Nifty Fifty: Mississippi

Mississippi is a state in the southern region of the United States with the abbreviation of MS. Mississippi became the 20th state on December 10, 1817, making the state 206 years old, as of December, 2023. The state of Mississippi was named after the river of the same name, whose name means great river or gathering-in of all waters; the Mississippi River has also been referred to as the father of waters. The name was first written by the Tonti as Michi Sepe.

Mississippi is the 32nd largest state and the 35th most populous; the capital of Mississippi is Jackson and its demonym is Mississippian. Mississippi is bordered by the states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Alabama as well as the Gulf of Mexico.

The motto of Mississippi is Virtute et Armis, which is Latin for By Valor and Arms.

The official nickname of Mississippi is the Magnolia State. The magnolia is the official state flower and state tree of Mississippi, and the magnolia flower is even featured on the Mississippi quarter.

The landscape of Mississippi is mostly coastal plains, but the state contains some hilly terrain in the northeastern corner. The state’s plains contain prairies, pine forests, lowlands, and marshlands.

Mississippi is known for blues music, Vicksburg National Military Park, the Mississippi Petrified Forest, and the gulf coast of Biloxi; the state is also known for producing more catfish than any other state and for being the birthplace of Elvis Presley. Mississippi is a major producer of ball clay and fuller’s earth (montmorillonite), but the state also produces bentonite, construction sand, gravel, and crushed stone.

On January 6, 1894, Moses Hardy was born in Aberdeen, Mississippi. Hardy’s parents were former slaves, but after the Civil War, they purchased 265 acres of land in Mississippi. Between July 1918 and July 1919, Hardy served in the US 805th Pioneer Infantry in France; Hardy even spent 39 days of his service in combat during World War I. Hardy was present at the Meuse River during a mustard gas attack, and was wounded in the knee during the war, but Hardy rarely talked about his combat experiences, preferring to discuss the weather in France instead. Hardy received military awards including a Victory Medal, an Occupational medal from the Mississippi National Guard, and the French Légion d’honneur (legion of honor). After the war, Hardy held a variety of jobs including school bus driver, farmer, deacon, and cosmetics salesman; if his prior achievements weren’t enough, Hardy worked his job as a cosmetics salesman well beyond his 100th birthday! In December, 2006, Hardy passed away at the age of 112, not too long before his 113th birthday. At the time of his death, he was recognized as the oldest combat veteran ever, the oldest male ever recorded in Mississippi, and the second oldest man and World War I veteran in the world.

In late 1902, the then President Theodore Roosevelt was bear hunting in Sharkey County near Onward, Mississippi. Roosevelt was unable to find a single bear, therefore, his assistant cornered and tied a bear to a tree and told Roosevelt to shoot the bear. Roosevelt, deeming it very unsportsmanlike, refused to shoot it. News that President Roosevelt, a big game hunter, refused to shoot a bear spread quickly across the nation. Soon after, candy shop owner Morris Michtom and his wife decided to make a stuffed toy, which they dedicated to Theodore Roosevelt because he refused to shoot the bear. Michtom used Theodore’s nickname and called his new toy the Teddy Bear.

The Second Battle of Corinth occurred in early October, 1862, in Corinth, Mississippi. After the Battle of Iuka, Confederate Major General Sterling Price combined his forces with those of Confederate Major General Earl Van Dorn; the combined force was known as the Army of West Tennessee. The now 22,000 Confederate troops moved in the direction of Corinth, a vital rail junction in northern Mississippi, hoping to disrupt Union communications. The Confederates faced 23,000 Union troops under the command of Union Major General William Rosecrans and Union Major General Ulysses S. Grant. The Confederates initiated the battle by pushing Union troops from the rifle pits that were originally constructed by the Confederates for the earlier Siege of Corinth. The Confederates exploited a gap in the Union line, causing the Union troops to fall back to inner fortifications. On the second day of the battle, the Union troops were able to repulse a Confederate incursion into the town of Corinth, and shortly after, Van Dorn ordered his troops to retreat. Rosecrans did not immediately pursue the retreating Confederates, which allowed them to escape annihilation. The battle resulted in a Union victory; this was the second time that Rosecrans defeated a Confederate army during the Iuka-Corinth Campaign.

An interesting fact about Mississippi is that the first concept of Memorial Day was conceived in the Friendship Cemetery in Columbus, Mississippi. In 1866, a group of women decorated the graves of soldiers buried in the cemetery, which touched the nation. This kind act of the women would eventually inspire the national holiday that we call Memorial Day.

A strange fact about Mississippi is that the state is home to the oldest continuous settlement on the Mississippi River: Fort Rosalie. The settlement, which is now the city of Natchez, Mississippi, was officially established by the French in 1716, which is 308 years ago! That is before the Colony of Georgia was established and before George Washington was born. The oldest signer of the Declaration of Independence — Benjamin Franklin — signed the declaration at 70 years old; to put the age of Natchez into perspective, the settlement was established when Franklin was only 10 years old.

What fact about Mississippi most interests you?