Metal Memories

Vicksburg National Military Park employees Gary Lee, left, and Tom Akers install a new marker at the Texas Monument Wednesday. Photo taken by Meredith Spencer.

History picture gets a little clearer....

History gained a bit of clarity Wednesday as replacement of markers at 147 sites began in the Vicksburg National Military Park.

Two metal tablets were installed along Confederate Avenue signifying Col. T.N. Waul's Texas Legion's defense positions.

The sites have been without markers since the outbreak of World War II, when the original tablets were removed and the metal recycled for the war effort, National Park Service Historian Terry Winschel said.

Cast by San Antonio-based The Southwell Co., the $2,800 markers - paid for by a personal contribution from John Nau, chairman of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation - represent the first ones replaced since about 1995, Winschel said.

The new marker at Second Texas Lunette in the Vicksburg National Military Park.

"We hope to have more of them soon," Winschel said.

Friends of the Vicksburg National Military Park and Campaign, a nonprofit organization formed this year with the help of Nau, park officials and park volunteers, has been instrumental in jump-starting plans to drum up private donations to replace historic markers, spruce up monuments, park chief of operations Rick Martin said.

"They are the ones who will drive this. It shows what we can do alongside the Friends," Martin said.

The group hopes to raise $60,000 by the beginning of next year and eventually provide the park with $100,000 to help with projects that also include the revitalization of Pemberton's Headquarters on Crawford Street. Additional federal appropriations to the National Park Service will be sought to supplement the private sector's contributions, Martin said.

VNMP has the largest number of monuments, statues, tablets and markers of all the Civil War battlefields, with more than 1,300 honoring those who fought in the siege and surrender at Vicksburg.

Wednesday's installation was the second preservation project in recent weeks.

In July, park officials monuments honoring Illinois artillery units and Union Col. Adolph Engleman were moved inside the park from Sherman Avenue.

Two new monuments are expected to arrive for placement within the next year, Winschel said. One will be the first monument honoring the Ninth Connecticut Volunteers, tentatively scheduled for Oct. 14. The other will honor infantry troops from Kentucky.

This article was taken from yesterday's Vicksburg Post and I wanted to share it with you. It is quite impressive to know that our park has the largest number of monuments, statues, tablets and markers of all the Civil War battlefields.