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Northeast Mississippi D. Journal, Saturday, June 24, 1989
102
'unknown'
graves
marked
By AL ROGERS
Daily Journal
BALDWYN - On June 10, 1864, more than 100 Confederate soldiers died fighting the Union forces in the battle of Brice’s Cross Road, about four miles west of Baldwyn. Following the battle, 102 “unknown” Southern casualties were buried together in one section of the original Bethany Associate Reformed Church cemetery, across from the battlefield site.
Through the efforts of historians, military scholars and officials with Lee, Union, and Prentiss counties, on Friday 102 new grave markers that bear the names of the previously “unknown” mostly confederate soldiers were placed in the old church cemetery.
“Someone once said that as long as there is one person on earth who remembers your name, you’re never truly dead,” said Charles L. Sullivan, chairman of the department of social studies at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. “These er truly dead,” said Charles L. Sullivan, chairman of the department of social studies at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. “These men will not be forgotten.”
Sullivan, who is active in restoring the history of the “War of the Rebellion,” or the “War between the States,” said that much research was put into projects like Brice’s Cross Road. He said that letters, diaries, memoirs and old battle records were carefully studied before the stones were put into place.
Early Friday morning, officials, including some county supervisors, and county work crews from Lee, Prentiss, and Union counties worked to restore the cemetery. Historians said the battle of Brices’s Cross Road was fought in all three of the counties. While the Confederacy lost the war, the battle on June 10, 1864, was a decisive Southern victory.
“This was a great Confederate victory," Sullivan said. “It’s studied by armies all over the world.” Sullivan said that while 102 Confederates died on the battlefield of Brice's Cross Roads that day. Union casualties totaled somewhere in the neighborhood of 600.
Much of the South’s success in the battle, Sullivan credited to General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Sullivan called him “the greatest military mind the U.S. has ever known.”
“Forrest knew that the Yankees were coming in from Memphis,” he said gazing across the battlefield. “They were coming here to the
Photo by Al Rogers
Charles Sullivan, social studies chairman at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, coordinates efforts to restore the cemetery for the Confederate dead at the battle at Brice's Cross Roads near Baldwyn.
"These men were from another nation. These were men from the Confederate States of America. I figured the government gave them a bullet, the least they could do is give them a rock with
their name on it.”	« ...
—Charles L. Sullivan
community college professor
crossroads to destroy the railroad.” Sullivan said that the Confederate troops “annihilated" the cavalary and then the infantry. He said Union infantry members were' out of breath because they ran from Ripley to aid the cavalary.
A swamp to the west of the battlefield later was found littered with cannons, rifles and muskets, that had been dropped in the Union retreat.
“It’s hard for me to stand here and realize that these were Americans who did this to each other,” said Sullivan, surveying the area.
Sullivan, who also serves as the post commander of the Beauvoir Camp 786 Sons of Confederate Veterans, said his studies, teachings and other efforts have become a job that he truly loves.
Sullivan and other Sons of Confederate Veterans said that getting the Confederate soldiers recognition
has not always been an easy task. The U.S. government has not always recognized Condcrate soldiers.
“These men were from another nation,” he said looking across the newly marked cemetery. “These were men from the Confederate States of America. They were fighting the U.S. Government." Sullivan said a law was passed in 1929 allowing the government to establish Confederate gravesitcs.
“I figured the government gave them a bullet, the least they could do is give them a rock with their name on it."
But not all Confederate soldiers have that “rock with their name on it." The “unknown” tombstones taken from Brice’s Cross Roads are now being taken to another Confederate site in Holly Springs, Sullivan said.