One plus in our stay in Tupelo was the campground. Unlike the one in Vicksburg, this one actually had shade trees in it. Any idea what happens when a camper sits in the sun while you are gone all day? Let's just say the air conditioner was good, but it wasn't that good. And the wifi actually worked like it was supposed to. As in you could actually connect to things. However, there was one drawback. The bathroom stalls. If you sat on the throne, you're knees were almost touching the door. So, after you finish your business, you almost have to open the door to stand up and get situated. Obviously poor planning on someone's part. This is a very important room in people's lives. Architecture schools should have entire classes on planning the bathroom.
Tupelo doesn't have the Civil War notoriety that a place like Vicksburg does. The two
battles that were fought locally did have a high level of importance. When General Sherman was beginning his march through Georgia, his main fear was Confederate attacks on his supply lines by Nathan Bedford Forrest. So, Sherman tells troops in Memphis to mosey on down to Mississippi so Forrest will attack them instead. It was actually a good plan and didn't really matter whether the Union troops won or lost as long as Forrest wasn't tearing up railroad tracks in middle Tennessee. And that was good because at the Battle of Brice's Crossroads, the Union was routed even though they had more men. A month later, they came back and won the Battle of Tupelo, but had to go back to Memphis because they didn't pack enough to eat. I'm assuming the IHOP on Gloster St where I had breakfast wasn't there in 1864. Neither battlefield is very impressive. Brice's Crossroads does have some road markers, and at a couple of points, asphalt trails through the fighting area to 
learn more about the battle. Well, we could have but they didn't have any signs on most of it nor anything to let you know at the start of it that there no more signs. So, you end up walking in the hot sun down a path in a field full of bees and wasps with nothing to see at the end of it. On the plus side, the fields did have a lot of hay bales. Since the visitor's center was closed when we got there, I needed someplace to dump the gallon of IHOP coffee I drank that morning. There was also a 160 year old cemetery (one old biddy that was buried there had been born in 1795 which means she may have dated Robert Byrd). It might have been more interesting if half the headstones weren't broken pieces laying around on the ground.
battles that were fought locally did have a high level of importance. When General Sherman was beginning his march through Georgia, his main fear was Confederate attacks on his supply lines by Nathan Bedford Forrest. So, Sherman tells troops in Memphis to mosey on down to Mississippi so Forrest will attack them instead. It was actually a good plan and didn't really matter whether the Union troops won or lost as long as Forrest wasn't tearing up railroad tracks in middle Tennessee. And that was good because at the Battle of Brice's Crossroads, the Union was routed even though they had more men. A month later, they came back and won the Battle of Tupelo, but had to go back to Memphis because they didn't pack enough to eat. I'm assuming the IHOP on Gloster St where I had breakfast wasn't there in 1864. Neither battlefield is very impressive. Brice's Crossroads does have some road markers, and at a couple of points, asphalt trails through the fighting area to 
learn more about the battle. Well, we could have but they didn't have any signs on most of it nor anything to let you know at the start of it that there no more signs. So, you end up walking in the hot sun down a path in a field full of bees and wasps with nothing to see at the end of it. On the plus side, the fields did have a lot of hay bales. Since the visitor's center was closed when we got there, I needed someplace to dump the gallon of IHOP coffee I drank that morning. There was also a 160 year old cemetery (one old biddy that was buried there had been born in 1795 which means she may have dated Robert Byrd). It might have been more interesting if half the headstones weren't broken pieces laying around on the ground.The tourism people of Mississippi must be concerned with the location of the Brice's Crossroad monument. The road to the main site was a rural Mississippi county road. That means you pass a nice house and then a falling down single wide trailer with three broke down cars in front. Still, everything about that site was grand compared to the Tupelo National Battlefield which I can't 
call a park because it's about a half acre off a city street with a memorial, a couple of cannon and two signs with the same information that I read in the Park Service pamphlet. We actually missed it the first time around because I was scratching a mosquito bite and didn't notice it. Not that I would have missed anything. Whoever designed the two sites was inspired. They look almost exactly the same. The only difference is the cannon at Tupelo face straight ahead while the ones at Brice's Crossroads are angled. At least I think they do. I'm pretty sure the picture to the right was Tupelo and the one above is Brice's Crossroads.
call a park because it's about a half acre off a city street with a memorial, a couple of cannon and two signs with the same information that I read in the Park Service pamphlet. We actually missed it the first time around because I was scratching a mosquito bite and didn't notice it. Not that I would have missed anything. Whoever designed the two sites was inspired. They look almost exactly the same. The only difference is the cannon at Tupelo face straight ahead while the ones at Brice's Crossroads are angled. At least I think they do. I'm pretty sure the picture to the right was Tupelo and the one above is Brice's Crossroads.Now, the biggest thing of historical significance in Tupelo is the fact that it's Elvis Presley's birthplace. Yes, this little town spawned the King of Rock 'N Roll. I went out to the birthplace 
museum, but I decided not to tour the rebuilt house because it was about 12 feet square so I can't imagine I would have found a whole lot to see inside. Plus, I'm cheap. They also had an old Plymouth 
just like the one his father loaded up the family to move to Memphis when Elvis was 13. It wasn't the actual car, but hey, it was the same make and possibly model. Still, the coolest thing to see was this statue of Elvis as a 13 year old boy right before the move to Memphis as he's wearing overalls and dragging his guitar. It makes you realize that before Elvis became a caricature of himself, he was seen as one of the coolest people on the planet. And before that, he was a bumpkin.
museum, but I decided not to tour the rebuilt house because it was about 12 feet square so I can't imagine I would have found a whole lot to see inside. Plus, I'm cheap. They also had an old Plymouth 
just like the one his father loaded up the family to move to Memphis when Elvis was 13. It wasn't the actual car, but hey, it was the same make and possibly model. Still, the coolest thing to see was this statue of Elvis as a 13 year old boy right before the move to Memphis as he's wearing overalls and dragging his guitar. It makes you realize that before Elvis became a caricature of himself, he was seen as one of the coolest people on the planet. And before that, he was a bumpkin. 
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