I think of my trip through Kentucky and Tennessee as walking the interior of a chambered nautilus. The trip has been loops within loops — I began in the west, at Mammoth Cave, wandered east to Lexington. Meandered south and west to Bardstown and Fort Campbell. Skittered south to Shiloh (again) this time for the Indian Mounds rather than the battlefield. The ranger talked me into visiting Corinth. The most spectacular visitor center – a real anchor for the Civil War in the west but so marginally visited. The walkway to the building has bronze sculptures of items dropped in haste by troops. There are CSA and US belt buckles, a boot, caps, a bayonet, a canteen, a revolver, a book, a clutter of shaving brush, hair brush, and toiletries. The building is consciously architected to draw you in past a bronze frieze of soldiers. Through the building, you can see the reflecting pool and the memorial garden.

There is a funny sense on entering these spaces that are the federal government sites and memorials to a conflict centered against a federal government imposing a view of the world. Not only does the visitor center have a wonderful, comprehensive, and richly contextualized experience, it also houses a small but focused research library. It is really a gem. I’d also note, that it may not survive the current administration; perhaps its virtue is that it is so little visited. Let me hope that a local radical will not report it or make it a campaign issue and it will survive.

The other loop within this is trying to reach the conclusion to my Civil War exploration. I visited both Lincoln’s and Jefferson Davis’ birthplaces. Separated by 100 miles, but seeming closer because of all my travel, the former completely unplanned, the latter somewhat planned after visiting Beauvoir in Biloxi, MS.

Lincoln’s birthplace is a National Park and contains the first Lincoln Memorial, opened in the early 1900’s with Taft heading the honorary party at its dedication. This monument has fifty-six steps, one for each year, and it contains the log cabin, certifying the myth of Lincoln’s common birth. This is somewhat belied by the museum exhibits. He was not born to wealth, nor did he garner wealth as did the slave holding Davis family. The inscription over the classical monument ends with “… Unity Peace and Brotherhood Among these States.”

Davis’s monument is privately funded and maintained. It can be seen from far away as it is a 315 foot obelisk, topped only by Washington’s monument, which it resembles, at 555 feet. Whereas the Washington Monument is made of stone, this is concrete, reinforced with limestone blocks rather than rebar. It is built in four foot panels, with limestone connectors joining the lower to the upper block. An elevator, installed in 1929 takes you to a viewing platform at about 300 feet. The museum is small, almost religious those items touched our used by the man identified. The remainder are Civil War objects, mostly clothing and accessories from the period.

The museum also contains a letter written in response to a request about biography and Davis describes his family, including the dedication of his father to: “… Community independence or state rights and of self government by organized people.” He goes on to conclude the letter that he too will die “…holding fast to that faith” as it protects “…popular liberty…” The letter, in whole, shows Davis as a petty, unforgiving man, incapable of acknowledging he may be in error. As before noted, the Lost Cause should be buried.