One-hundred-fifty years ago, Union general Benjamin Grierson made his way through Starkville. Last Saturday, Starkville residents dedicated a historical marker in Walgreen’s parking lot to honor the American Civil War sesquicentennial.
The ceremony included the marker dedication and a panel discussion at the Greensboro Center.
Mayor Parker Wiseman, John Marszalek, executive president of the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library, and C.J. Johnson, former president of the Golden Triangle Civil War Round Table, spoke at the marker’s unveiling.
Marszalek said it is necessary people acknowledge Mississippi was the center of the Civil War.
“I think it’s important to realize that a small place like Starkville that was really off the beaten path in those days still was influenced by this war,” Marszalek said.  “Starkville had a role in, a small role, but it had a role.”
In 1991, a historical marker commemorating Grierson’s Raid was erected in Starkville in honor of Tom Williams, a member of the GTR Civil War Roundtable. About a year and a half ago, the marker broke.
Duffy Neubauer, operations coordinator at the Humphrey Coliseum and a founding father of the GTR Civil War Round Table, said this marker will hopefully last longer than 18 years, and the Walgreens location is better than the last one.
“I had the advantage of looking at all kinds of signs and historical markers, and I was always interested in history. Someone else put those up for me to read,” Neubauer said. “I felt it was part of the cycle, and my responsibility is to put something up that the next generation could read.”
Although Walgreens was not around during Grierson’s Raid, he did make his way through the Golden Triangle Area.
Anne Marshall, MSU associate professor of history, said Grierson and his troops played a very important role in the Civil War.
“It was Grant (cmdr. of the Union force)] who had ordered this guy Grierson to go on this raid,” Marshall said. “Grant had been in trying to capture Vicksburg, which was really important for the Union war effort. The only Confederate stronghold preventing them from controlling the entire Mississippi River was Vicksburg. The idea behind Grierson’s raid was for Grierson to divert attention from what Grant was doing at Vicksburg.”
Marshall said the raid lasted only a few weeks but was successful.
“What Grierson did was basically start in LaGrange, Tenn., and he went south through Mississippi. The goal was to destroy railroad lines and destroy enemy Confederate equipment that could go to Vicksburg,” Marshall said. “Grierson was supposed to sidetrack some Confederate troops from Vicksburg.”
Marshall said Grierson and his 1,700 cavalry men made their way through Starkville on April 21, 1863. They entered the city near what is today Miss. Highway 389, which becomes Louisville Street. They commandeered a wagon load of hats they thought were being delivered to Confederate soldiers in Vicksburg and passed them out to area slaves.
“It’s kind of a cool thing. It’s a great story,” Marszalek said. “ It’s probably true that when the hats were captured and given to the area slaves, the next day, the local newspaper allegedly wrote a column castigating all the Starkville men for allowing this to happen. It said, ‘All we can say now is that we that we have the best hatted slaves in the Confederacy.’”
Other Civil War sites in Starkville include Odd Fellows Cemetery, where Confederate and Union soldiers are buried, the Jackson House and the Carpenter House. The Montgomery House marks where Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest and his troops camped before the Battle of West Point.
The Civil War Artillery Museum also focuses on the Civil War, and Neubauer owns the museum. It is open to the public by appointment.
Members of the GTR Civil War Round Table and other local historians believe the marker and what is represents along with the Civil War is still relevant to modern Starkville.
“If you want to understand what America is like today, and since that time, you have to know the Civil War,” Marszalek said.