CWPT Buys 55 Acres At Champion Hill, Miss. Battlefield

By Deborah Fitts

December 2005

CHAMPION HILL, Miss. — Armchair history is a wonderful thing, but for a Civil War preservationist there’s nothing like having your boots on the hallowed ground to seize preservation opportunities.

It was a visit to the Champion Hill battlefield in October by Terry Winschel, historian at Vicksburg National Military Park, that resulted in the speedy purchase there of 55 acres of pristine battlefield land.

The Civil War Preservation Trust scheduled a closing Nov. 15 on the tract for $155,000. The land fronts Billy Fields Road — the Jackson Road during the war — and abuts a 200-acre portion of the battlefield owned by the state of Mississippi.

Winschel said he had made two back-to-back visits to Champion Hill several days apart and was surprised to see on his second trip that a “for sale” sign had sprung up.

“When I called the Realtor she said they already had an offer, but it was below the asking price,” Winschel recalled. “I said, that means it’s not too late to put in an offer ourselves.”

Winschel contacted the Trust. He also e-mailed Guy Struvey, a Trust board member who has a special interest in Champion Hill. Struvey, in Moscow on business, promptly contacted Trust President Jim Lighthizer and urged swift action. Lighthizer acted.

The property fronts the old Jackson Road just west of an intersection that was a focus of the battle On the morning of May 16, 1863, Seth Barton’s Georgia Brigade fought across this property, according to Winschel. Eight Confederate guns of the 1st Mississippi Artillery and the Cherokee Georgia Artillery were captured by the brigade of Union Gen. John G. Stevenson. Later in the day the Federals were forced back, and there was back-and-forth action across the ground.

Winschel noted that the property, added to the state land to the west and to land at the crossroads still in the Champion family, “will give us a wonderful stretch” of about one mile of unspoiled land along Billy Fields Road that is “really pristine.”

The state owns another 500 acres of battlefield to the east. The Coker House, a battle witness, is awaiting major restoration (see November’s Civil War News).