The two previous surrenders occurred at Appomattox Court House, in Virginia between General Robert E. Lee and General Ulysses S. Grant. The second and largest surrender was at Bennett Place near Durham, North Carolina. It was between General William Tecumseh Sherman and General Joseph E. Johnston.
Sherman took no pity on Southerners. He was the one that burnt Atlanta you know. They say he burned a swath of land fifty miles wide from Atlanta to Savannah. His troops burned crops, killed livestock, and consumed supplies as they destroyed every cotton gin and storage bin they come across, as well as tore up every train rail and station they could.
You see, I know a little history about Alabama, and our country too, but I did not learn it at school. …show more content…
Back then, silence could be bought for a penance and when all that bad stuff began happening, the town began to dry up. Bad word travels just as fast if not faster than good word does; folks looking to get away and relax decided to go on to the next new place to get-away to.
By the mid 1940s, the place had become a veritable ghost town. I don’t know why the citizens of Citronelle let it become such an awful place, a Sodom and Gomorrah of the South. No one ever told me the real reason, but I have heard stories, many different stories. Some say it was because things got out of hand, which happens when the wrong sort move into a place. Where the rich go, the riffraff will follow. And where there’s money, there’s corruption.
I believe the real change for the better came about when the daughter of the local sheriff disappeared. I hate that the girl lost her life, but if she hadn’t, there ain’t no telling how bad things might have gotten around here. She was missing for several days before they found her. The poor girl had been raped, murdered, and left to die in a ditch behind one of the opium dens. From what I heard, several of those had sprung up along with all the other fine …show more content…
There was one joint that was situated on that bluff over the Escatawpa River where it bends south just north of town- I’ve heard some awful tales about that place. They say that back in those days, every night, someone was murdered in that place for one reason or another. They’d take them out back and throw their bodies into the river to get rid of them. Most times, they’d float several miles downriver before their bodies became lodged in a beaver den or wash up on a sandbar- it was impossible to know where they were killed…
Anyhow, I heard the sheriff went plumb-crazy and killed everyone there. He then waged a one-man war on those places and all the other places unsavory types tended to gather. The sheriff said he was sick and tired of covering for hash heads and silver-spooned white trash. The good citizen’s of Citronelle, banded together and made alcohol and drugs illegal, that was when people began moving away. After that, not many remained, but the ones that was here to begin with. The poverty that many folks in this country suffered in the 1930s because of the Great Depression, come a little late to this
Sherman took no pity on Southerners. He was the one that burnt Atlanta you know. They say he burned a swath of land fifty miles wide from Atlanta to Savannah. His troops burned crops, killed livestock, and consumed supplies as they destroyed every cotton gin and storage bin they come across, as well as tore up every train rail and station they could.
You see, I know a little history about Alabama, and our country too, but I did not learn it at school. …show more content…
Back then, silence could be bought for a penance and when all that bad stuff began happening, the town began to dry up. Bad word travels just as fast if not faster than good word does; folks looking to get away and relax decided to go on to the next new place to get-away to.
By the mid 1940s, the place had become a veritable ghost town. I don’t know why the citizens of Citronelle let it become such an awful place, a Sodom and Gomorrah of the South. No one ever told me the real reason, but I have heard stories, many different stories. Some say it was because things got out of hand, which happens when the wrong sort move into a place. Where the rich go, the riffraff will follow. And where there’s money, there’s corruption.
I believe the real change for the better came about when the daughter of the local sheriff disappeared. I hate that the girl lost her life, but if she hadn’t, there ain’t no telling how bad things might have gotten around here. She was missing for several days before they found her. The poor girl had been raped, murdered, and left to die in a ditch behind one of the opium dens. From what I heard, several of those had sprung up along with all the other fine …show more content…
There was one joint that was situated on that bluff over the Escatawpa River where it bends south just north of town- I’ve heard some awful tales about that place. They say that back in those days, every night, someone was murdered in that place for one reason or another. They’d take them out back and throw their bodies into the river to get rid of them. Most times, they’d float several miles downriver before their bodies became lodged in a beaver den or wash up on a sandbar- it was impossible to know where they were killed…
Anyhow, I heard the sheriff went plumb-crazy and killed everyone there. He then waged a one-man war on those places and all the other places unsavory types tended to gather. The sheriff said he was sick and tired of covering for hash heads and silver-spooned white trash. The good citizen’s of Citronelle, banded together and made alcohol and drugs illegal, that was when people began moving away. After that, not many remained, but the ones that was here to begin with. The poverty that many folks in this country suffered in the 1930s because of the Great Depression, come a little late to this