Vicksburg National Military Park will be participating in a nationwide bell-ringing ceremony Thursday in commemoration of the surrender that signaled the beginning of the end for the American Civil War.

The ceremony commemorating Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s surrender to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Va., will be at 2 p.m. Thursday in Vicksburg National Cemetery, ranger Tim Kavanaugh said.

“That was the actual time that Lee signed the surrender,” he said.

Of course that date and time didn’t mean much to troops in the Western Theater in 1865.

“The problem with that is the war didn’t end when Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia surrendered to Gen. Grant,” Kavanaugh said.

April 9, 1865, was far from the end of the war. Battles raged for some time. Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston wouldn’t surrender his army until April 26. In the West, surrenders came throughout May and June. The CSS Shenandoah, the wartime home to one Vicksburg sailor, was the final surrender on Nov. 6, 1865, nearly seven months after Appomattox.

Because of these later dates, Kavanaugh and other VNMP rangers pushed for national recognition of the end of the war closer to Memorial Day. It simply would be more historically accurate., but the idea wasn’t exceedingly popular

“I didn’t get any traction for national events,” Kavanaugh said.

The rest of April and into May will be packed with local events at the park.

Saturday, April 18 starts National Park Week, and VNMP will offer free admission that weekend, Kavanaugh said.

From 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, April 24, ranger Jake Koch will be presenting a program on the 125th anniversary of the SS Sultana departure from Vicksburg. The ill-fated boat packed with Federal troops exploded April 27, 1865, killing at least 1,800 people onboard. The following day will be the annual Junior Ranger program at the USS Cairo.

Interpretative programs about the Vicksburg Campaign are scheduled throughout May, and the park will host a Shadows of the Past tour May 9.

“Once we get into May we get into our anniversary dates,” Kavanagh said.

Memorial Day weekend will also be full of park events with two wreath-laying ceremonies — one in the National Cemetery and one at Soldier’s Rest —a pair of concerts and a ceremony in conjunction with the Old Court House Museum.

“In the afternoon, we’re going to have a Memorial Day concert on the lawn of the Old Court House. Hopefully the weather’s good. The nice thing about the courthouse is if the weather’s not nice we can do it upstairs in the courtroom,” he said.

The concert at the museum will feature the Olde Towne Brass Band.

“Let’s close things out back on neutral ground and do the Memorial Day concert for all the soldiers North and South,” Kavanaugh said.

A symphony concert at the park visitor center is also in the works, he said.