Tallulah, Madison Parish, Louisiana

There are only two places on earth named Tallulah, the beautiful Tallulah Falls and Gorge in the mountains of north Georgia, and this small town in Louisiana. Tallulah, Louisiana has a population of just over 8,000 people and serves as the seat of Madison Parish. It is located in the northeastern portion of the state, about 24 miles west of Vicksburg, Mississippi.

The Madison Parish Courthouse, pictured above, is located in the heart of downtown Tallulah and also in the center of Madison Parish. It sits at the junction of US 80 and US 65.The white columned building was built on the Colonial Revival Style in 1925. It was placed on the National Register of Historical Places in 1989, due to it's historic significance in both architecture and engineering. It is not a tourist attraction but is the functioning seat of government for Madison Parish. However, visitors are welcome to visit the facility.

Tallulah was founded as a town in the sovereign state of Louisiana in 1857. Five years later it was an important telegraph and railroad station on the Vicksburg, Shreveport, and Texas Railroad. That's when the people of the fledgling city found themselves facing the brunt of an aggressive and northern army which was bent on forever changing the structure of "these" United States, turning the several sovereign states into a single empire called "The" United States of America.

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A historical marker on the Madison Parish courthouse lawn bears witness to the fateful day, August 18, 1962 when Lincoln's invading Federal troops, under Col. W. D. Bowen, destroyed the depot, telegraph office, and several railroad cars. The depot contained a large amount of sugar and supplies for the Confederate Army. When I read the historical marker (above), I took note of the fact that this was many months before Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, which did not actually free a single slave but was what Lincoln called a "war measure."

Slavery was not the cause of the war and did not become a major issue in the War Between the States until the Lincoln began to seek a justification for his illegal, brutal, and conscienceless attack on the Southern states.