raised for Pemberton Headquarters work

Pemberton Headquarters will receive $25,000 worth of exterior work this fall thanks to another contribution from the Friends of the Vicksburg National Military Park and Campaign group whose members presented a check and farewell to departing VNMP Superintendent Monika Mayr on Monday.

“With this donation, we will be able to restore the back portion of Pemberton’s Headquarters. It will be a very visible accomplishment that the Friends will be able to see for years to come and say, ‘We did that,’” said Mayr, who added the work could begin as soon as October.

The Friends group allowed Mayr to choose how to earmark the $25,000 donation, one of her final actions as superintendent of the Civil War park. She will finish her duties in Vicksburg on Thursday, and head to Ashville, N.C., where she will be deputy superintendent of the Blue Ridge Parkway. A 25-year employee of the Department of Interior, Mayr has been head of the Vicksburg park since 2004.

“Monika is responsible for a lot of the great things that are taking place at the park, and we’re all really going to miss her,” said Landy Teller, vice president of the Friends group. 

Pemberton Headquarters is the residence on Crawford Street where the commander of Confederate forces, John C. Pemberton, met with advisers and decided to surrender the city in July 1863. Many scholars say that decision was the deciding moment in whether the United States would reunite or remain split into different nations.

Also Monday, the Friends recognized 14 individual and corporate sponsors who have pledged a minimum of $500 to the group since it formed in February 2008. The Friends’ new sponsorships program thanks supporters by awarding them a framed certificate and honorary rank of captain, major, colonel or general, depending on the amount of the donation.

Mayr said it usually takes nonprofit groups such as the Friends of the VNMP about five years to reach the point of making significant contributions to the parks they support. Since forming a little more than a year ago, the group has raised or otherwise helped secure about $170,000 for the park.

“The Friends group now provides an avenue for the community to have a stake in our success, and that was really our goal from the beginning — to allow people to have ownership in the park in a very meaningful way,” said Mayr. “It’s remarkable, what you have been able to do.”

In October, Friends members and donors were joined by federal dignitaries and country music star Trace Adkins as the park celebrated receiving a $142,000 National Park Grant. The Friends helped secure the grant by raising the required 50-percent match. The event was attended by Mary Bomar, director of the National Park Service at the time, and Dirk Kempthorne, then-secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior. The money is being used in an ongoing effort to preserve statutes and replace markers removed from the park in 1942 as part of the scrap metal drive to help support America’s efforts in World War II.

“You have all made me look very good, and I look forward to coming back to Vicksburg for that first big gala,” said Mayr.

Interim VNMP Superintendent John Bundy will begin a 90-day appointment Wednesday, said Mayr. Bundy, who was on hand Monday for the ceremony, comes to Vicksburg from northeast Alabama, where he is superintendent of the Little River Canyon National Preserve. The NPS will hire a permanent superintendent during his stay.

Pemberton Headquarters — originally known as the Willis-Cowan house — was used before and after the war as a residence and for other purposes, including a kindergarten. The National Park Service bought it from its private owner in 2002.

Pending complete plans and work, the house is open to the public each Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Aug. 1. Walking tours in the neighborhood were introduced this summer, and are available at 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.  

The military park owns and maintains nearly 1,400 tablets, monuments and historical markers in the park and throughout the city. Created by Congress in 1899, the park features the largest national cemetery for those who fought in the Civil War and is one of 391 managed by the NPS.

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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com