It doesn't really sound like anything I'm familiar with, and I live in South MS, also. Could it have been a moth?

Or maybe a mourning cloak? This one visited me last winter -

{{gwi:450286}}

Sherry

Maybe it was a Pipevine Swallowtail? Sometimes, they don't have a lot of blue coloration.
Angie

How about an ID on this one? It was on my Joe Pye Weed and has about a 2" wingspan.

Rick, it may be a faded, older duskywing, but which variety, I'm not sure. It could be a Juvenal's, Horace's, or maybe even zarucco duskywing. It also could be a cloudywing, another confusing type of skipper.

Here's one I identified as a southern cloudywing - maybe mine was a male and yours a female -

{{gwi:517022}}

Beth, when you said the butterfly was medium in size, I never thought about a skipper, since I think of them as small. I guess you could call the bigger ones medium size, though. Since yours was black, it may have been one of the duskywings.

Sherry