Mississippi to Make Landmark Investment

Mike Talplacido/ American Battlefield Trust

The Texas Monument crowns the Railroad Redoubt at Vicksburg National Military Park.

With Gov. Tate Reeves’ signature, Mississippi took an important step this spring in safeguarding sites that helped shape its past. The new Mississippi Historic Site Preservation Fund creates a matching grant mechanism that will foster public-private partnerships to permanently protect endangered battlefield land, Native American archaeological sites, and locations associated with the Civil Rights Movement. The fund will be administered by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and can attract both federal dollars and private contributions.

The fund will directly benefit endangered resources from several eras and ensure that future generations can visit the sites. Preservation allows the elevation of important elements in the Magnolia State’s historical narrative and greater appreciation of that place in the complex story of our nation.

The American Battlefield Trust has a more-than-three-decade record of protecting historic landscapes from intrusive development and creating battlefield parks. In Mississippi, it has protected 4,335 acres across 10 sites—including two just-completed projects demonstrating the need that the funding mechanism will address, and a new effort at Champion Hill.

Our most recent acquisitions in the state include a 43.5-acre property at Raymond, where, in May 1863, Confederate resistance was fierce before falling to the weight of Union numbers as Ulysses S. Grant pressed on to Vicksburg. Once a perpetual conservation easement is in place, the Trust will transfer the land to the Friends of Raymond for stewardship and management.

Separately, the Trust acquired 32.9 acres at Vicksburg that were the site of one of the most dramatic moments of that siege: Waul’s Texas Legion attack that reclaimed the portion of the Railroad Redoubt that had fallen to Union forces briefly on May 22, 1863. The Trust’s work here constitutes the most significant addition to the Vicksburg National Military Park in a generation, creating opportunities for interpretation and new pedestrian pathways for visitors. The Trust will work with the Friends of Vicksburg National Military Park and Campaign to steward the land until a boundary adjustment makes it eligible for transfer to the park.

In those instances, the Trust received support from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History to secure a matching grant from the federal American Battlefield Protection Program administered by the National Park Service. The combined purchase price was over $1 million, meaning that the grants of $136,151 for the Raymond project and $385,675 for Vicksburg were matched dollar-for-dollar by private donations.

The Trust is engaged now in fundraising to purchase outright 144 acres at the crossroads central to the Champion Hill Battlefield, which legendary historian Ed Bearss called his “favorite place” in the Vicksburg Campaign. To secure the land, we used the $78,000 donated in Bearss’ memory after his death in September 2020, leaving us with only $107,000 left to raise. Learn how you can participate at battlefields.org/ChampionHill2021.

David Duncan is president of the nonprofit, nonpartisan American Battlefield Trust, which is dedicated to preserving America’s hallowed battlegrounds—Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and Civil War—and educating the public about their significance.