Mississippi & The Spirits of Gettysburg

Confederate troops of Lieutenant General James Longstreet's corps marched into Gettysburg, with the left of his line anchored in Pitzer Woods by the Mississippi Brigade of Brig. General William Barksdale. The Georgia brigade of Brig. General W.T. Wofford formed just outside of the woods, but close behind Barksdale's men. The objective for Barksdale and Wofford was to attack Union troops forming on the Emmitsburg Road and the advanced line at the Peach Orchard.

   Brig General William Barksdale  ( left)

Just before 4 o'clock on July 2, 1863, Confederate artillery along this portion of Seminary Ridge opened fire on the Union batteries stationed in the Peach Orchard. Huddling in the woods, the Mississippi troops listened to the boom of the guns and screech of Union shells crashing through the trees above them. Impatient that his part of the attack was delayed until other troops had gone in first, a fuming Barksdale stormed up and down, stopping only to petition his division commander for permission to go into the attack early.

Almost two hours into the attack, the hot tempered general was given permission to move forward in support of Confederate troops advancing on their right. Barksdale ordered his men to the eastern edge of the woods where the Mississippians dressed their ranks and went to the position of "parade rest" while Union shells burst around them. Though considered a senior in age, General Barksdale was a fiery and fearless leader in battle whose face appeared to "glow with excitement at the prospect of battle." Dressed in a resplendent gray officer's coat highlighted with gold trim, his long gray hair flowing almost to the collar, Barksdale spurred his black charger to the front of his old regiment, the 13th Mississippi. Above the noise of battle, the general spoke a few words of encouragement. He then waved his hat as a signal to begin the charge and his brigade moved forward in an unstoppable wave.

The Mississippi Brigade raced across open fields and sliced through the Union line. It was "The most magnificent charge of the war," as one eyewitness called it. Despite the heroic efforts of two Union regiments near the Sherfy House to slow the Mississippians, Barksdale's soldiers broke through the shaken Union defenders in the Peach Orchard and the Union line began to collapse. Wofford's Georgians followed in Barksdale's path and eventually drove in the last defenders of the orchard before they reached the Wheatfield and beyond.

Barksdale’s Mississippians lost nearly half of their number in the horrific fight on the afternoon of July 2, in the Peach Orchard on the Emmitsburg Road, and en route to Cemetery Ridge. Among them was Barksdale himself, one of 32 generals who fell at Gettysburg.

The Mississippi State Monument stands near this location, selected for this site because of the service of General Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade on July 2.

Sculptor Donald Harcourt DeLue, born October 5, 1897 in Boston, Massachusetts, and died on August 26, 1988 in Leonardo, New Jersey sculpted the monument. He was 76 years old when he completed the Mississippi State Monument. The monument was dedicated on October 19, 1973 and cost $100,000.

The monument to the State of Mississippi at Gettysburg is southwest of town on West Confederate Avenue.

It stands where General Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade began their charge into the Peach Orchard on July 2nd and represents the hand-to-hand fighting of that desperate day. The color-bearer has fallen mortally wounded and his comrade steps over his body, using his clubbed musket to defend the fallen flag.

One of the most conspicuous soldiers on the battlefield is the color bearer. Those who carried the regimental flag into the fight could not carry a weapon, as both hands were required to raise the flag and keep it aloft for the rest of the unit to follow. As a result, the enemies fired at the color bearer more than any other soldier, because if the flag fell, those following it could not continue their charge. On the opposite side, those attacking could not allow the flag to fall. Therefore, as one color bearer was shot down, another, and another would grasp the standard and carry it onward.

Mississippi

July 1st 2nd 3rd 1863

On this ground our brave sires fought for their righteous cause;

In glory they sleep who give to it their lives

To valor, they gave new dimensions of courage

To duty its noblest fulfillment

To posterity, the sacred heritage of honor.

Mississippi was represented on the fields of Gettysburg by infantry brigades of Davis of Heth's division, Hill's corps, consisting of the Second, Eleventh, and Forty-second Mississippi regiments ad the Fifty-fifth North Carolina regiment, which was temporarily assigned to it; Barksdale's brigade of McLaw's division, Longstreet's corps, consisting of the Thirteenth, Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Twenty-first regiments; Posey's brigade of Anderson's division, Hill's corps, consisting of the Twelfth, Sixteenth, Nineteenth, and Twenty-first regiments; Ward's Mississippi battery (the Madison Light Artillery) of Poague's battalion, which was attached to Pender's division.

In addition to these infantry-artillery forces from Mississippi, the Adams County troop of cavalry, the Chickasaw Rangers, and the Kemper County cavalry of Hampton's brigade, Stuart's division, also took part in the battle of Gettysburg.

Mississippi had eleven infantry regiments, one infantry battalion, one cavalry regiment, and one artillery battery , sending over 4,900 men   to Gettysburg, with almost 1,500 becoming casualties.

