Education Group Helps Build  14 Battlefield Cannons at a Time

It is like a magnet--Artillery,” The King of the Battlefield.”  Nothing better identifies a battlefield and draws random visitors to the site.  In central Mississippi, a few miles outside of the capital city of Jackson, along State Route 18 a gun line defines the profile of the western sky—it is Raymond, site of a small but distinctive battle in Ulysses S. Grant’s decisive Vicksburg Campaign.  Here on May 12, 1863, a Union corps under the command of the young Major General James B. McPherson beat up an oversized brigade under the command of Brigadier

General John Gregg.  Two days later the state capital of Jackson fell and on the 16^th and 17^th, Confederate Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton was beaten and pushed back to Vicksburg following the battles of Champion Hill and Big Black River Bridge.

The Raymond battlefield is now being acquired and restored with a unique feature—a one for one display of each piece of artillery fought in the battle.  Nearly 150 members of the nonprofit, educational organization the Blue and Gray Education Society (BGES) have donated over $40,000 to sponsor the restoration of 14 of the 25 pieces which are to be displayed.  Under the focused leadership of retired Brigadier General Parker Hills and a team of volunteers from Friends of Raymond, the gun lines are well defined and the guns are professionally mounted.  An expanded walking tour will tell the story of this “Pivotal” battle.   It is a short drive off I-20 and is a half day well spent.

BGES has a long legacy of leadership in interpreting the Vicksburg Campaign tracing back to 1995.  It has published scholarly monographs on Grant’s Canals (64 pages), The Entering Wedge: The Battle of Port Gibson (64 pages) and Confusion Compounded: the Pivotal Battle of Raymond (96 pages).  All can be acquired for a modest fee from the BGES at www.blueandgrayeducation.org.  BGES also has two full length book treatments with significant Vicksburg Campaign components:  its 2005 publication with the National Geographic Society, Fields of Honor by Edwin C. Bearss; and its 2010 NGS book,  Receding Tide: Vicksburg and Gettysburg, The Campaigns that Changed the Civil War by Edwin C. Bearss and Parker Hills.  Both can be acquired from the BGES in the trade versions and a unique leather bound edition.  BGES also does a series of Vicksburg campaign tours ranging from weekend trips to a nine part, 36 day series spread over two years.  It is no exaggeration to say that no one does the campaign better.

BGES is a charitable organization and its 400 plus members have a long and distinguished list of completed and in progress projects.  If you want to be part of a progressive, results oriented organization click here or call Len at 434-250-9921.  Tax deductible memberships start at $75 per year.