UNDER THE HILL SALOON

In years past Mr. Andre' Farish Sr. and his friends would often cruse the Mississippi River. They would launch their boats from under the hill and step into a black bar/grocery, just across Silver Street, to get any supplies they needed. The McCoy estate that was comprised of several black families owned the bar/grocery.

Mr. Andre' Sr. developed a growing interest in the bar/grocery and when the opportunity presented itself, he began to purchase different heir's undivided interest in the building.

In 1976 he acquired total ownership of the property and then began a lengthy restoration that today gives us Under-The-Hill-Saloon.

Built in the late 1700s or early 1800s the building that now houses Under-The-Hill-Saloon has experienced a lot of Natchez history. The date of its construction is unknown due to a courthouse fire that destroyed most of the records, but historic research shows it has been used as a brothel, bar, warehouse and general merchandise store.

Early settlers from the north would float their goods down the Mississippi River to be sold in Natchez or New Orleans. While a better price may be paid in New Orleans, Natchez was the beginning of the Natchez Trace, which most all of the settlers would travel to go home. Therefore many flatboats loaded with goods were sold in Natchez rather than continuing on to New Orleans. Settlers that continued on downriver still had to come back to Natchez for their return home, and it is estimated that only half of the flatboats went all the way to New Orleans.

New Orleans dock records from 1841 recorded that 2,792 flatboats docked there. So it is conceivable that there were about 15 flatboats arriving daily in Natchez. Depending on its size, some were 100 feet long and 20 feet wide, their crew could number 15-20 men per flatboat. If you take everything into consideration - flatboats coming down river to sell their goods and then the settlers coming up river to return home - there were hundreds if not thousands of people passing through Natchez on a daily basis.

Natchez was one of the chief resorts of these river men. When they arrived here they knew their journey was almost over, therefore they indulged in one last fling before entering the wilderness on their way home. Drinking, gambling and ladies of the night were readily available and the travelers were anxious to indulge them all.

Natchez was divided into two parts: the town on the bluff which was orderly and respectful where life and property were safe, and then there was the lower part along the river bank, or “Natchez Under-the-Hill” as it was called and it was the home of every vice imaginable. It was so bad during the Spanish days no boatmen were allowed to come on top of the bluff without special permission of the Spanish commandant.

Natchez Under-the-Hill had a rough and tumble time during the flatboat days with thousands of people passing through each year, and the numbers only increased with the arrival of steamboats.

http://www.underthehillsaloon.com

Natchez Trace

The Natchez Trace, a 440-mile-long path extending from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee, linked the Cumberland, Tennessee and Mississippi rivers. It was a traditional Native American trail and was later also used by early European explorers as both a trade and transit route in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Today, the trail has been commemorated by the 444-mile-long Natchez Trace Parkway, which follows the approximate path of the trace.^[1] The trail itself has a long and rich history, filled with brave explorers, dastardly outlaws and daring settlers. Parts of the original trail are still accessible.

Origins of the Natchez Trace

Largely following a geologic ridgeline, prehistoric animals followed the dry ground between the salt licks of central Tennessee to grazing lands southward and the Mississippi River. Native Americans used many early footpaths created by the foraging of bison, deer and other large game, who could break paths through undergrowth. In the case of the Trace, bison traveled north to find salt licks in the Nashville area.^[2] After Native Americans first began to settle the land, they began to blaze the trail further, until it became a relatively (for the time) well-worn path traversable by horse in single-file.

The first recorded European explorer to travel the Trace in its entirety was an unnamed Frenchman in 1742, who wrote of the trail and its "miserable conditions", though it may have been traveled in part before, particularly by famed Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto. Early European explorers depended on the assistance of Native Americans—specifically, the Choctaw and Chickasaw. These tribes and others, collectively known as Mississippian, had long used the Trace for trade between themselves.

Development and Disappearance of the Trace

By 1800 Thomas Jefferson sought to counter growing French influence along the Mississippi Valley. To foster communication with the Southwest, he designated a postal road to be built between Daniel Boone's wilderness road, ending in Tennessee, and the Mississippi River. To emphasize American sovereignty in the area, he decided to call it the Columbian Highway. Treaties were signed with the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes. In 1801 the United States Army began blazing the trail, performing major work to prepare it as a thoroughfare. The work was first done by soldiers reassigned from West Tennessee, then later by civilian contract. By 1809, the trail was fully navigable by wagon. Critical to the success of the Trace as a trade route was the development of inns and trading posts, referred to at the time as "stands." For the most part, the stands developed southbound from the head of the trail in Nashville.

Many early American settlements in Mississippi and Tennessee developed along the Natchez Trace. Some of the most prominent were Washington, the old capital of Mississippi; "old Greenville", where Andrew Jackson plied his occupation as a slave trader; and Port Gibson, among others.^[3]

By 1816, the continued development of both Memphis and Jackson's Military Road, a direct line to New Orleans, Louisiana from Nashville, began shifting trade both east and west, away from the Trace. As author William C. Davis (United States) writes in his book A Way Through the Wilderness, it was "a victim of its own success." With the dawn of steamboat culture on the Mississippi, the Trace became obsolete. In 1830, the Trace was officially abandoned and began to disappear back into the wilderness.

http://www.nps.gov/natt/index.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natchez_Trace

Vicksburg

The Siege of Vicksburg was the final major military action in the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. In a series of maneuvers, Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee crossed the Mississippi River and drove the Confederate army of Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton into the defensive lines surrounding the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi.

When two major assaults (May 19 and May 22, 1863) against the Confederate fortifications were repulsed with heavy casualties, Grant decided to besiege the city beginning on May 25. With no re-enforcement, supplies nearly gone, and after holding out for more than forty days, the garrison finally surrendered on July 4. This action (combined with the capitulation of Port Hudson on July 9) yielded command of the Mississippi River to the Union forces, which would hold it for the rest of the conflict.

The Confederate surrender following the siege at Vicksburg is sometimes considered, when combined with Gen. Robert E. Lee's defeat at Gettysburg the previous day, the turning point of the war. It also cut off communication with Confederate forces in the Trans-Mississippi Department for the remainder of the war. The city of Vicksburg would not celebrate Independence Day for about eighty years as a result of the siege and surrender as well.

Read more - Siege of Vicksburg