Palo Alto, Mississippi

Town of Palo Alto
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
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Location	Clay County, Mississippi northwest of West Point
Coordinates	33°40′50″N 88°48′0″W
Area	196.4 acres (79.5 ha)
Built	1846
NRHP reference No.	87000473[1]
Added to NRHP	August 20, 1987

Palo Alto (also Savannah) is a ghost town in Clay County, Mississippi, United States.[2] Established c. 1846,[1] it is located at 33°40′50″N 88°48′0″W (33.6806738, -88.8000525) at an elevation of 279 feet (85 m).[2]

History

Palo Alto was named in honor of the Battle of Palo Alto.[3] The Palo Alto Academy was once located in Palo Alto.[4] A carriage factory, general store, and the Palo Alto Inn were formerly in operation in Palo Alto.[5] The community was prosperous prior to the Civil War, but was absorbed into the nearby community of Abbott after the Civil War.[6]

A post office operated under the name Palo Alto from 1846 to 1898.[7]

Company F of the 44th Mississippi Infantry was known as The Palo Alto Confederates and was mustered into service on July 27, 1861 in Palo Alto.[8] Soldiers from this company served with the Army of Tennessee in many battles, including Shiloh, Munfordville, Murfreesboro, and Chickamauga.[9]

During the Civil War, a skirmish was fought in Palo Alto on April 21 and 22, 1863 between the 2nd/22nd Tennessee Cavalry (Barteau's) and the 2nd Iowa Volunteer Cavalry Regiment. The Iowa soldiers, under the command of Edward Hatch, were part of Grierson's Raid and were being used to distract Confederate soldiers from Grierson's main column.[10] After the skirmish Hatch's soldiers marched to Okolona, burning down barracks, a cotton warehouse, and ammunition stores.[11] Six Union Army soldiers were declared missing after the skirmish.[12]

In 1876, Palo Alto was the site of an incident in which a group of heavily armed white men brought a piece of field artillery and broke up a meeting of the Republican Club in order to suppress black voters.[13]

In 1987, the townsite was listed on the National Register of Historic Places under the name of "Town of Palo Alto." Nearly 200 acres (81 ha) were listed on the Register as part of the community.[1]

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
2. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Palo Alto, Mississippi
3. Elmo Howell (May 1998). Mississippi Back Roads: Notes on Literature and History. Elmo Howell. p. 218. ISBN 978-0-9622026-6-7.
4. Mississippi (1882). Laws of the State of Mississippi. Fall & Marshall, state printers. p. 675.
5. Elliott, Jack. "William Faulkner and Preservation, part one". Preservation in Mississippi. Retrieved May 28, 2020.
6. Rowland, Dunbar (1907). Mississippi: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form. Vol. 2. Southern Historical Publishing Association. p. 371.
7. "Clay County". Jim Forte Postal History. Retrieved May 27, 2020.
8. Mississippi. Department of Archives and History (1908). The Official and Statistical Register of the State of Mississippi. Department of Archives and History. p. 741.
9. "44th Regiment, Mississippi Infantry". The Civil War Trail. National Park Service. Retrieved May 27, 2020.
10. Steven E. Woodworth; Charles D. Grear (October 8, 2013). The Vicksburg Campaign, March 29–May 18, 1863. Southern Illinois University Press. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-8093-3270-0.
11. William H. Leckie; Shirley A. Leckie (March 1, 1998). Unlikely Warriors: General Benjamin H. Grierson and His Family. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 89. ISBN 978-0-8061-3027-9.
12. Edwin L. Drake (1879). Chronological Summary of Battles and Engagements of the Western Armies of the Confederate States: Including Summary of Lt. Gen. Joseph Wheeler's Cavalry Engagements. Tavel, Eastman & Howell. p. 25.
13. "Full text of "Mississippi: Testimony as to denial of elective franchise in Mississippi at the elections of 1875 and 1876, taken under the resolution of the Senate of December 5, 1876"". December 5, 1876. Retrieved December 17, 2017.