Let your imagination accompany you to western Tennessee.(Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service)

Byline: Luaine Lee

Standing in a densely wooded site of the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee, you think you can hear sounds of cannon that thundered through the sweet gum, pine and maple trees that fateful April day in 1862. But it's just your imagination.

Imagination is a constant companion for the tourist who visits the battlefields, the lush waterways and the forgotten villages of western Tennessee.

A good place to start that imagination in motion is Memphis, the home of the blues, with its colorful Beale Street and Elvis Presley's fabled Graceland.

From there, Highway 57 takes you to the undiscovered Tennessee and places like the forgotten village of LaGrange, at one time boasting a population of 3,000. Now it's a dot on the highway, spotted with wonderful antebellum structures that are still treasured by the 140 people who live here.

Stop in for a visit with Lucy Cogbill at her country store and museum. Cogbill (who just finished a term as mayor) is proud of the town's heritage and the elegance that inspired it. The Immanuel Episcopal Church once served as an ordnance depot and Union hospital during the four years the Federals occupied the town, The church's pews were once ...