Dr. Robert Sadler runs in the Vicksburg National Military Park past the monument of Nathan Kimball, which had to be moved due to erosion and the shifting of its base.(Jon Giffin The Vicksburg Post)

[8/22/04]A century of erosion has forced the Vicksburg National Military Park to relocate several smaller monuments in the park.

Separately, damage from rain from this year has been repaired.

New concrete footings for pedestals in 20 locations have been better-placed to protect the monuments and to allow for improved erosion monitoring and control around them, park historian Terry Winschel said.

The rain damage that has been repaired happened during June, when record amounts of rain fell here and land along some hills and trenches used by troops on the former battlefield slid, park facilities manager Jehu Walker said.

The pedestals that were moved support busts of participants in the 1863 Vicksburg campaign and siege.

All but one of them are within current park boundaries along parts of its 16-mile tour road, and they were all were moved to spots within about 10 feet of their former locations, park maintenance chief Jerrel Cooper said.

The other pedestal that was moved was hidden from view behind kudzu along Mission 66, Walker said. It was moved about 150 yards across the road so it would be visible to passers-by near the Vicksburg-Warren County Chamber of Commerce at 2020 Mission 66.

Some of the moves inside the park were because erosion was beginning to place the pedestals in danger of tipping over.

Most of the old footings dated to the early 20th century and are consequently brittle and subject to collapse or fragmenting, Winschel said.

The new footings will give them greater stability and, where larger aprons were built around the footings, better protection from nicks from mowers.

Many of the pedestals were along ridges narrowed by erosion over the years, Winschel said.

“As a result, many are right near the edge of a ridge,” he said, adding that the move-ments will help get mowers behind the monuments.

That is important, he explained, because grass cover is the best stabilizer for the Loess soil.

The congressionally appropriated budgets for the rehabilitation of the monument-base footings and the reconstruction of the hills and trenches were $73,920 and $85,000 respectively for a total of $158,920, Cooper said.

The work was begun in late spring and was complete by about two-and-a-half weeks ago, said the contractor whose company did the footing-rehabilitation work and helped with the rain-damage repair, Larry V. Carpenter of Vicksburg.

Erosion control has long been a problem for staff of the national park, which was created in 1899. The Loess soil there can be cut vertically without any need for bank stabilization but “melts like butter” when it is left exposed to rain and moving water without adequate vegetative cover, the park’s Web site says.

“The steep bluffs and rugged ravines compound problems as they create extreme difficulties for personnel and equipment,” the site says.

Confederate forces surrendered at Vicksburg on July 4, 1863. The city’s capture divided the South, and gave federal forces undisputed control of the Mississippi River.

Inside the park’s 1,762 acres are 1,325 historic monuments and 20 miles of reconstructed trenches.

The park was visited by 914,501 people during the latest fiscal year for which a figure is available.