The Columbus and Lowndes County Historical Society will present a free program to the local community and to Pilgrimage visitors on Wednesday, April 9 at the Stephen D. Lee Home, 316 Seventh St. N. The event begins with a bring-your-own Brown Bag lunch at 11:30 a.m., with the program beginning at noon. Lee Home Docents will provide complimentary beverages and dessert.
“Terry Winschel, the recently retired historian at Vicksburg National Military Park, will present a fascinating program entitled ‘Stephen D. Lee and the Making of an American Shrine.'” said Eulalie Davis of the Historical Society. “He will trace the remarkable course of Lee’s life, focusing on his activities to memorialize his comrades in arms.”
A leader in the “New South” movement, Lee threw his considerable influence behind the efforts of Union veterans to establish a national military park at Vicksburg, comparable to those established previously by Congress at Chickamauga/Chattanooga, Antietam, Shiloh and Gettysburg. Although defeat at Vicksburg had sealed the doom of the Confederacy, Lee believed that the Southern soldiers who had fought so valiantly at Vicksburg deserved to be honored rather than shadowed by shame.
Winschel retired in 2012 following a 35-year-long career with the National Park Service during which he served at the Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, Valley Forge and Vicksburg National Military Parks. He has written 75 articles on the Civil War and is author of “Triumph & Defeat: The Vicksburg Campaign,” Vols. I and II; “Vicksburg is the Key: The Struggle for the Mississippi River”; “The Civil War Diary of a Common Soldier”; and “Vicksburg: Fall of the Confederate Gibraltar.”
Winschel is the recipient of numerous awards, the latest of which is the 2013 Carrington Williams Preservationist of the Year Award presented by the Civil War Preservation Trust.
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