Gift to Raymond from the UK

On December 28, 2009, the American Civil War Round Table UK sent Parker Hills a check from the United Kingdom for $500 for the battlefield preservation efforts of Friends of Raymond.  After touring the Vicksburg Campaign with Hills in 2008, Peter Lockwood, president of Old Country Military and History Tours, went back to England and spearheaded the preservation funding effort through his Round Table.  Lockwood was successful, and his note with the check advised Hills to select how the funds would be used for preservation.  The money will go toward a "foundation" project to construct reinforced concrete bases for the cannon at Raymond.  These bases, which will be fabricated by Paul Gore of A to B Signs in Clinton, will help to secure the cannon in their proper place "in battery," and will prevent the wheels and trails of the guns from gradually sinking into the historic Mississippi soil.

When British journalist William Howard Russell of the London Times visited President Abraham Lincoln in March, 1861, he recalled,  "Mr. Lincoln put out his hand in a very friendly manner, and said, 'Mr. Russell, I am very glad to make your acquaintance, and to see you in this country. The London Times is one of the greatest powers in the world - in fact, I don't know anything which has much more power - except perhaps the Mississippi." 

The Mississippi River from Cairo, Illinois, to the Gulf of Mexico and the campaign for control of the Lower Mississippi River Valley was important to Lincoln then, and it is an important study today.  It piqued the interest of Mr. Russell when he visited Washington in 1861, and it continues to interest the people of the United Kingdom today.  In fact, the American Civil War is still of interest to people from all walks of life there.  Some study the blockade runners, some the evolution of warfare, while others research their ancestors, and still others investigate the politics of that period and how they effected our political systems of today.  And many study the Vicksburg Campaign, and they travel to the United States to visit the campaign trail and battlefields, bringing with them an objective and detailed understanding of that conflict.  Now, they are contributing to the preservation and interpretation of the battlefield at Raymond, Mississippi.