Battle of Okolona Historical Marker

Go back the way you came on Church Street, headed toward Main Street. At 0.8 miles, turn right onto Main Street at the four-way stop sign.

At 1.1 miles, turn right onto McDonnell Street. You are now on Route 41—the Pontotoc Road. You'll stay on this road for the rest of the tour.

At 5.8 miles, note the tall steel fence gate on the right. The view through the gate is of the site of the town of Prairie Mount, which was largely abandoned by the time of the war because of the coming of the railroad to Okolona.

Site 1—At 6.3 miles there is another BATTLE OF OKOLONA HISTORICAL MARKER on the right. Pullover just beyond it and park. This is the Prairie Mount site, the scene of the first determined Federal stand on February 22. After reading the marker, you may want to enter the site through the gate. [Note: In the summertime, the narrow, unpaved roadway is infested with ticks. Metal detecting is prohibited at all times. The area is watched.] After several hundred yards, the track divides. Bear left. The PRAIRIE MOUNT CEMETERY lies beyond a fence just to the right. You may enter the cemetery. There are two graves of special interest: Confederate Captain J.E. Turner, killed at the Battle of New Hope Church, Georgia, in May 1864; and Littleberry Gilliam, killed in Chickasaw County in October 1864. Gilliam was the founder of Prairie Mount, a former state senator (1843) and probably the largest landowner in the county at the time of the war. According to local tradition, Federal deserters, or "bummers," beat and tortured him to get their hands on his gold, which he had hidden away. He got away from them and hid under the floor of his barn. The bummers set it on fire, burning him alive. With the cemetery on your right, walk just ahead to a small rise. It will give you a view over the field and up another rise where Colonel Jeffrey Forrest was killed.