Champion Hill Relics, LLC
Community Service & Charity
Helping to Preserve History....and Simply Helping Others
The Bloody "Crossroads" at Champion Hill...SAVED FOREVER By Champion Hill Relics...and YOU!
Purchased originally by me at 9am on the 12th of June, 2006, I acquired 3.2 acres of land upon the Champion Hill battlefield….and not just any old tract of land...but the entire southeast corner of the infamous "Crossroads"! It was this point--the most critically strategic landmark of the entire battlefield terrain, and the key to victory to whoever controlled it--that changed hands 3 times throughout the battle. This intersection of the Upper and Middle Jackson Roads was the scene of some of the heaviest fighting on the entire battlefield. It was here that the dead were," piled 3 and 4 deep, like cordwood," after the conclusion of the fighting on the night of May 16th, 1863. On my property alone, the four 12-pound Napoleon guns of Waddell's Alabama Battery were planted--being captured by Slack's Yankee Brigade, then re-captured by Bowen's Division (CS) during their counter-attack, only to finally fall back into Federal hands after the CS army retreat was called. Nine gunners of Waddell's Battery were buried around the guns...where they fell. Praise be to God for making this acquisition happen. It has been a LOT of work, it had cost me WAY MORE than the raw land value, and I had to do everything in my power to keep this land deal a secret, in order to prevent other "land-raiders" from destroying this deal. But it was final and official. Part of the thanks go to YOU, the wonderful customers of Champion Hill Relics and Battlefield Tours, who helped to make this possible through your encouragement, and of course, your purchases.
I then contacted the Civil War Preservation Trust, speaking with the Chief of Land Acquisition, Mr. Tom Gilmore. After speaking with him and with CWPT Board Member, the renown Mr. Terrence Winschel, Chief Historian at the Vicksburg NBP and noted author and preservationist, I happily sold this property to the CWPT in 2008…FOREVER PRESERVING this once BLOOD-SOAKED, and MOST STRATEGIC GROUND of the entire battlefield…and as some argue…the ENTIRE WAR (renown British Military Historian, and War Advisor to Winston Churchill during WWII, Major General J.F.C. Fuller wrote that, “The drums of Champion Hill sounded the DOOM of RICHMOND!”
Modern-Day Views and Historical Explanations of the “Spicer Tract” of the Crossroads
View of the now “Spicer Tract” of the “Crossroads” property I owned and sold to the CWPT. This road frontage, along the "Middle" Jackson Road, is looking southeast from the "Crossroads." All the tree-line in the entire picture across the road is my frontage. I am standing in the actual "Crossroads" taking the picture. Waddell's guns were planted behind this road, on the “Spicer Tract” of the “Crossroads” property, facing north (facing to the left of this picture), as the 56th and 57th Georgia Regiments were behind a split-rail fence, supporting the Battery.
View looking due east, down the "Middle" Jackson Road, while standing in the "Crossroads." The road going right in this picture is the war-time Ratliff Road, leading deep into the Confederate positions and Gen. Pemberton's Headquarters. Bowen's Division counter-attack (from right to left in this picture) went over the “Spicer Tract” of the “Crossroads” property, recapturing Waddell's guns. It was Green's Arkansas Brigade in specific that was through my property, and Cockrell's Missouri Brigade passed behind where I am standing in the "Crossroads."
Looking northeast up the original Upper Jackson Road while standing in the middle of the "Crossroads." The “Spicer Tract” of the “Crossroads” property is to the right of this photo, just across the street. Cumming's Georgia Brigade, after having been routed from atop Champion Hill (600 yards up this road) came streaming down this roadbed in "wild confusion." Once the victorious Yankee legions captured this point from Waddell's guns and the 56th and 57th Georgia, they were "forcibly removed" by Bowen's Division of Missourians and Arkansans, who chased them back up this road.
View of the "Crossroads," looking west. The road turning left in the photo is the war-time Ratliff Road, while in the right of the photo, you can see the small cement and bronze battlefield marker next to the Upper Jackson Road. Everywhere in the picture on May 16, 1863, the dead of both armies littered the landscape. The “Spicer Tract” of the “Crossroads” property is in the left-hand side of the photo.
The only three markers that would let anyone know about the horrible carnage that occurred in this lonely, quiet place are this one (at the "Crossroads"), the Tilghman Monument about 2 miles away from this marker (dedicating the spot where he was killed in the battle on the Raymond/Edwards Road), and the Sate Historical Marker for the battle--located 4.4 miles away in the town of Bolton.
And in May of 2008, one of our local Middle Schools (Madison Middle School just north of Jackson, Mississippi) had a specific fundraiser to help raise money for the “Spicer Tract” of the strategic and irreplaceable history that happened on that very soil. Below is the Madison County Harold transcript from their Newspaper:
Preserving Our State’s History; MMS Students Buy Land for Civil War Trust
By Lucy Weber
5/01/2008
Madison County Herald (MS)
http://www.mcherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080501/NEWS/805010314
By looking to the future, history students at Madison Middle School are preserving the past.
A small plot of land was purchased by the school's Junior Historical Society and added to the acreage the Civil War Preservation Trust is working to save at the Battle of Champion Hill site, near Edwards.
"We helped save a part of history," eighth-grader Xavier Cheatham said.
