Rededication, Picnics and a Symphony on Hallowed Ground: Memorial Day Weekend at VNMP

alan polk

1st Lieutenant
Joined
Jun 11, 2012
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Took my son to the park yesterday. He needed service hours for school and this was a perfect opportunity to volunteer. The volunteers placed thousands of flags on Union graves and later was the rededication of the Missouri Monument, where my son helped set up chairs and passed out pamphlets to folks attending the event. I journeyed around the park in the meantime.
 
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Even off these out of the way trails, markers can be seen in the brush, down in gullies or in all types of difficult to reach places. This one marks an approach trench. I tried to snap a picture of a King Snake that slithered nearby but I was too slow on the draw!
 
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This marker is another one way off-in-the-boonies. I had to shoot at this angle to prevent glare. One of Pemberton's flags of truce was challenged here on July 3. Brave soul he must have been to raise up above the ground to traverse No Man's Land and move towards the enemy with muskets and artillery aimed at him! Dang, I'd hate to die that way: "Killed trying to help the army give up"!:frantic:
 
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Parts of the park are jungle-like, the same terrain and vegetation features the soldiers faced and can be read in diaries. Though the area at Vicksburg during the Siege was cleared of most vegetation, in other areas like Champion Hill and Port Gibson similar scenes were encountered and referred to by them as "cane brakes."
 
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Facing west. Marker with artist's depiction of charge of "Forlorn Hope" against Stockade Redan. The redan is in the background of both the artist's depiction and actual photograph.

Just imagine all the medal of honors won in one, small area! I've oftened wondered if it was some sort of record for most medal of honors in such a small, confined area. Probably not, but I do wonder about it.
 
Looks like a nice event, glad you could be there to share it with us. It was true that the 6th and 8th Missouri Infantry (US) faced off against the 1st Missouri Brigade at the Stockade Redan. It was said that friends and relatives met each other across the lines during the truce following the attacks or after the surrender. Good to see they are still remembered.
 
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This is one of my favorite monuments because it is weird. Notice how huge it is! Yes, those are original 24 pounder Howitzers flanking the monument. This was built in honor to a Lt. Colonel! Can you imagine, has anyone ever heard of him or know of another Lt. Colonel with such an enormous monument! He only participated late in the siege!

It was placed by his wife and daughter. Who was this cool cat from Wisconsin? A cheese baron?!! Maybe his wife and daughter heirs to the cheese fortune? I kid, but it makes you wonder the back story. I used to know, but have forgotten. Maybe someone here knows the details!

Maybe someone here knows how to do the "Find a Grave" thing. I just bet he's buried in some mausoleum if this monument is any indication!
 
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Later in the evening, the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra took the park over and delivered a magnificent concert directly on the battlefield. There is simply nothing like hearing an orchestra live and especially on such hallowed ground! I wonder exactly what the soldiers who fought and suffered there would think about it. I suppose they would have felt honored by it.
 
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... Chairs, blankets, picnic baskets and coolers. The park even provided free iced tea to assuage the oppression of heat! And like most southerners already know and understand, sometimes the humidity is like breathing napalm!
...Yet one and all we came, kindred spirits! And a varied group we were: the old and young and the tattooed biker and his biker chick, arm in arm; then the friends from the neighborhood with their misapplied sunscreen and NPR tote-bags; I sat and relaxed with the wife, brother, sister in law, kids and right next to a fellow who had his Ham Radio call sign stitched on his hat with a red t-shirt on that read "If it ain't CW it's just CB"!

Wonderful! Just wonderful!
 
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... but as the sun set, the air cooled and a nice breeze took hold, making the music so much sweeter.

This is the 5th year it has been put on in the park. If any of you guys ever make plans to do a Civil War trip during Memorial Day, this is a good place and time to choose.

There were other activities going on in the park that I was unable to attend, unfortunately.
 
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Well, earlier, after the volunteers had placed thousands of flags on the Union graves at the National Cemetary, I picked up my son and we marveled at the job they had done. It was beautiful!

My son's face turned solemn, though, as if a bit confused. "Dad, you think we ought to go see Ole Granddad?" My son asked.

This is what we call him, though he's actually a cousin of sorts.

I patted him on the back, said: "Yeah. Yeah, son. We ought to. We need to."

"I think it would only be fair," he responded.

I agreed.

We left the park. We left the memorials with their flags and flowers, graves adorned, the busy tourists and reenactors. To Soldiers' Rest we went...
 
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Here lies Needham, a cousin. My son kneeling.

According to a soldier's diary it was a head wound. It took Needham two days to die.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. I suppose it matters little to the dead? The flesh of kin upon a stone, a shared pulse of DNA.

It is nice here. It is rather peaceful at Soldiers' Rest.

No crowds of tourists. No throngs to cast eyes or thoughts. Perhaps it was different in another time ....Well, I know it was..... I've lived long enough to know....Times change, people change....

Needham could have done worse, I guess. Others- so many others, many his friends- were lost forever, no stones to mark their rest, only the anonymous woods and fields at places like Port Gibson, Champion Hill.

Yes, Needham is fortunate in that way. Others of his friends are there in the fields, maybe gullies, or some quiet patch of woods, still lost to this day. No one came back for them- except, perhaps, the occassional varmint that happens upon sun-bleached bones on the forest floor.

Here Needham is "marked." Here it is peaceful beneath the magnolia and cherry bark, where the occassional mockingbird swoops down on an unsuspecting squirrel. The ground is neat and known, not some random gully or forest floor, where the sometime visitor may come and ponder.

I like to think he's just fine here. Needham. Resting with his friends...
 
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