The Friends of Raymond now own 67 more acres of a Civil War battlefield site 30 miles east of Vicksburg and have more than doubled the size of the land they hope will permanently be preserved.

The tract is part of a site where roughly 1,000 men were killed, wounded or declared missing after fighting on May 12, 1863.

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The Friends of Raymond will celebrate the acquisition of 67 additional acres of Civil War battlefield with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the 14 Mile Creek historical marker on Mississippi 18. 

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“This is the biggest land acquisition we’ve had, and by far it’s the most historically important,” said Parker Hills, a retired general and past president of the Friends of Raymond. “This is the core of the battlefield, where I would say at least 85 percent of the actual combat took place.”

The Battle of Raymond was a part of the Union Army’s campaign to capture Vicksburg, which it eventually did on July 4, 1863, following a 47-day siege of the city. About 16,000 men fought in the one-day battle, with the Confederates being outmanned about three to one. The Union had 22 cannons to the Confederates’ three.

At day’s end, approximately 73 rebels had been killed, 252 were left wounded and 190 were missing; while 68 federals were killed, 341 were wounded and 37 were missing, said Terry Winschel, historian for the Vicksburg National Military Park. The Confederates were forced to retreat, and two days later the Union Army took Jackson, then turned west to march on Vicksburg.

The Friends of Raymond was formed as a nonprofit in 1998, and has since grown to include about 200 members. It made its first land acquisition in its inaugural year, purchasing 40 acres of land on the east side of Mississippi 18, just southwest of the center of the Hinds County town of 1,600. Later, 24 acres on the west side of Mississippi 18 were purchased, and work began to complete an interpretive walking trail.

In 2006, the first cannons were placed on the battlefield, which were provided by the VNMP. Also that year, 14 interpretive signs were installed at the battlefield, providing for the first time detailed information about the historic site. In 2007, a three-quarter-mile asphalt path was added along interpretive signs, as well as an information kiosk, to complete a walking tour of the battlefield.

The latest acquisition — on which the Friends of Raymond hope to expand the interpretive walking or perhaps create a driving tour — was more than three years in the making, said Hills. The land, which for more than 100 years had been farmed by the Gaddis family, became available in 2006, and the Raymond group immediately began working toward raising funds for it. However, with an initial asking price of $900,000, Hills said the Friends group knew they’d have to form a coalition to make the acquisition happen.

“When this property became available, boy, it changed all of our priorities. Everything changed, and we knew we had to go straight for it,” said Hills.

The group appealed to the National Parks Service and Civil War Preservation Trust — a national nonprofit seeking to preserve Civil War battlefields that in 2005 and 2006 had named the Raymond site one of the 10 most endangered battlefields in the country.

After much negotiating and a federal appraisal of the land, the group and CWPT were able to purchase the land at slightly less than half of the original asking price. The Friends are putting up $115,000, while the CWPT is contributing $102,500 and $217,500 is coming from the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program.

Along with the new 67-acre tract, the group has received a preservation easement for a 300-yard-long strip on the west side of Mississippi 18 known as Artillery Ridge in exchange for the farming rights on the new acquisition. As the name implies, Artillery Ridge was a strip of land on which the majority of the Union guns were located. The current walking trail will be extended to include the ridge, said Hills, and additional interpretive signs are also planned.

“We’re also in the process of coming up with a monument plan for the battlefield, and we’ll be challenging the Civil War Round Table groups in the states that were represented in the Battle of Raymond to put state monuments out there,” said Hills.

On the Union side, regiments from Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, Minnesota and Indiana took part in the battle, while the Confederates were supported by regiments from Texas and Tennessee. Hills said the Friends are not looking to put gigantic monuments on the battlefield, like many of those found in the VNMP, but rather smaller monuments such as the lone one from Texas that is on site.

While Hills said the latest acquisition has been perhaps the greatest accomplishment of the Friends group yet, he added there are still hundreds of acres of the battlefield the groups hope to purchase and preserve. Long-term plans also include building and staffing a visitors center, as well as restoring and placing 25 cannons on the battlefield where they would have been located on the day of battle 146 years ago — which will give it the distinction of the lone battlefield in the country with a 1-t0-1 ratio of cannons.

“It’s just a great success story,” said Raymond Mayor Isla Tullos, who also serves as secretary for the Friends of Raymond. “You’ve got to have a great grassroots movement to make something like this happen. We started about 10 years ago with absolutely nothing but an idea, and now we’ve got 120 acres of battlefield paid for and preserved. That’s just incredible.”

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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com