UTICA — Cattle farmer Burt Strickland knew he was on the right track doing Civil War re-enactments when a tourist couple from New York asked him if any battles had been fought on Mississippi soil.

Strickland was taking courses at Mississippi State University and was at Columbus Air Force Base a number of years ago with a living history group when he was approached by the couple.

“They thought the Union soldiers just got off the boat and captured Vicksburg and then went on down the river to take New Orleans,” said Strickland, the adjutant of Stanford’s Battery, a group of re-enactors who will participate in Saturday’s kickoff of events commemorating the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War.