Re: Some trouble with Mississippi history

George, yes I agree with how you stated your sentence, "The unit was from Lee county as it exists today" As you know there were many counties in Mississippi created after the war.

It appears we both agree that the Company know as the Verona Rifles could not have been from Lee county in 1860 as the county did not exist. It probably was the Verona Rifles from Lee County, Mississippi as it exists today but during the war it appears to have been Pontotoc County but I'm not sure because parts of Itawamba County was also taken to create Lee County. And then it gets worse as Union County, Mississippi which was created in 1870 came from parts of Tippah, Pontotoc and even Lee County.

I don't comprehend how you folks in the great State of Mississippi can understand all of this and just say we understand? If I lived in Union County, Mississippi and liked history I probably would know about the history but for someone in Rankin County, just to throw out a name I'd be lost.

But the bottom line from what you shared, is that the people understand what is really being said and that is what counts.

Some parts of Mississippi history are being changed just as Confederate history sometimes. I visited McAlester, Oklahoma a while ago and had breakfast with some old veterans of WWII. One of them told me he played sports for the McAlester High School Dancing Rabbit. That rang a bell. I ask him if this was Choctaw country and he said yes. As you probably know George the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830 and signed in 1831 opened more or less central Mississippi to white settlement. The Choctaws with the exception of four or five thousand made to sorrowful march to Oklahoma. The old veteran said his yearbook was also known at the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit yearbook at the McAlester High School.

As near as I can tell by talking to former graduates from the high school the name was changed around 1988 to the McAlester Buffalo's. I talked to a manager at a Steak & Shake in McAlester who graduated in the 1990's. He said the school motto was "Once a buffalo always a buffalo" He said his father also graduated from McAlester High School in the 1970's. I told him his father would know about the Dancing Rabbit so he called his father and I could hear the manager say "Dad you never told me about that" The manager later said his father had said you never ask me about it before. Now the yearbook is called the Buffalo Yearbook.

As near as I can tell the Choctaw's who were allowed to stay in Mississippi and become citizens were known as the Choctaw Tribe and the Choctaw's who went to Oklahoma were known as the Choctaw Nation.

Of course the northern parts of Mississippi opened up due to the Chickasaw cession and were also moved to Oklahoma for the most part this also happening in the 1830's. It makes it a real challenge trying to find out what Choctaw's either full or half blooded fought in Mississippi units. The old WWII veteran told me he could spot a 1/4 Choctaw just by their nose features.

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Some trouble with Mississippi history
Re: Some trouble with Mississippi history *NM*
Re: Some trouble with Mississippi history
Re: Some trouble with Mississippi history
Re: Some trouble with Mississippi history