The tour programs of ‘Walking Home’ focus on three primary events during the early days of what became known as the American Civil War.  Rather than a grand presentation of the sweeping events of those days, my tours have a deep personal connection to the times as my family, like so many of the families I grew up with in Northeast Mississippi, was caught up in the trials and tribulations of those early years of our republic.  One of those members of my family was my second great grandfather John Henry Coker.  In the early morning hours of April 6, 1862, as a young man of only eighteen, he lay on the ground of Wood’s Field, silent, still, watching as the flickering light of a thousand enemy campfires gave a tell-tale sign of the enormity of the dawning day’s work that lay ahead.  He was in position as part of the 3rd Mississippi Battalion commanded by Major Aaron B. Hardcastle, a Marylander leading a host of Mississippians into war. 

What began as a personal tour for friends and family has grown into a professional venture and labor of love.  My main program, the waking tour Shiloh-"Cry Havoc!", follows the 3rd Mississippi Battalion throughout the entire action on Sunday, April 6, 1862 until they quit the field at the end of the day being detailed as prisoner escort.  It is a tale of duty, heroism, and sacrifice that most cannot imagine today and few could ever endure.  The other two programs focus on Corinth and Fort Donelson both giving context and background to the entire campaign.  All three are rich narratives from the Southern perspective that illustrate the hopes and disappointments of a people at war for which the stakes could never have been higher.

I invite you to come with me and travel time’s path as we walk the lines with the beleaguered Southern troops as they fight their way out of the works at Fort Donelson.  Come with me and lets walk the streets of Corinth shadowing the footsteps of General Albert Sidney Johnston as he hurriedly approaches the Hamilton Mask home with a telegram in his hand and the fate of the South on his shoulders.  Join me at Shiloh where we’ll walk the woods, farm lots and fields following my grandfather’s battalion as they surge forward in a desperate bid for a victorious day never knowing what it would cost until the guns fell silent.  I hope you’ll join me as we turn back time to better understand the human face of a people, my people, in their most desperate hour and most noble sacrifice.  I invite you to join me as we go walking home. – Jeff Brewer