2The battle for Vicksburg roils still, the outcome of the Union siege undecided as specters reload and carry on. The Pascagoula River sings out in grief, and a three-legged lady stalks a country lane outside Columbus. The Magnolia State is more than antebellum homes, fish camps and the blues. This is a land worthy of its matchless storytellers. Even after being passed back and forth between the Spanish, French and British, the ancient energy of the original inhabitants still reverberates through the region. From forgotten tales of African slaves, once the majority population, to yarns of bloodthirsty backwoodsmen on the Natchez Trace, author Alan Brown goes beyond the bullet points of Mississippi history. The legends often tell a clearer story than anything else.