Confederate Monument listing all the

participating Confederate States (top left)

I visited Gettysburg in September 2010 with my fiance Tony. I walked alone out into the wide open pasture which was once the Wheat Field. I felt the thick dark energy that permiated the air, crushing my chest with its heavy weight. The silence screamed at me and I could almost hear the hot breath of wild eyed horses and charging foot soldiers all around me. I did not feel alone in the least.

It was hard to breathe and I felt an overwhelming sense of sadness no matter what area of the battlefield I was walking on. I walked the trails near Spangler's Spring, I stood on Cemetery ridge, where smoke and gunfire once sliced the air. 

I hiked the scenic paths up Little Round Top. I sat behind the rock barricades where the 20th Maine held the Union flanks and where Confederate troops bravely stormed the rocky slopes only to fall to their deaths, Sliced down by the blazing guns that rained down upon them. I heard the trees crying as if they had human voices.  I walked across Slaughter Pen and sat amongst the boulders of Devil's Den, two of the saddest areas I visited. I stood on Confederate Avenue near Pitzer Woods, where the Mississipians charged so fiercely. The sadness I felt while at Gettysburg was overwhelming and I cannot begin to imagine the horrific scenes of death, pain and bloodshed that occured on both sides of the line, in this most beautiful of countrysides. In my opinion there were no real winners of this bloody battle. Both sides of the conflict experienced enormous losses of life.
Many different estimates exist on the number of casualties inflicted during the battle of Gettysburg, but one common estimate is as follows:

Union -Killed 3,155  Wounded 14,530  Missing 5,365  Total 23,040  % of Total 27%

Confederate Killed 2,600-4,500 Wounded 12,800 Missing 5,250 Total 20,650-25,000*

% of Total  30%-34%

* Total Confederate casualties have been estimated to be as great as 28,000. It is usually agreed that total Confederate casualties numbered at least 1/3 of Lee's army.

It is hard to imagine that a conflict so bloody could have happened on such beautiful ground. The feelings of death, pain, anger, sadness and loneliness still lingers in this place.

I firmly believe that the spirits of those who bled and died here, remain to this day. I do not need photographic evidence or scientific proof of their ghostly existence. I felt them with my bones and I heard them all around me, screaming with each gust of wind.

View More of My Gettysburg Photos Here :

History Sources:

Mississippi Monument Photograph © 2008 Patricia A. Hickman
http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/civilwar/ig/Gettysburg-Confederate-State/Mississippi.htm
http://www.nps.gov/archive/gett/getttour/tstops/tstd2-07.htm
http://www.thegettysburgexperience.com/past_issue_headlines/2010/april2010/battlefieldart.html
http://www.gettysburg.stonesentinels.com/Confederate/MS.php

http://msgw.org/desoto/military/gettysburg.html
http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/gettysburg/getty4.aspx

Vicksburg National Cemetery & Cedar Hill

Vicksburg National Cemetery encompasses 116 acres, and is the resting place of of 17,000 Civil War Union soldiers, a number unmatched by any other national cemetery. It was established by an act of Congress in 1866.


During the Civil War, soldiers that succumbed to wounds or disease were typically buried close to where they died. If their name was known, their grave could be marked with whatever materials were at hand — most commonly the etching of the name into a wooden board. .

Burial Detail

After the creation of Vicksburg National Cemetery, extensive efforts were made by the War Department to locate the remains of Union soldiers originally buried throughout the southeast in the areas occupied by Federal forces during the campaign and siege of Vicksburg — namely, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. However, by the time of these re-interments many of the wooden markers had been lost to the elements, and identification of many of the soldiers was rendered impossible. .

Unknown Soldier Grave Markers

Others who died during the Federal occupation of Vicksburg were buried at various points in the Vicksburg vicinity prior to the cemetery's establishment. Record-keeping was haphazard under wartime conditions and these grave locations were often lost. Following the Civil War, the U.S. Army located and exhumed the remains of 300,000 Union soldiers buried in the South, re-interring the remains in national cemeteries throughout the country.



At Vicksburg National Cemetery, 75% of the Civil War dead are listed as unknowns, Rounded, upright headstones mark the graves of the known soldiers, while small, square blocks, etched with a grave number only, designate the burials of the unknowns. . No one of national fame is buried in Vicksburg National Cemetery, with Brevet Brig. Gen. Embury D. Osband qualifiying as the highest-ranking veteran interred (Grave #16648, Section O).

In the late 1860's, two Confederates were mistakenly buried in Section B of the cemetery (Private Reuben White, 19th Texas Infantry Regiment, Grave #2637; Sergeant Charles B. Brantley, 12th Arkansas Sharpshooters Battalion, Grave #2673). .

The first national cemeteries established by Congress in 1862 were to provide a burial place for "soldiers who shall die in the service of the country". At the time, this provision applied only to Union war dead. Following the Spanish-American War, veterans of later wars became qualified for burial in national cemeteries, and approximately 1,300 veterans of conflicts subsequent to the Civil War are interred in Vicksburg National Cemetery. A scattering of other burials includes veterans who served during peace time, former cemetery superintendents and their families, wives and children of veterans, government workers, and a few civilians of the past century.


