of Alexander, Pulaski, Union, Johnson, Massac and nearby counties Civil War Era Thebes Courthouse A hand-hewn stone courthouse built at Thebes overlooks the Mississippi River. Dred Scott was a slave whose eleven-year legal fight ended with a U.S. Supreme Court decision that Scott was still a slave, which preceded the Civil War. Legend says Scott stayed one night in the courthouse jail. Historians have found records that an African-American man spent one night there, about the time Scott might have learned the outcome of the decision from the high court, and turned himself in to the nearest authorities. Some say Abe Lincoln may have tried a case there. It appears Lincoln never practiced law at the Thebes courthouse, but was acquainted with a local family, and probably visited in their home. The Alexander county seat was at America 1819-1833, Unity 1833-1845, Thebes 1845-1860, and then at Cairo.
Thebes Rail Bridge Five railroads on April 18, 1905 opened for traffic a double track rail bridge at Thebes, across the Mississippi River. It eliminated ferrying of rail cars and cargo across the nation's largest river. The location was moved northward from the Cairo area because of more solid land especially on the Illinois approach. Lincoln-Douglas Debate in Jonesboro
Mound City Shipyards The Mound City shipyards began in 1862 and remained until 1874 {marker}. It had more than 20 sets of rails, and could accommodate many boats completely out of the water for construction or repair. Mound City was the only repair facility for 80 Union boats. James Eads of St. Louis bridge-building fame, designed ships built here. Three iron-clad gunboats were outfitted here.
U.S.S. Cairo, U.S.S. Mound City
First US Navy Nurses at Mound City The first US Navy nurses were African-American women, at Mound City, serving alongside Catholic nuns. A Civil War hospital at Mound City cared for many wounded. Union forces seized the Red Rover (Confederate steamer) and made it into a hospital ship. It made many trips to battles, such as Vicksburg, treating and bringing back wounded from both armies. more Red Rover, first Navy nurses Mound City National Cemetery The Mound City National Cemetery (pdf) has 4,800 graves of Civil War soldiers. Many identities are not known. Cemetery overview Several soldiers were Confederate, from battles as far away as Vicksburg and Shiloh. Mound City and Cairo were important Union staging areas for troops. Burial list Map of Ohio River between Mound City and Cairo, zoomable. Fort Defiance Ft. Defiance was near the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, originally at the southern end of the present Cairo business district. The confluence has shifted about a mile further south. It is now a park between the two river bridges, sometimes offering campsites and an eye-level view of barges passing on either side. By June of 1861, 12,000 Union troops occupied the area and another 38,000 men were within a one-day ride. The site became an important supply depot for Grant's western army and a naval base as the Union and Confederacy battled for control of the lower Mississippi. The Union shipped supplies from Chicago to the far tip of Illinois via the Illinois Central Railroad, fueling Grant's push deep into the Confederacy and altering the course of the War Between the States. Several Cairo, Mound City, Cave-In-Rock articles, pictures, links are on this NIU site.
Gen. Ulysses Grant at Cairo
Underground Railroad in Southernmost Illinois, Cairo History The underground railroad [-map-] taking southern slaves to freedom ran through the forests northeast of Vienna. The Miller Grove community of former slaves and sympathizers assisted others find safe houses to rest by day for the 20 mile per night walk. The underground railroad went through Cairo*. Click the panoramic Cairo picture to find its strong zoom ability.
*"The impression has gone abroad that there is to be an Underground Railroad from this place to Chicago, and that Negroes will be induced to runaway from Missouri and Kentucky. We assure our friends abroad that such fears are entirely without foundation," read the Cairo City Times in 1855. A Genuine $3 Bill The Bank of Cairo issued a $3 bill, at Kaskaskia, in 1840. Larger image of $10 bill. The Bank and the town of Cairo were incorporated a few months before the State of Illinois in 1818, but it was the decade before the Civil War when things began to perk for Cairo.
The steamboat era flourished, with Cairo playing an important part. It was a city on par with Memphis and Louisville. The Cairo City Weekly News gave tidbits of interest. Cairo scenes | Cairo history
The Custom House The Cairo Custom House was built in 1872 to house the offices which dealt with collecting duties and tariffs on international imports which had not been offloaded before they reached Cairo. It housed several Federal Offices through 1975. When steamboats transferred western mail, the Cairo Post Office was one of the busiest in the country. It is now open as a well-kept multi-story museum. Former offices are recreated into an old pharmacy, doctor's office and general store. The Custom House has memorabilia from the 1940s when the St. Louis baseball Cardinals held spring training at Cotter field in Cairo. How do you pronounce the names?
The Railroads The Illinois Central Railroad was completed from Chicago to Cairo in 1857, and the Cairo rail bridge to West Kentucky and Fulton was completed around 1889. By 1900 there were seven railroad lines branching to and from Cairo. Bird's Point, in Missouri, just west of Cairo, was a Union camp during the Civil War and a rail transfer point afterward, until the Thebes rail bridge was built. Before completion of the railroad bridge over the Ohio River at Cairo, large ferries took rail cars across the rivers. Abraham Lincoln represented the Illinois Central railroad in several cases. Steamboat companies did not think the railroads had an unfettered right to span the river with a bridge. {Again, enter the lawyer with the stovepipe hat.) Railroads helped the North win the Civil War. Illinois Central Railroad, vegetable, fruit-growing Just after the war, a Cobden fruit grower was frustrated that the Parker Earle from Union County is credited with developing the first refrigerated rail car, in 1867. Refrigerated trucking did not develop for another 80 years.
Ohio River Valley History
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strawberries he shipped by rail directly to the Chicago markets were spoiled by the time they arrived. He saved ice in his barn during the winter, covered it in sawdust, then cooled a freight car with it.
