Park officials hope to restore cemetery walls
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, December 3, 2003
Terry Winschel, historian for the Vicksburg National Military Park, points to the old south cemetery wall, which dates to 1874 and is part of a proposal to restore the wall. (Jon Giffin The Vicksburg Post)
[12/3/03]The brick wall around Vicksburg National Cemetery is crumbling and, in places, missing, so officials there are making plans to restore it to its original appearance.
In the process, the public will be given a chance to comment on the plans. Comments must be sent to Park Superintendent Bill Nichols, Vicksburg National Military Park, 3201 Clay St., Vicksburg, MS 39183, by Jan. 5. Copies of the environmental assessment can be obtained by calling the park at 636-0583 or on the Internet at http//www.nps.gov/vick under the facts/docs page.
The 1866 cemetery predates the park, which was established in 1899, said Terry Winschel, park historian.
“It is one of the oldest national cemeteries in the United States and, in fact, predates the legislation by which the national cemetery system was established,” he said.
It is also one of the largest Civil War burial sites in the country. A total of 17,000 Civil War soldiers are buried there, and 13,000 of those are unidentified. Most are Union soldiers and sailors, Winschel said.
The original 40-acre cemetery was enclosed by a masonry wall built in 1874. Since that time, a part of the wall on the south side of the cemetery has fallen into Mint Springs Bayou, and in 1939, the west wall was moved several feet to the east to accommodate the construction of what was then called U.S. 61, now North Washington Street. In other locations, the original brick and mortar wall was removed and replaced by a chain link fence.
The original, 1874 wall was built according to specifications in the act that established the national cemetery system, which required walls 4 feet high, 2 feet wide with a coping on the top of the walls and pyramidal caps on the columns to help protect the wall from deterioration. When the new west wall was built in 1939, the coping and caps were eliminated.
In developing the plans, park and NPS officials came up with three alternative plans. The first is to do nothing and maintain the status quo. The second is to maintain the east and west walls with the 1939 appearance, to reconstruct the north wall with the same design and to reconstruct the south wall as much as possible in its original location or in a new location as dictated by erosion and soil stability.
The third, and preferred, alternate is to restore the east wall to the 1874 design; maintain the west wall in the present 1939 form; reconstruct the north wall on its original alignment using the 1874 design and reconstruct the south wall, where feasible on its original alignment. This alternate also calls for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to stabilize the soil where the wall has fallen into Mint Springs Bayou with matting and soil nails.
All of the alternatives would also include cleaning the moss and lichens from the bricks and removing undergrowth from around the walls.
Further, Winschel said, the plan is “to restore the original solemnity and dignity of the burial ground.”
Additionally, he said, safety is a consideration for park employees who maintain the area and for children who like to walk atop the walls.
Although Winschel said the park has no recent estimates of the cost of the project, he said it has $438,000 in the Fiscal Year 2004 budget to begin repairs on the east and west walls. The park also received $1 million through the influence of Sen. Thad Cochran, Mississippi’s senior senator, to purchase a triangle of land on the northwest boundary of the cemetery that will allow work to be done to restore the north wall from the outside instead of disturbing graves.