Vicksburg National Cemetery was under the jurisdiction of the War Department until 1933, when administration was turned over to the Department of the Interior's National Park Service. The last cemetery superintendent, Randolph G. Anderson, retired in 1947, and supervision of the cemetery became the added responsibility of the superintendent of Vicksburg National Military Park.

Vicksburg National Cemetery has been closed for burials since May 1961 except to those individuals who had reserved space for interment prior to that time.

The names of the soldiers interred in Vicksburg National Cemetery have been compiled from the original cemetery ledgers. The three-volume set contains only basic information about each known veteran, recorded at the time of re-interment. Although the handwritten pencil entries are in remarkable condition, many do contain inaccuracies and/or only partial information about the soldier. see : Here for List of Interments

The City of Vicksburg served as a major hospital center in the early years of the Civil War. A section in the Cedar Hill (Vicksburg City ) Cemetery was set aside to provide a fitting burial place for Confederate soldiers who died of sickness or wounds.
View of China Street showing the Washington Hotel, circa 1876. at left.

During the siege the building was pressed into service as a hospital.
Reverend William Lovelace Foster, Chaplain of the 35th Mississippi Infantry, spent time in the Washington Hotel ministering to sick and wounded soldiers. He wrote of the hotel,

It was comparatively secure from those troublesome mortar shells – for the most of them passed over & it was too far from our lines to be disturbed by firing from that direction. Dr. Whitfield with several assistants attended to the invalids. All the rooms were soon crowded with the sick & dying – Some in bunks & some upon the floor. Everything was conducted as well as possible but O the horrors of a hospital!

Confederate dead from the Vicksburg campaign originally buried behind Confederate lines, have now been re-interred in the Vicksburg City Cemetery (Cedar Hill Cemetery), in an area called "Soldiers' Rest." Approximately 5,000 Confederates have been re-interred there, of which 1,600 are identified.

Did You Know?

The 43d Mississippi Infantry's mascot, Douglas the Camel, remained with the regiment until Vicksburg where he was killed by Union sharpshooters. Douglas is honored with his own grave marker in Vicksburg's Cedar Hill Cemetery. Two accounts related to Douglas the camel where taken from the Confederate Veterans Magazine excepts listed below source

FIRST REFERENCE, FROM CONFEDERATE VETERAN MAGAZINE, VOL. 1, P.267:

“Company B, of the Forty-third Mississippi Infantry, had a veritable camel, belonging to
Lieut. W. H. H------ [Lt. William H. Hargrove], and the use he was put to was to carry the baggage of the officers' mess. The horses of the command were afraid of the camel, and the driver was instructed to stop just outside the camp when it halted. But in a forced march toward Iuka, Miss., the command had halted just after dark, and the camel and
driver got in the line of march before he knew it. The result was that a horse made a break
with a fence rail attached to his halter, and running through the camp, he stampeded men
and animals in every direction. Many men took [to] trees or any other protection, and the
panic spread through much of the brigade, and many men and animals were badly hurt,
and one or two horses, I think, were killed. The camel was in the siege of Vicksburg, and
was killed there by a minie-ball from the enemy. But none of the Forty-third have
forgotten the stampede near Iuka, Miss., just before the Battle of Corinth.”

SECOND REFERENCE, FROM CONFEDERATE VETERAN MAGAZINE, VOL. 11,
NO. 11:
“’OLD DOUGLAS’ --TItE CAMEL BURDEN BEARER.

J. W. Cook, of Helena, Ark., who belonged to Company A, Forty-Third Mississippi
Regiment, writes of an interesting attache of the regiment who could not speak for himself
even had he survived the carnage of war:
‘Old Douglas’ was an African camel and belonged to the Forty-Third Mississippi
Regiment. He was given to Col. William M. [actually ‘H.,’ for Hudson] Moore, of the
regiment, by Lieut. [William H.] Hargrove. of Company B. Col. Moore assigned Douglas
to the regimental band, for whom he carried instruments and knapsacks. The camel's first
active service was with Gen. Price in the Iuka campaign. He was sent to the wagon train,
and stampeded all the teams. There was only one horse in Little's Division which would
face Douglas at first, and that was Pompey, the little bay stallion belonging to Col. Moore,
but it was not long till he was on intimate terms with all. His keeper would chain him to
keep him from wandering off, but Douglas would sit back and snap any kind of chain, then
proceed to graze at leisure, though never leaving the regiment or interfering with anything
that did not interrupt him. When the regiment was ready to start, Douglas would be led up
to the pile of things he was to carry, and his leader would say, 'Pushay, Douglas,' and he
would gracefully drop to his knees and haunches and remain so till his load was adjusted
and he was told to get up. His long, swinging gait was soon familiar with the entire
command, and ours was called the 'Camel Regiment.' Douglas was in the engagements of
[Gen. Sterling] Price and [Gen. Earl] Van Dorn in Mississippi, and went with us to [Gen.
John C.] Pemberton at Vicksburg, where he was killed by a skirmisher during the siege.
His gallant owner had fallen in the second day's fight at Corinth. Douglas was a faithful,
patient animal, and his service merits record in the Veteran."