degenerative disorder - condition leading to progressive loss of function

demyelination - loss of the myelin covering of some nerve fibers resulting in their impaired function

induration, sclerosis - any pathological hardening or thickening of tissue

siege of Vicksburg, Vicksburg - a decisive battle in the American Civil War (1863); after being besieged for nearly seven weeks the Confederates surrendered

American state - one of the 50 states of the United States

Gulf States - a region of the United States comprising states bordering the Gulf of Mexico; Alabama and Florida and Louisiana and Mississippi and Texas

Confederacy, Confederate States, Confederate States of America, Dixie, Dixieland, South - the southern states that seceded from the United States in 1861

Deep South - the southeastern region of the United States: South Carolina and Georgia and Alabama and Mississippi and Louisiana; prior to the American Civil War all these states produced cotton and permitted slavery

Biloxi - a old town in southern Mississippi on the Gulf of Mexico

Columbus - a town in eastern Mississippi near the border with Alabama

Greenville - a town in western Mississippi on the Mississippi River north of Vicksburg

Hattiesburg - a town in southeast Mississippi

capital of Mississippi, Jackson - capital of the state of Mississippi on the Pearl river

Meridian - a town in eastern Mississippi

Natchez - a town in southwest Mississippi on the Mississippi River

Tupelo - a town in northeast Mississippi

Vicksburg - a town in western Mississippi on bluffs above the Mississippi River west of Jackson; focus of an important campaign during the American Civil War as the Union fought to control the Mississippi River and so to cut the Confederacy into two halves

Tombigbee, Tombigbee River - a river that rises in northeastern Mississippi and flows southward through western Alabama to join the Alabama River and form the Mobile River

Yazoo, Yazoo River - a river that rises in west central Mississippi and flows southwest to empty into the Mississippi River above Vicksburg

master's degree - an academic degree higher than a bachelor's but lower than a doctor's

piece of writing, written material, writing - the work of a writer; anything expressed in letters of the alphabet (especially when considered from the point of view of style and effect); "the writing in her novels is excellent"; "that editorial was a fine piece of writing"