Skipwith's Landing, Mississippi

Skipwith's Landing was a 19th-century boat landing and human settlement on the east bank of the Mississippi River, located in the county of Issaquena in the U.S. state of Mississippi. Skipwith's Landing was situated about 55 mi to 100 mi north of Vicksburg, Mississippi, depending on mode of travel. Circa 1866, a witness at a U.S. Congressional hearing described Skipwith's Landing as being among the most sparsely populated sections of the state with no village or town in proximity. Circa 1867, there were no roads leading to or from Skipwith's Landing; the only access was by the river. For a time there was a cut made by the river that was known as Skipwith's Chute. Another related placename was Skipwith Crevasse. There was a U.S. post office at Skipwith's in 1870.

Skipwith's Landing was used as an anchorage and crewing site for gunboats during the American Civil War. The U.S. Navy also kept coal barges and eventually built a repair and carpentry shop there. Skipwith's Landing was opposite Island 92. The Sam Gaty sank nearby in 1863.

Steamboats of the era were fueled by wood, and burned something like 70 cords of wood per day. Therefore, there were "hundreds of wood yards" along the Mississippi during the steamboat era, "one every several miles on the busiest sections of the river." According to The Half Has Never Been Told, the cotton empire of the Mississippi River valley opened a "new frontier" along the river above Vicksburg in the late 1840s, so Skipwith's Landing may have been established in the late 1840s or in the 1850s. In addition to exporting cotton, the landing would have been used to import enslaved people who grew that cotton and made up roughly 80 percent of the percent of the antebellum population of the area.