The following news article was posted on a Philadelphia Civil War Internet circulation list. Thought you all would be interested. My congratulations to the Louisiana Congressional delegation for pressing for this restoration!! Louisiana Confederate soldiers played an important roll in defending Vicksburg during the "Late Unpleasantness" [a term my grandmother and her UDC compatriots often used].

**************

08/19/2002
The Baton Rouge Advocate
(Copyright 2002 by Capital City Press)

MONROE - Whoever said lightning doesn't strike twice has never heard the tragic history of the Louisiana Monument in Vicksburg National Military Park, about 75 miles east of here, in Mississippi.

Originally erected in 1920 to commemorate the participation of Louisiana soldiers in the pivotal siege of Vicksburg during the Civil War, the monument stood in the shape of a majestic Grecian column holding an eternal flame, symbolizing peace.

It was the tallest structure in surrounding Warren County. That is, until Memorial Day weekend in 1999.

After a heavy storm and two lightning strikes in a three-day period, the column of the monument was in danger of collapse, posing a serious threat to park visitors. Forced to dismantle the monument, the park service laid the column in more than 30 broken pieces next to its pedestal - where they rested for more than two years with the mournful air of a Roman ruin.

But today, with $900,000 appropriated by Congress through the National Park Service headquarters earlier this year, the restoration process is finally under way. Under way, but nowhere near completion.

"Even with the funding, we'll only begin the construction late this calendar year or early next year," said Terrence Winschel, park historian.

"The wheels of bureaucracy grind slowly," he said, laughing. He was only half joking. At first, money was the obstacle, but now approval is needed for the plan of repairs.

The money for repairs had been long in coming. Every year, Congress appropriates about $5 million for the Storm Damage Fund of the National Park Service, but because 1999 was a particularly bad year, with hurricanes along the East Coast and storms elsewhere, Vicksburg was forced to wait its turn for the repair funds.

Eventually, through heavy lobbying efforts of Louisiana Senators John Breaux and Mary Landrieu as well as members of the Louisiana congressional team, the funding was granted early this year.

"Our original request had been for $1.2 million," Winschel said. "But the money we have now is enough to get us started, and hopefully we'll get more if we run short. "Money isn't everything, however. It only facilitated the first step.

Even though the repair plan has been drawn up by Hartrampf Inc., an Atlanta engineering firm employed by the Southeast Regional Office of the National Park Service, it still needs the approval of the state historic preservation offices in both Louisiana and Mississippi.

The approval procedure - called the compliance process - is to ensure that the repairing plan complies with the National Historic Preservation Act. The act stipulates that federal agencies have to consider the effect of their actions on historic properties and get views from interested parties before acting.

"The park is the one taking the lead on the reconstruction because the monument is in Mississippi," said Duke Rivet, an archaeologist at the Louisiana State Historic Preservation Office in Baton Rouge. "But they've kept us abreast of everything, and we'll review the plans." The goal is to fix the monument so that it looks exactly as it did before, he said, but with added lightning rods running along the entire body of the monument so that it isn't vulnerable to further accidents of nature.

"We just don't want to see major ground disturbance," Rivet said. He further stressed the importance of keeping the ground the same as it was in 1863 so that visitors may get an authentic experience of what it was like during the Civil War, standing on those battle grounds. "You want to maintain the topography as much as possible," he said.

The hill upon which the monument stood is the site of the Third Louisiana Redoubt, also called the Great Redoubt, a stronghold in the Vicksburg siege that overlooks neighboring hills straight into Union territory, where the Illinois monument stands today.

Ironically, the position that made the Louisiana monument such a conspicuous center point of the park might hinder its restoration efforts. The biggest problem is that the high position of the monument might make heavy-equipment access difficult, Winschel said.

The monument stands immediately next to the narrow Confederate Avenue, one of the two main roads in the park. Since the avenue faces a grassy slope on the other side and the monument faces a steep hill in the back, the heavy equipment needed for the repairs will likely have to operate from the road.