As a semi loaded with nearly two tons of granite and bronze pulled up to a concrete slab off the South Loop in the Vicksburg National Military Park Thursday morning, Terry Winschel, historian of the Civil War battlefield, was all smiles.

“We’ve been waiting for this for three years, and have had numerous false starts,” Winschel said. “There were times when we really didn’t think this day would come, but it’s finally here.”

A monument honoring Confederate soldiers from Kentucky who served in Vicksburg during the Civil War was erected in the park Thursday — three years after a foundation was poured and a decade after the Sons of Confederate Veterans Kentucky Division began raising approximately $29,000 for the tribute.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Fred Wilhite, a Sons of Confederate Veterans Kentucky Division member since 1995, by phone on Thursday. “We’re hoping to see some pictures of it by tomorrow, and we’re really excited to come down and see it for ourselves.”

Wilhite said a formal dedication ceremony for the monument — which weighs 35,000 pounds, stands 9 feet tall and features relief portraits of Kentucky Confederate Generals as well as a bronze Confederate flag — is being planned for the fall.

“We were one of the only states that did not have a monument for our Confederate soldiers in Vicksburg, so we’re certainly glad to see it finally delivered and installed today,” said Wilhite.

The Kentucky Confederate monument becomes the 1,333rd monument, marker, tablet or plaque in the park created by Congress in 1899 to preserve siege lines here from 1863. It was placed just south of the Alabama monument, on the exact spot reserved for it by a commission of Kentuckians who visited the park in 1903, he added. Also reserved at that time were spots for a monument honoring all of Kentucky’s Civil War veterans and one for Kentucky Union veterans.

In 2001, a $260,000 monument measuring 40 feet tall and 40 feet wide was erected in the park to honor Union and Confederate veterans from Kentucky. It lists all the Kentucky regiments that served at Vicksburg, and features standing, life-sized figures of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis — both of whom were born in Kentucky. A monument honoring Kentucky’s Union veterans remains to be added to the park, and Wilhite said he does not know of any current fundraising efforts for one.

Wilhite said much of the credit for completing the 10-year effort for the Confederate monument is due to Sons of Confederate Veterans Kentucky Division Commander Dr. Tom Hiter.

“He kind of took this project under his wing, and he’s been very instrumental in seeing it completed,” Wilhite said of Hiter, who is serving his third two-year term as head of the Kentucky division of the national Confederate heritage organization.

Winschel said Kentucky Confederate soldiers were in Vicksburg in 1862, but all of the states’ regiments were a part of the army of relief, under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, in the Jackson area during the 47-day siege of the city in 1863.

In addition to the Kentucky monument, Winschel said 22 tablets should arrive at the park soon — part of its ongoing effort to replace 144 historical markers originally removed in 1942 as part of the scrap metal drive to help support America’s efforts in World War II. The first 12 tablets arrived in October, and were unveiled at a ceremony with guests including then U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, National Park Service Director Mary Bomar and country musician Trace Adkins.  

The Vicksburg National Military Park is older than the National Park Service. Park staff learned last week that about $2 million in stimulus funds is on the way to rehabilitate the 175-year-old Shirley House and resurface roads through the National Military Cemetery, which has about 17,000 graves.

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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com