Fireworks aren’t the only loud noises that have been heard in Vicksburg this holiday weekend.

The Vicksburg National Military Park is using cannon fire to commemorate the 153rd anniversary of the surrender of Vicksburg by Gen. John C. Pemberton to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant on July 4, 1863.

A cannon detachment has fired on every hour between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. excluding the noon hour Saturday, Sunday and Monday at Tour Stop 1 Battery De Golyer.

“I’ve been doing this since 2003,” ranger David Slay said.

Hourly cannon fire demonstrations near the Visitor Center have been a staple at the park for many summers, but because the park no longer has a ranger who is black powder certified, this holiday weekend will be the only time there is cannon fire at the park this year.

A group of volunteer safety officers work together to fire a pound of gunpowder from the cannon detachment safely. Many of the volunteers have come back year after year and some have joined the service like Taylor Phillips who came back to town while on leave.

“It’s nostalgia. I grew up doing it,” said Phillips, who has been involved with the demonstration for six years.

He enjoys meeting the tourists and he said they are what keep the park running.

Trey Bennett has been a volunteer at the park for 10 years because of his love for history.

“Anything to relive the glory days,” he said.

Daniel Martin said he’s spent 12 years volunteering, and he serves as the gunner who shouts out commands. Phillips is the triggerman who actually fires the cannon, and Bennett works as the front man who loads the cannon.

Even though the cannon fire is all for show, that doesn’t mean their job is not dangerous. Phillips said the group always runs the risk of getting injured because they are using an actual cannon.

‘That’s why we practice,” Bennett said.

Although Vicksburg commemorates the holiday now, the Fourth of July was not so openly celebrated in Vicksburg for years after the surrender.

“The Confederate sympathizers didn’t celebrate until Eisenhower’s visit,” Slay said.

It took victory over the Nazis in World War II for Vicksburg to connect with their American patriotism and begin to celebrate the national holiday again as the Cold War was heating up.

“Time heals all wounds,” Slay said.

However, the post-war patriotism only lasted so long and did not reach full momentum until the country’s bicentennial in 1976. Some say even as late as the 1990s the holiday was not a major summer staple.

“Even when I moved here in 1998 there wasn’t a lot of celebrating,” Phillips said.

As for the African American community, Slay said they didn’t have a reason not to celebrate the holiday.

“That’s freedom day,” he said.

A drawing by a war correspondent depicts former slaves rushing to the waterfront on the day of the surrender to welcome their liberators from the U.S. Navy, but he said that story isn’t as well told.

“There were celebrations and they consciously recognized it was a day of freedom,” Slay said.