“Grace, Issaquena County, Mississippi”
Men who served in the 1st U.S. Colored Cavalry came from across the country and around the world. Some of them returned to their place of birth; others moved far away. Maps, gazetteers, and atlases — together with local histories — help us understand the the time and place where a person lived.
“Grace, a village in the northeastern part of Issaquena county, about 8 miles from Mayersville, the county seat. Rolling Fork is the nearest banking town. It has a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 70.”
Dunbar Rowland. Mississippi: Comprising Sketches of Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form, Volume 1. Atlanta: Southern Historical Publishng Company, 1907, page 794.
“Where is Issaquena County, Mississippi?”
“Issaquena County was established January 23, 1844 … It has a small population composed very largely of negroes and possesses no towns of any size. It has a land surface of 473 square miles. Its wealth lies in its fertile plantations and its extensive and heavily timbered areas … About two thirds of the county is heavily timbered with a heavy growth of cypress, oaks, ash, gum, hackberry, hickory, locust, walnut and sassafras. The soil is a rich alluvial loam and will produce luxuriant crops of cotton, corn, oats, etc., even with improvident and negligent cultivation.”
Dunbar Rowland, Mississippi … pages 945-946
“Lloyd’s Map of the Lower Mississippi River from Saint Louis, Missouri to the Gulf of Mexico” (1862)
A complex map contains a lot more information and may be harder to interpret. “Lloyd’s Map of the Lower Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri to the Gulf of Mexico”(1862) is divided into five panels. It displays “sugar and cotton plantations, cities, towns, landings, sand bars, islands, bluffs, bayous, cut-offs, the steamboat channel, mileage, fortifications, railroad, etc along the river.” Visually stack the panels to view the intended image. Issaquena County is at the bottom of Panel #3.
1st U.S. Colored Cavalry 