Starke T. Miller

HERE ARE YOUR 1972 OLE MISS CHEERLEADERS! HOTTY TODDY!

HERE ARE YOUR 1973 OLE MISS CHEERLEADERS, PLUS COLONEL REBEL! HOTTY TODDY! (The Colonel ALWAYS gets the girls!)

COME TOUR OXFORD'S ST, PETERS CEMETERY WITH ME TODAY, NOVEMBER 8 We start at 2 PM. I do these tours for tips. We end about 3:30. Meet me in the Circle of Cedars in the middle of the old section. I will be there in a RED shirt! Go see the full announcement here, on my Twitter/X page. Thanks!

RUFF NIGHT TO BE A REBEL! Woof, WOOF!

OXFORD's St. Peter's Cemetery Tour THIS Sunday! This Sunday, November 8, starting at 2 PM, I will give a tour of the back half of the old part of St. Peter's Cemetery. We will finish about 3:30. Park on Jefferson. Meet me in the center of the old part of the Cemetery in the Circle of Cedar Trees. I will be wearing a RED shirt. I do these tours for tips. We will have a 62 degree day, so wear a jacket and probably a hat. Wear comfortable walking shoes. This is a history tour, NOT a ghost tour. They SPOOK me! Ceme see and meet: the 1848 Ole Miss Freshman who put the steer on the University building roof, The man who ate RATS!, The Three War man, Maude M. Brown who wrote the University Greys book, the man who named Oxford, the Englishman who buried the University Civil War Hospital dead, A Delta Psi Frat member, Our Revolutionary War Soldier, The Professor who cut his own throat after being fired, the Yellow Fever Doctor, Mrs. Taylor of Taylor Mississippi, Blind Jim - Everyone's favorite - He NEVER saw Ole Miss lose a game!, the two University students who NEVER went home, Our War of 1812 Soldier, TWO University Greys, an interesting Oxford Mayor, The Shegog family who built Rowan Oak, Private Miller who ran Cock fights in the Confederate Army, and many others. Come hear the Cemetery history it took me 36 years to find. Thanks.

CHURCH and PLANTATION BELLS DONATED to The CONFEDERACY to be MELTED DOWN INTO CANNON In early March of 1862, Confederate Genera; P. G. T. Beauregard put out a call for Church and plantation bells, in the Western Confederacy, because the Confederacy needed the brass and bronze in order to make cannon. I had heard that story for years, but I had no source for it. I thought maybe it was just a good story. When I got onto newspapers dot com. I looked it up. It is TRUE. Here is just one of the articles on Beauregard's call for the bells. By my count, there were over 50 large and small foundries in the South, that were trying to make cannon barrels. They ALL needed brass and bronze. The sad news is that the bells were mostly sent down the Mississippi River, from their collection points of Memphis, Vicksburg, and Natchez, to New Orleans. When New Orleans was captured by May 1st of 1862, most of those bells were captured there. From New Orleans they were sent to Boston, and they were auctioned off there. What a sad fate for all those beautiful bells!

HERE ARE YOUR 1976 OLE MISS CHEERLEADERS! HOTTY TODDY!

HERE ARE YOUR 1977 OLE MISS CHEERLEADERS! HOTTY TODDY!

SHILOH TOUR I still have four spots open on my Saturday, November 14 Shiloh tour. Cost is $80 per person for all day. Meet me at 9AM in the Shiloh visitors Center parking lot. Pay me cash or check that morning. I have run these tours for 10 years now. You follow me around to 18 stops inside the Park. We get out at each one, and I tell you what happened RIGHT THERE. I tell the story of the Battle from a Southern viewpoint. I also tell the individual stories of at least 20 Southern Soldiers. You have read me, now come tour Shiloh with me. Go type my first name, Starke into the search box at the top right of this page. Then add Shiloh. My Shiloh stories will pop up. Lunch is at Hagy's Catfish Hotel. Yum, YUM. Go look them up. Email me if you are interested. [email protected] Thanks!

HERE ARE YOUR 1978 OLE MISS CHEERLEADERS! HOTTY TODDY!

HERE IS ANOTHER "JAW DROPPING" STORY OF FAITHFULNESS FROM THE BATTLE OF SHILOH Billy Patton grew up in Florence, Alabama on the East-West, Memphis-Charleston Railroad. His family owned a black boy named Sam who was the same age as Billy. The two boys grew up best of friends. When the War came in the Spring of 1861, Billy Patton joined what became Company C, of the 16th Alabama Infantry Regiment. He was quickly elected the Lieutenant in the Company. Billy of course took Sam to War with him. Sam promised Billy's Mother that no matter what, he would bring her son Billy back to her. The 16th Alabama fought in the first major Battle in the West, April sixth, 1862, at Shiloh. Billy Patton was killed near Shiloh Church on the first day of Battle. Sam took his body back to the Church that night. On the second day of Battle, Sam caught a mule in the Union camps, and he put his friend's body on the back of that mule, and he headed South, 22 miles to the railhead at Corinth, Mississippi, to take Billy back to his Mamma. Somewhere on that 22 mile trek, Confederate officers saw that black man with a dead body on the back of a mule. They stopped him and told him they must have that mule. They had wagons full of wounded, and Artillery pieces that had horses and mules dying in harness. They told Sam his master was dead, and there was nothing else Sam could do for him. They took his mule in order to save wounded men and precious cannon. Sam had made a promise to Mrs. Patton, and he would not be stopped. He lifted Billy Patton's body onto his shoulder, and he carried him back to Corinth. This was on an unpaved road, that had been marched over in the rain, by 10's of thousands of men, and their horses. It had been all cut up by the wheels of wagons and artillery pieces. The low spots were knee deep in mud. Through all this, Sam got his friends body back to the railhead at Corinth. There he got them both on an Eastbound train, and he at last took Billy Patton home to his Mamma in Florence, on the Memphis- Charleston Railroad. Billy's family got his body back. They had a funeral for him in the parlor of Sweetwater Mansion, there in Florence. Billy was NOT thrown into a burial trench with a few hundred others, like most Confederate were buried there at Shiloh. His Mamma got him back, one last time, to at least give him a decent burial. Most of those Confederate Mammas never even got that. Billy was buried in the family plot in the local Cemetery. The family story is that they took care of Sam for the rest of their lives. Sam is buried there at Sweetwater Mansion. Please, by all means, go look up - "Billy Patton" and Sam, and Sweetwater Mansion in Florence, Alabama.

HERE ARE YOUR 1979 OLE MISS CHEERLEADERS! HOTTY TODDY.

HERE ARE YOUR 1980 OLE MISS CHEERLEADERS! HOTTY TODDY.

HERE IS A "JAW DROPPING" STORY OF FAITHFULNESS, FROM THE BATTLE OF SHILOH! CLICK through the four photos to read the captions.

HERE ARE YOUR 1963 OLE MISS CHEERLEADERS! HOTTY TODDY!