Park Day 2008
Objectives Achieved Amid Fellowship
Friends
of Raymond volunteers enjoyed the beautiful spring day, Saturday, April
19, during FOR’s general membership meeting and annual Park Day
activities on the Raymond Battlefield and walking trail. As a
reward, the enthusiastic workers received History Channel T-shirts, a
hotdog lunch, and a history lecture by FOR Past President Parker Hills,
along with the satisfaction received from a job well done.
The
Raymond
Military
Park
granite marker was accessorized with more decorative plants; the cannons
glisten with a new coat of paint; more of the landscape was trimmed and
mowed; interpretive signs were cleaned; two dozen bottles of fire-ant
poison were distributed; and, of course, litter was cleaned up. The
spruced-up trail is an idyllic retreat for tourists, exercisers, and for
those who simply enjoy a nice peaceful stroll.
FOR
Continues Artillery Mission
With the acquisition of ten additional cannon carriages, Friends
of Raymond has set its sights on attaining the unique status of
becoming the only Civil War Battlefield in
America
where tourists and history enthusiasts may witness replicas of the same
sizes, models, numbers, and locations of the artillery used during the May 12, 1863
engagement. Twenty-five cannons blasted their deadly barrage over this
hallowed ground—three Confederate and twenty-two Union.
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Southern Cedars Receives
Donation of
Rare Books
"Official
Records of the Civil War"
Jerry and Kay McWilliams, FOR members
and owners of Southern Cedars (a circa 1834 history-filled home
located on Kimbell Road southeast of Raymond), have announced they have
recently received a donation for public use of a complete set of the Official Records of the Civil War, commonly referred to as the
Official Records or the ORs.
Dennis Driscoll To Finance
Reconstruction of a
FOR Cannon
On June 8, 2006, during a luncheon at the Dupree House for a Hinda Incentives Leadership and Teamwork seminar, Friends of Raymond received a financial windfall when Dennis Driscoll of Safety Harbor, Florida, presented a check to finance the construction of a cannon for the Raymond battlefield. Driscoll, a principal in Driscoll and Associates, had toured the battlefield as part of the Hinda training exercise, and had listened intently as FOR president Parker Hills had explained not only the battle and the leadership elements involved in the events of 1863, but also the efforts of Friends of Raymond in preserving and interpreting the battlefield itself.
Then, as part of a teamwork exercise, the group went through a cannon-loading exercise (without gunpowder, of course) that emphasized cross-training and trust. Driscoll then realized that the existing cannon on the battlefield serve both an interpretive and a training purpose. Then, upon being told that FOR’s goal is to place 25 cannon on the fields of Raymond, just as there were in 1863, the Floridian quietly made up his mind to help finance the project.
After the training session on the Raymond Interpretive Trail, the group adjourned to the Dupree House for a true Southern feast prepared by Brenda Davis and a crew of her own. Brenda’s guests, associates of Hinda Incentives of Chicago, IL, numbered nearly 30 and hailed from all over the United States, but none from Mississippi. Thus, the delicacies that graced Brenda’s table were a delightful surprise to most. But the greatest surprise came when Dennis, at the conclusion of the meal, presented Hills with a $2,500 check to FOR--the average cost of the restoration and fabrication of a cannon.
Dennis Driscoll is an avid Florida Gators fan, and undoubtedly is beside himself over the upcoming BCS Championship game. He promised to return to see the cannon he so graciously financed, and Friends of Raymond anxiously awaits his return to Raymond. The gun is nearly ready, Dennis, so go to your ball game, and this spring be prepared to come on down and see FOR’s new Gator gun!
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The first walking trail to be constructed on
the Raymond battlefield—an asphalt ribbon that encircles the 23.6
acre Friends of Raymond tract located at Fourteenmile Creek west of
modern Highway 18—has been conpleted.
Funding for the nearly $250,000 trail comes
from a Tea 21 federal grant to the State of Mississippi. The one mile trail, with visitor
parking lot, will serve as the lynchpin for battlefield visitation and
interpretation. Upon completion of the trail, plans include battlefield
interpretive signage and Civil War cannon.
Doug Waters of Plano, TX (L) presents the
Whitworth bolt to Friends of Raymond president, Parker Hills, on the site
of the Whitworth cannon during a recent battlefield tour. Photo by Len
Riedel, Blue and Gray Education Society, Danville, VA.
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Doug Waters and his father, Ed Waters, donated a rare and valuable artifact, a Confederate Whitworth cannon shell, to Friends of Raymond during an October 21, 2006, Raymond battlefield tour attended by Doug, who works for Gallagher Bassett Services, Inc. in Plano, TX. The younger Waters, who is intensely interested in Texas’ participation in the American Civil War, has often visited Raymond, where Colonel Hiram Granbury’s Seventh Texas Infantry Regiment fought on May 12, 1863. On his most recent visit Waters came bearing the prized Whitworth shell, which was manufactured in England; was shipped to the Confederate States in America; and was dug out of the ground near Warrenton, VA. The non-explosive shell was manufactured to exacting specifications and was designed to be fired by the English-made Whitworth rifled cannon.
Raymond
Battlefield Trail Officially Opened
Friends of Raymond dedicated the Raymond
Battlefield Walking/Interpretive Trail in a ceremony conducted at the
Raymond Battlefield at
10:00 a.m. on
Saturday, April 21, 2007. The trail, which includes interpretive markers and a kiosk that
explain the Battle of Raymond, the Vicksburg Campaign, and the Little J
Railroad that once traversed the battlefield, was enhanced with a new
granite marker that denotes the Raymond
Military
Park
while honoring those who helped make it possible. The ceremony was
conducted on the new tourist bus parking lot constructed by Hinds County,
and included an unveiling of the granite marker by Friends of Raymond
Generals in attendance. The unveiling was followed by a
ribbon-cutting to officially open the trail. The event was followed
by a reception and an opportunity to walk the trail, which is a ¾ mile
asphalt route that circumvents a 24-acre tract of hallowed battlefield
ground acquired from Gaddis Farms through an exemplary cooperative effort
of agricultural land conservation and historic preservation.
Terry
Winschel, Vicksburg National Military Park Historian,
on the Raymond
battlefield during the filming of “Sacred Soil.”
Photo courtesy of Trevor W. Klump - inFOCUS Media Productions, Inc. |
Raymond’s battlefield, listed by the Civil War Preservation Trust as one
of the Ten Most Endangered Civil War Battlefields, will be featured in a
documentary entitled “Sacred Soil” tentatively scheduled for a November
telecast on the History Channel. A Take 2 Entertainment film crew from
Pittsburgh, PA, visited Raymond on June 26 to conduct interviews as to
the importance of the Battle of Raymond in the Vicksburg Campaign and
the efforts of Friends of Raymond to preserve and interpret Raymond’s
history.
“The progress of Friends of Raymond has
been significant, but we have much more to do,” stated FOR president Parker Hills during the taping at the Raymond
Courthouse and at the battlefield. “Raymond has a key place in the
history of the city Vicksburg Campaign — a campaign that, in
Grant’s own words, ‘sealed the fate of the Confederacy.’ Thus, the Vicksburg Campaign
is a signal moment in history. We, as Americans, are obligated to remember and to learn from our
history. If we don’t know where we have been, we cannot know where we are to go.”
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