Friday marked a milestone for the Vicksburg National Military Park and the city with the announcement of the donation of 11 acres of land to the park by the Civil War Trust.

As park superintendent Bill Justice pointed out, the donation, which becomes official in 2016, has two benefits. It is the land where Union soldiers from the 22nd and 23rd Iowa regiments were camped and where they returned after the failed assault on the Railroad Redoubt, which resulted in the siege of Vicksburg. The other is probably more important.

“This land is sitting by Frontage Road, it’s sitting right by the Interstate,” Justice said. “It could just as easily been have been developed. This provides a buffer against development, which is really important.”

That means the site and the park will be protected by encroachment from a store or other potential business. It means the park will not be affected by the commercial development that has adversely affected other Civil War, Revolutionary War or War of 1812 battlegrounds.

But more importantly, as John Nau III, a former chairman of the Civil War Trust and board member of Friends of the Vicksburg National Military Park and Campaign, indicated, the donation will mean 12,000 acres of battlefield parks linked to the Vicksburg campaign and the siege of the city, and the start of a program to consolidate other sites in the area affiliated with the Vicksburg campaign into one park that will tell the story of Grant’s campaign and the eventual siege to secure the Mississippi River for the Union.

And that consolidation is expected to draw heritage tourists, a special brand of tourist to the state, who are interested in learning how battles like Vicksburg, Raymond and Champion Hill shaped the country.

“Battlefields define the times that made us what we are,” Civil War Trust president John Lighthizer said. “Every war tells us about what we are as a country. The War of 1812 and the Civil War answered two questions that were tearing this country apart: slavery and secession. If I don’t like what’s going on can I leave and go home.”

Battlefields, he said, are outside classrooms to teach people about their past, and Vicksburg, he believed, was a more important battle than Gettysburg.

And Mississippi has a very important and emotional story to tell, not just our place in the chapters of the Civil War, but in our culture and the leaders, writers, musicians and other artists who grew up, worked and died here.

The Vicksburg National Military Park and its associated battlefields are a major part of Mississippi’s attraction to the rest of the country and the world. It is a shining jewel and the entry for tourists coming here to learn about the state’s link to the blues and the rest of our rich culture.

That 11 acres may seem like a bare piece of land, but it’s part of a link that will help better educate people about our state and its assets.