PARROTTSVILLE-Plans to erect two Civil War commemorative signs in Parrottsville moved a step closer to completion on Thursday following a meeting between Nashville and local officials.

Dr. Carroll Van West, who co-chairs of Tennessee's Civil War Sesquicentennial Committee with Tennessee Tourism Commissioner Susan Whitaker, and Lee Curtis, Director of Project Development for the Tennessee Department of Tourism Development, spent Thursday afternoon visiting the proposed sites with Cocke County Tourism Director Linda Lewanski, Parrottsville Mayor Mary Keller, Parrottsville City Commissioner Charlene Cureton, and Duay O'Neil, co-chair of the Cocke County Tourism Council.

The two signs will commemorate the Andrew Johnson's purchase of slaves in Cocke County and the hanging of Peter Reece. Both events occurred in Parrottsville.

The signs will be part of hundreds of such informational stops along state highways throughout the South and will tell the "rest of the story" about people and events not found in traditional history books.

For more details, please see the weekend edition of the Newport Plain Talk.