Fall 1999, Issue 54

Article Abstracts and Supplements

"Cavalry Crossing a Ford": Walt Whitman’s Alabama Connection
by Betty Barrett

In July of 1864, Walt Whitman was a relatively unknown, under-employed, forty-five year old poet, living in Washington, D.C. With the war on, he supported himself by working part-time copying documents in the army paymaster’s office. He also served as a volunteer nurse to war casualties. His real work, however, was completing his volume of war poetry, Drum-taps, which drew heavily on his experiences caring for the injured and dying. Included in the collection, published in 1865, was "Cavalry Crossing a Ford," a seven-line poem that is widely considered one of Whitman’s best. In the Fall issue of Alabama Heritage, Betty Barrett reveals intriguing evidence that the cavalry in question were Union troops under the command of Gen. Lovell H. Rousseau, and the ford they crossed was at Ten Islands on the Coosa River in St. Clair County, Alabama. In fact, not only does the poem recreate a scene from Rousseau’s July 1864 raid through Alabama, it relies heavily on the language and imagery of an anonymous war correspondent’s report of the events.



Historic Huntsville Houses (and We Don’t Mean Homes)
by Bob Ward

When Mollie Teal, a well-known businesswoman, bequeathed her home to the City of Huntsville at her death in 1899, she requested that it be used as a school or a hospital. Why, then, was there a column in Hunstville’s Evening Tribune denouncing the newly-passed Teal as a scourge against the community? Bob Ward details the life of the controversial Ms. Teal in the Fall 1999 issue of Alabama Heritage. It seems that the business behind Teal’s philanthropy was prostitution. In fact, Mollie Teal was the flamboyant madam of a brothel considered to be the largest and finest "sportin’ house" Huntsville ever saw.



Places in Peril: Alabama’s Endangered Historic Landmarks for 1999
by the Alabama Historical Commission and the Alabama Preservation Alliance Endangered Landmarks Committee

Nineteen-ninety-nine marks the sixth year that the Alabama Historical Commission, the Alabama Preservation Alliance, and Alabama Heritage have joined forces to call attention to some of our state’s threatened landmarks. This year we also feature the successful restoration of The Forks of Cypress, near Florence. This year’s roster brings the total number of situations we’ve highlighted to sixty-five. The newest additions include: Old Memphis & Charleston Freight Depot, 1857 (Huntsville); "Chapman’s Quarters" and Griffin Hotel, c. 1920 (Athens); Pinson School, 1921 (Jefferson County); Mount Zion A.M.E. Zion Church, 1899 (Montgomery); Bluff City Inn, 1855 (Eufaula); Pre-1860s Log Houses (Southern Lawrence County); St. Florian Community, 1870s (Lauderdale County); Lower Dexter Avenue and the Old Montgomery Theater (Montgomery); Masonic Hall, 1902 (Mobile); Shipwrecks off the Alabama Coast.



DEPARTMENTS

ALABAMA ALBUM - "A Tom Thumb Wedding"

SOUTHERN ARCHITECTURE - "Historic Buildings of Stillman College" by Eliza Tunstall Cobbs

RECOLLECTIONS - "Mammy" by Helen Friedman Blackshear

THE NATURE JOURNAL - "The Birmingham Wandering Banana Spider" by L. J. Davenport