Our friends in Stanfords Mississippi Battery hosted the First Confederate Division spring event for 1998, and the 18 months of preparation which they put into it showed in every respect. This event was done as a tactical, with troops fighting on three different areas, and marching between each day's bivoauc. In addition there was skirmishing along the way. Camping was campaign style, and most of the weary, foot-sore troops just dropped where they found themselves at the end of the battle and made that their bed for the night. Friday night and Saturday morning had the added advantage of being on the original ground for the Battle of Raymond.

As AIG for artillery, Bruce Hoover spent most of his time at registration doing inspection on the 30 guns as they arrived. Bruce Rollin was in the field performing crew and drill inspections, with Dan Dachelet helping. The process went fairly smoothly, with the exception of a few guns which had to be chased down, but it meant that none of us had a chance to participate in the battles or the march.

There were somewhere over 3,000 men who did get to march though, including a complete four-gun horse-drawn Confederate battery. Many of the attendees said this was the best event which they have ever attended.

On Saturday afternoon, after finishing most of the inspections, we drove to Vicksburg and toured the National Military Park. If you have not been, and have the chance, you will enjoy seeing all the cannon in the park. There are also many impressive monuments, but the jewel of the park is the city class gunboat, Cairo. The Cairo was sunk during the war, and raised in the 1960s and has had the missing/damaged parts "ghosted" by modern pieces so one can get a very good idea of how it appeared. The site museum has a good display of many items which were found on board and even sell replicas of some of them. All in all a great trip.