Hinds County MsArchives Photo Place.....Battle At Raymond_1908 Anniversary '05 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/ms/msfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Pattie Snowball http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00017.html#0004072 March 12, 2007, 7:10 pm Source: Hinds County Gazette Photo can be seen at: http://usgwarchives.net/ms/hinds/photos/battleat4752gph.jpg Image file size: 191.3 Kb THE BATTLE AT RAYMOND Last Tuesday May 12th was the anniversary of the battle of Raymond. So tremendous was the conflict between the two sections and so many were the great scenes of carnage during the war in which men fell by the tens of thousands, that the affair at Raymond is rated only as a skirmish; an incident in the Vicksburg campaign; and yet there were a greater number of men killed and wounded in it than there was in the battle of San Juan hill which made the fame of Roosevelt and his Rough Riders, and which all the world has talked about. The Confederate forces engaged at Raymond consisted of Gregg’s brigade of Kentuckians and Tennesseans which opposed the advance guard of Grants army, the only object being to harass them and retard their march toward Vicksburg. Several hundred were killed on each side. The graves of the northern dead have long ago been gathered up and buried at the nations beautiful cemetery. Their graves are marked with slabs of marble and over them floats their country’s flag. A few only of the dead of the Lost cause sleep in the old cemetery; most of them lie in unknown graves where they fell on the battlefield. They have no government to honor their last resting place, for the nation on whose alter they died, lives only in history and in the hearts of those who fought beneath her sacred banner; but history shall be their monument, and in ages that are to come, when bronze shall have perished and marble returned to dust, men will read their records, admire their gallant deeds and applaud their heroic death. THE GRAVES DECORATED The anniversary of the battle of Raymond was appropriately observed in Raymond last Tuesday. A company consisting mainly of ladies and children and a few veterans met in the court house in the afternoon and marched in a body to the cemetery where sleeps a hundred heroes who feel upon the altar of their country, and strewed flowers upon their graves. The exercises at the cemetery consisted of speeches, recitation commemorative of the valor of the soldiers and the glory of the banner that they bore, and songs of the Confederacy. A touching incident was the prayer of an old veteran who begged that God might forbid that southern hearts should ever forget the cause for which they fought, or ever cease to believe that the cause, though lost, was right. 1908 Anniversary of the Battle at Raymond Additional Comments: RELATED ARTICLES CAN BE SEEN AT: http://usgwarchives.net/ms/hinds/photos/tombstones/raymondconfedera/r http://battleofraymond.org/cemetery.htm http://battleofraymond.org/ http://battleofraymond.org/battle.htm File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ms/hinds/photos/battleat4752gph.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/msfiles/ File size: 3.4 Kb