Nowhere could a more grand affair be found than the Fourth of July celebration on the brothers Jim and Eli Gordon’s farm at a place now called Greenland near Union, Mississippi. Folks brought their families in horse drawn wagons and camped along the banks of the scenic Little Rock Creek at Willoughby where they caught redbellies and catfish. The ‘’young’ns’’ cooled off wading the clear waters. Young men hoping to impress the young Southern belles rode in on prancing saddle horses with polished saddles. Mountains of food, horse races, corn squeezing’s, and at least one good fist fight spiced up the three-day event. The rowdy crowd was tempered somewhat by the hellfire and brimstone preaching of the Reverend Mathew Langham and gospel singing by the ladies and a few sober men.
Things changed drastically after the celebration of 1862. “The Yankees are coming,” became the common mantra of the day as the War Between the States began to encroach on peaceful central Mississippi.
The Fourth of July of 1863 would be much different from the 1862 celebration. A looming event on the same date one year later would change the lives of not only the people of Greenland, but the entire nation. A few days after the giant get-together at Greenland, Captain Montgomery Carlton of Union was calling on men to enlist in the Confederate State Guards of Mississippi. His hundred-man unit would be called Company A, 5th Mississippi State Troops.
Men who owned no slaves volunteered to join Captain Carlton’s unit and fight the Yankees to save their homes from the ravages of American Civil War. With the reputation of being a hard man, Eli stunned his neighbors with a tearful farewell as he stepped onto the troop train at Newton bound for Meridian where the 5th Mississippi would guard an ammo arsenal before being transferred to Vicksburg. For the new recruits, on-the-job -training was short and to the point. They were handed a rifle by Sgt. J.R. Burrage (killed at Vicksburg) who asked them if they knew how to use it. With a “yes Sergeant.” the men were ready for action.
With the cotton crop looking plush and promising, Eli turned the farming operation over to his brother Jim and marched off to war. Jim knew little about growing cotton. He was the business manager of the farm and breeder and trader of fine horses. Eli was the backbone of the farm. He depended on sharecropper Gabe Parker and his two sons to provide the labor. The contrasting personalities of the Gordon brothers sometimes caused conflicts over decision making but their bond was cemented by the Scottish blood which flowed in their veins. Jim spent his time at horse races in New Orleans and Memphis. The showman Jim preferred the pleasures of the big city and fancy clothes over sweating in the fields. He enjoyed courting showy women but never married. According to the memoirs of Elby Gordon, Jim had a “live-in Choctaw woman who performed household duties and other domestic.
Ralph Gordon is a Past President Mississippi Writers Guild and a recipient of the William Faulkner Literary Award.You may contact him at rgordon512@hotmail.com.
