Brookwood Civil War Essay

The night was still and quiet. There was a deep coolness in the air. The scent of burning silver maple wood rose up from towering brick chimneys and drifted across the farmlands of Wilkinson County Mississippi. The landscape was shaped by gently rolling hills and a dispersion of farm houses sparsely scattered for hundreds of acres in all directions. This small community was known as Brookwood lies seven miles north of the town of Maelstrom Mississippi. The mostly African-American community was founded during the period of reconstruction shortly after the end of the Civil War. Now, eight decades later, another war has come to an end. Three months earlier on August 6 at exactly 8:16 am, the US dropped the first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima and three days later Nagasaki. Brookwood seemed almost immune

He owned a 30-acre farm where he grew soybean and tobacco. This time of the year, however, the vegetation lay dormant. The evening began as routinely has any night in the Dickson household. Lenny’s wife Lillian had put their three children to bed by 8 o’clock, while he sat in his favorite chair listening to the radio. By eight thirty, he dozed off. Usually, Lillian would not bother him, but about 9 o’clock, he woke up to find her frantically shaking him. “What is it?”, Lenny shouted as he stared at her, clearly startled. Lillian pointed toward the window and yelled, “There is a fire at Mr. Turner’s house”, Lenny jumped from his chair and ran toward the window. “Call the fire station,” he yelled. The Dickson home was one of the few houses in Brookwood to have a telephone. Lou Turner was an 88-year-old man who lived alone. He was the last living person in Brookwood who had actually been a slave. As a young man, he escaped to the north to volunteer in the Union Army during the War Between the States. Few people knew of his unique history. Many folks just thought of him as a nice old man and he was well loved by