"It's rewarding to know we got this land so it won't go to residential development," said Rod Bridges, president of the school club. The officers and all-A students in the society got the opportunity to present their check for $250 --earned by sponsoring a day when students could pay $1 to wear a hat to school - to Vicksburg National Military Park Ranger Ranger Terry Winschel, a national board advisor to the Civil War Preservation Trust. "You should be pleased and proud. Your children and your grandchildren can come to this spot and know you had a role in preserving it," Winschel told the students last week as he gave them a tour of the area where the battle took place on May 16, 1863. "We helped save a part of history," eighth-grader Xavier Cheatham said. "It's rewarding to know we got this land so it won't go to residential development," said Rod Bridges, president of the school club. The officers and all-A students in the society got the opportunity to present their check for $250 --earned by sponsoring a day when students could pay $1 to wear a hat to school - to Vicksburg National Military Park Ranger Ranger Terry Winschel, a national board advisor to the Civil War Preservation Trust. "You should be pleased and proud. Your children and your grandchildren can come to this spot and know you had a role in preserving it," Winschel told the students last week as he gave them a tour of the area where the battle took place on May 16, 1863.
Called the Spicer tract, the total of three acres, which includes the one-sixteenth of an acre the students bought, sits at the southeast quadrant of The Crossroads, the middle line of the battle that ended in defeat for the 22,500 Confederate troops who fell that day to the 32,000 Union soldiers under the command of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. The guns of the Alabama battery were on the spot during the battle. The Crossroads is in the center of the battle area and several hundred yards south of the actual Champion Hill.
"I cannot stress enough the significance of this," Winschel said. "This makes them stakeholders of our history."
In the Champion Hill area, about 2,000 acres of the battlefield are protected either through purchase or through easements. "For 100 years Champion Hill remained intact, but now it's falling victim to development. A lot of people are moving in, unaware they're moving into a battlefield," Winschel said. Only two markers are within the area. One was erected by the sons of a Confederate general killed in the battle. It sits enclosed in a wrought-iron fence on a small rise not far from several houses. A second one at The Crossroads erected by the National Park Service in 1977 recognizes the Champion HIll Battlefield for its "national significance in commemorating the history of the United States of America." No historical structures that figured into the battle are still standing, Winschel said. Owning the property, which runs from what is D.J. Johnson Road about 200 yards down to a mailbox on Jackson Road, and the other 823 acres bought by conservation groups and turned over to the state means the battlefield can be preserved. "We hope one day this becomes a unit of the Vicksburg park," Winschel said. The preservation of this Civil War battlefield is important, he said, because that war was a defining event in American history.
History teacher Tom Watts, sponsor of the Junior Historical Society, suggested the students raise the money to donate to the Civil War Preservation Trust, which he is a member of….
"1/10th of the First Fruits...."
Based upon the Christian beliefs here at Champion Hill Relics, LLC, we do not ignore what our Savior and Heavenly Father instruct us ("Let he who has ears to hear, LISTEN!" said Jesus to the multitude.)
In the Old Testament, the Lord instructed that each was to give 1/10th of their "FIRST FRUITS" to the Lord. We here at Champion Hill Relics adhere to His instruction. We are "tithers"...and sometimes MORE. The Lord admonished those who "rob from God," not giving a tenth of what the Lord has bountifully provided out of His kindness to us all. And he made clear about the , "First FRUITS....", not waiting, dragging your feet, giving the LAST or leftovers.
It is also the ONLY place in the Bible (get ready out there to all my minister and ardent Bible reading customers!) where the Lord DARED US to listen to this command, saying, "Try me in this...[giving your tithes]," such that reward would be SO GREAT that it would be an "outpouring" upon us HERE in THIS LIFETIME...IN THIS TIME AND WORLD..."through the windows of Heaven".
Hey...if there is no God, why would he DARE us to do His bidding, only to find we would NOT receive the reward so great it would be an "outpouring through the windows of Heaven" upon us here on earth in our lives today--not in Heaven in the future after we die and are received into His Heavenly Kingdom?
For you non-believers, other religious faiths, or pseudo-Christians who like to point fingers at me and others--always trying to find faults and say, "Ah....see? He talks a 'good game' about Christianity, the 'Word of God' , etc, yet look at his situation...look at his mistakes or sins...". I pity you...and will pray for you.
You REAL Christians KNOW--as I do all too well--we are ALL IMPERFECT, and "All have sinned...except for one" on this earth. Only Jesus was the man--in real flesh--who was without sin. The rest of us are ALL SINNERS. And I've NEVER proclaimed to be any "Saint". I've on many occasions confessed I am FAR FROM IT. I've sinned enough in 39 years to fill several lifetimes. But I have ALWAYS been a BELIEVER. I have ALWAYS proclaimed and believed CHRIST IS MY SAVIOR. Ever since my father read to me as a very small child from the Bible, there was no turning from this fact--regardless of how many or how severe the sins I've committed. Jesus forgives ALL to those with contrition in their hearts/spirit. Thank and praise GOD for such an ever-loving and forgiving LORD!!!
Shown Below are the actual Federal IRS Tax Statements showing the "Charitable Donations" made by Champion Hill Relics in 2007, 2008, and 2009. Yes...even despite having a son with cancer, the Lord told us--DARED US, even--that ALL must give at least 1/10th of the "first fruits"....he didn't say, "All must give...except those with children with cancer" or "except those who are having a bad year financially" or "except those who have medical problems", etc, etc.
ALL MUST GIVE in accordance to the Lord...regardless.
And as far to WHO we give to...I let the LORD lead my spirit to give to those organizations He leads me to give for HIS best utilization of the money...
2007 IRS "Gifts to Charity"
2008 IRS "Gifts to Charity"
2009 IRS "Gifts to Charity"