Contact: Maridith Geuder
Established in 1899 as a memorial to one of the decisive Civil War campaigns, the Vicksburg National Military Park is among the most well-preserved battlefields of the era.
For nearly 30 Mississippi junior high and high school teachers enrolled in a 10-week Mississippi State summer program, the 1,700-acre site is about to become a living classroom.
In the second of a three-year U.S. Department of Education-funded effort designed to improve the instruction of American history, teachers enrolled in the university's Project Impact will visit several Civil War landmarks next week [July 26-29] under the guidance of scholars and archivists.
During an intense 18 hours of on-site travels to Vicksburg and other locations, the classroom leaders also will attend lectures focusing on published research about the period, as well as topics ranging from Civil War music to present-day re-enactments.
At the conclusion, they will use the resources they've encountered to write a scholarly composition about a Civil War battle.
The on-the-ground approach is based on the premise that "seeing is learning," said project leader Richard V. Damms, director of MSU's Center for Historical Studies.
John F. Marszalek, MSU history professor emeritus and author of award-winning studies about the period, will join the group to provide academic and interpretive content for the course.
Special presentations arranged by Marszalek include, among others, a performance of war music by Bobby Horton of Birmingham, Ala.; a discussion of historical re-enactments by veteran re-enactor Duffy Neubauer of Starkville; and lectures by MSU historians Michael Ballard and William Parrish.
The group will visit battlefield gravesites, reconstructed trenches, a preserved Union ironclad, cannons, and other artifacts that provide a lasting testimony to the tragic vulnerability of the city once known as the "Gibraltar of the Confederacy." Also on the itinerary will be Vicksburg's Old Courthouse Museum and, near Natchez, Jefferson College and the site of a one-time massive slave market.
"With lectures from some of MSU's most distinguished Civil War scholars and demonstrations from guest lecturers and artists, the teachers are seeing firsthand the resources and sites available to their students," Damms said.
Added Marszalek: "They are discovering there are multitudes of valid ways to engage their students. Some already are so excited about what they've learned, they're planning to create courses dealing strictly with this period."
The participating teachers include [by hometown]:
ACKERMAN--Amber M. Vowell, Ackerman High School.
AMORY--Masha [cq] Laney and Charles Millender, Amory High School; and Anna M. Leray, Aberdeen High School.
BELDEN--Kenneth Goralcyzyk, Tupelo High School.
CEDAR BLUFF--Basil K. Manning, Fifth Street Junior High (West Point).
COLUMBUS--Larry G. Joblin, New Hope High School, and William C. Gates III, West Lowndes High School.
FRENCH CAMP--Arlene P. Echols, Weir High School.
GUNTOWN--Jeramy T. Turner, Tupelo High School.
HICKORY--Chadwick Bond, Newton County High School.
KOSCIUSKO--John-Mark McCain, Kosciusko Junior High School.
LOUISVILLE--Terence P. Bellew, Ackerman High School; Frederick L. Hickmon, Nanih Waiya Attendance Center; Equilla T. Miller, Armstrong Middle School (Starkville); and Billie Jean Wooley, Ackerman High School.
MADISON--Roxanna Arcement, Sumner Hill Junior High (Clinton).
MERIDIAN--Shannon Eldridge, Meridian High School.
NEW ALBANY--Janet G. Eidson, Tupelo High School.
NOXAPATER--John C. Wilkes, Louisville High School.
STARKVILLE--Toxie L. Coker and Martha S. Friend, Starkville High School; Leland J. Grisham III, West Side Alternative School (West Point); Robert R. Hamlin, Armstrong Middle School; and Grady L. Johnston Jr., West Lowndes High School.
TUPELO--Christy Sharbutt, Tupelo High School.
WOODLAND--Cathy L. Spencer, Houston High School.
NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: For more information about the program, telephone Dr. Damms at (662) 325-4249.