[1] This massive tornado formed approximately twenty miles southwest of Natchez, shortly before 1 p.m., and moved northeast along the Mississippi River.

It then moved into the town of Natchez, though its full width of devastation also included the river and the Louisiana village of Vidalia.

[2] Numerous other deaths may have occurred further along the path as the tornado struck rural portions of Concordia Parish, Louisiana as well.

The Free Trader stated, "Reports have come in from plantations 20 miles distant in Louisiana, and the rage of the tempest was terrible.

Hundreds of (slaves) killed, dwellings swept like chaff from their foundations, the forest uprooted, and the crops beaten down and destroyed.

In the Journal of the Joint Commission under date of May 26, 1840, at page 62 of said document, is written the following: "We crossed to-day the path of a recent tornado, which had prostrated trees and cane on the river banks.