Texas Civil War Organizations buy land at Brice’s Crossroads
A four-acre tract that marks the grave of a Confederate soldier killed during the battle of Brice’s Crossroads near Baldwyn, Mississippi has been preserved, thanks to the efforts of two Texas Civil War Roundtables and the Civil War Preservation Trust.
The property, which is northwest of the crossroads, is a wooded area where two cedar trees shade the grave of Sergeant James C. Jourdon. He was a cavalryman in the 17th Alabama Battalion commanded by Major J.N. George, Colonel William A. Johnson’s Alabama Brigade. He was killed during the pursuit of General Sturgis by Confederate forces and buried near the Phillips House on the old Ripley Road. He was buried and his grave was later marked at the site where he fell.
Ed Bearss, Historian Emeritus, National Park Service, praised the significance of the purchase.
“I enthusiastically endorse the purchase of the tract containing the grave of Sergeant Jourdan. Not only because of the significance of the ground, but the site includes land associated both with the Union advance and flight. It is land intimately identified with Sturgis’ rout, underscoring why the Battle of Brice’s Cross Roads is so significant.
It also underscores General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s philosophy of war to get the ‘skeer’ on the enemy and keep them ‘skeered.’’ Hopefully, other small tracts associated with the Union rout such as a sight near the Agnew house, Hatchie Bottom, of painful memory to the federals; and the Stubbs farm can be acquired for the positioning of additional interpretive markers, he said.
This hallowed ground will now be a part of the sites that interpret the battle.
“This acquisition brings to our total over 1450 acres and $3 million raised for land acquisition and interpretation at Brice’s Crossroads,” said John Haynes, executive director of the Brice’s Crossroads National Battlefield Commission.
The Austin, Texas and Waco, Texas Civil War Roundtables raised money for this acquisition during the annual Texas Civil War Preservation Seminar in November 2001 with the help of the Harold B. Simpson History Center and Hill College. Three hundred people attended this fundraiser where funds were raised specifically for Brice’s Crossroads.
Gary Carnathan, president of BCNBC, Inc. praised the work of the Texas Civil War Roundtable. “The preservation of Brice’s Crossroads Battlefield has attracted national interest and Texas has made a substantial contribution tour efforts,” said Carnathan.
Dan Laney, who is of the president of the Austin, Texas Civil War Roundtable and also a board member of the Civil War Preservation Trust, worked with John Haynes, who is also a member of the Trust’s board, to make the acquisition a reality in February, 2002.
“Each year, during our Preservation Seminar, we focus on a topic and last year’s topic was Nathan Bedford Forrest. What better place to donate the funds raised at this seminar than at Brice’s Crossroads,” said Laney.
Laney and his roundtable raised $10,400 at the Preservation seminar in 2001, which was given to the CWPT and earmarked for preservation at Brice’s Crossroads.
“We have raised $100,000 during the past years which has gone toward the purchase of hallowed land on the sites of Civil War battlefields across the nation and to support the History Center at Hill College in Hillsboro, Texas,” Laney added.
James Lighthizer, president of the Civil War Preservation Trust, commended the audacious leadership of the Austin and Waco Texas Civil War Roundtable efforts.
“ These two groups form one of the premier preservation organizations in the Country. Their preservation of our American history will be a wonderful gift to the future generations of America.
The four acres will now be a part of the interpretive trail at Brice’s Crossroads that will tell the story of that conflict.