Re-enactors will be fighting the war between the states all over again during the Civil War Sesquicentennial 2011-2015.

Across the nation major battles from First Manassas to Appomattox Court House will be staged again, including the siege of Vicksburg set for 2013.

According to Associated Press reports the Mississippi Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission, appointed by the governor, is expected to develop plans for the state’s commemoration sometime this year.

It’s still not known if the Legislature, amid all it’s cuts, will manage to find money for the commission, for which funding was not allocated.

There likely will be a lot of tourism potential in the state as people explore places of historical significance during the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.

Hopefully Meridian won’t be left out of that picture, but it certainly isn’t part of the Civil War Discovery Trail developed by the Civil War Preservation Trust. There’s a giant black hole (meaning no trail sites) in East Central Mississippi on their map.

Meridian and surrounding areas belong on the trail because of all the Civil War cemeteries around here and Gen. William T. Sherman’s Meridian Campaign, February 1864.

Here’s one of my favorite excerpts from Gen. Sherman’s memoirs:

“Intending to spend the night in Decatur, I went to a double log-house, and arranged with the lady for some supper. We unsaddled our horses, tied them to the fence inside the yard, and, being tired, I lay down on a bed and fell asleep. Presently I heard shouts and hallooing, and then heard pistol-shots close to the house. My aide, Major Audenried, called me and said we were attacked by rebel cavalry, who were all around us. I jumped up and inquired where was the regiment of infantry I had myself posted at the cross-roads. He said a few moments before it had marched past the house, following the road by which General Hurlbut had gone, and I told him to run, overtake it, and bring it back. Meantime, I went out into the back-yard, saw wagons passing at a run down the road, and horsemen dashing about in a cloud of dust, firing their pistols, their shots reaching the house in which we were. Gathering the few orderlies and clerks that were about, I was preparing to get into a corn-crib at the back side of the lot, wherein to defend ourselves, when I saw Audenried coming back with the regiment, on a run, deploying forward as they came. This regiment soon cleared the place and drove the rebel cavalry back toward the south, whence they had come…

“The next day we pushed on, and on the 14th entered Meridian, the enemy retreating before us toward Demopolis, Alabama. We at once set to work to destroy an arsenal, immense storehouses, and the railroad in every direction. We staid in Meridian five days, expecting every hour to hear of General Sooy Smith, but could get no tidings of him whatever. A large force of infantry was kept at work all the time in breaking up the Mobile & Ohio Railroad south and north; also the Jackson & Selma Railroad, east and west. I was determined to damage these roads so that they could not be used again for hostile purposes during the rest of the war. I never had the remotest idea of going to Mobile, but had purposely given out that idea to the people of the country, so as to deceive the enemy and to divert their attention.”

The Web site www.civilwardiscoverytrail.org lists these sites in Mississippi:

• Battery F, Corinth

• Battery Robinett, Corinth

• Beauvoir: The Jefferson Davis Home and Presidential Library, Biloxi

• Brice’s Crossroads Battlefield Visitor and Interpretive Center, Baldwyn

• Campaign of 1862 — Driving Tour of Corinth Campaign

• Confederate Cemetery, Raymond

• Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center

• Corinth Contraband Camp

• Corinth National Cemetery

• Crossroads Museum, Corinth

• Driving Tour of Historic Raymond

• Fort Massachusetts on West Ship Island, Ocean Springs

• Fort Pemberton, Greenwood

• Friendship Cemetery, Columbus

• Grand Gulf Military Monument Park, Port Gibson

• Grenada Lake

• Longwood, Natchez

• Manship House Museum, Jackson

• Marshall County Historical Museum, Holly Springs

• Melrose, Natchez

• Mississippi Governor’s Mansion, Jackson

• Natchez National Cemetery

• Old Capitol Museum of Mississippi History, Jackson

• Old Court House Museum and Eva W. Davis Memorial, Vicksburg

• Port Gibson Battlefield

• Rail Crossing-Trailhead Park, Corinth

• Raymond Battlefield

• Raymond Courthouse

• Rosemont Plantation, home of Jefferson Davis, Woodville

• St. Marks Episcopal Church, Raymond

• The Beauregard Line, Corinth

• The Coker House Interpretive Center, Champion Hill (to be added with Mississippi Civil War Trails)

• The Oaks House Museum, Jackson

• The Shaifer House Interpretive Center, Port Gibson (to be added with Mississippi Civil War Trails)

• The Verandah-Curlee House, Corinth

• The William Johnson House, Natchez

• Tupelo National Battlefield

• Vicksburg Battlefield Museum

• Vicksburg National Military Park

• Waverly Plantation Mansion, West Point

• Windsor Ruins, Natchez

Steve Gillespie is managing editor of The Meridian Star. Email him at

sgillespie@themeridianstar.com.