Plans are proceeding well for the dedication of a historicalmarker to honor troops who served with a Brookhaven unit in the WarBetween the States, according to the coordinator.

The marker will be unveiled during a ceremony Saturday, Nov. 9,in Railroad Park at the intersection of Whitworth Avenue andChickasaw Street.

Roy Wooten, commander of the Brookhaven Light Artillery Chapterof the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said an article that appearedin an earlier DAILY LEADER requesting descendants of men in theunit drew an enormous response.

“We received a lot of calls after that article,” he said. “Wehave guests coming from as far away as San Antonio.”

Some of the guests who responded and plan to attend are directdescendants of Capt. James A. Hoskins. The unit, which formed onMay 11, 1861, with 104 men, was called Hoskins’ Battery after itscommander.

Deborah Adams Keene, a Hoskins descendent, will be one of thespeakers at the dedication.

The ceremony will begin with an honor guard dressed in theuniform of the Brookhaven Light Artillery, Wooten said. During theceremony, Matthew Grey and Erica Teal, in period costume, will laya wreath in the unit’s memory. Joanna Pate, a direct descendent ofone of the unit’s members, will also place a wreath at thesite.

Wooten cautioned residents not to be startled when reenactorsfire a musket salute and a cannon during the ceremony.

“I can assure you every car alarm on that side of Brookhavenwill go off when the cannon does,” he said.

David Wooten, the camp historian, is the keynote speaker.

The ceremony will not take long.

“We don’t expect this to last more than an hour or an hour and ahalf,” he said.

Although the monument is already in place, Wooten said it iscovered and he asked residents not to disturb it.

“I don’t want people to get used to seeing it before thededication,” he said.

Wooten said the camp is taking the opportunity provided by themarker dedication to make another presentation during theceremony.

The camp will present the first Confederate battle flag thatflew over Grand Gulf Military Park since 1863 to the park. Theflag, presented by the camp to the park, flew over Fort Wade atGrand Gulf from July 2001 to July 2002. The flag was returned tothe camp when it was taken down. That flag will be presented backto Grand Gulf in a case for display in the park’s museum. Bud Ross,park director, will accept the flag.

The Brookhaven Light Artillery served with distinction at FortWade during the Vicksburg campaigns of Union Gen. Ulysses S.Grant.

The unit fought at and distinguished itself in fighting atPonchatoula, Port Hudson, Woodville, Jackson, Yazoo City,Mechanicsburg, Demopolis, Chickamagua, New Hope Church, KenesawMountain, Ezra Church and Atlanta. It was never captured andsurrendered at the end of the war in Murfreesboro, Tenn., in1865.

Its most noted achievement may have come during Gen. Grant’sVicksburg campaign. Hoskins’ Battery was stationed at Grand Gulfand the captain invented the armored car by loading two of his 12#cannons onto a boxcar and armoring its sides. The world’s first”armored car” would roll out onto a bridge span and fire on theUnion’s shipping in the Mississippi River until the gunboats gotits range. It would then retreat to the shoreline. This tacticwrecked havoc with Admiral Farragut’s fleet in 1863.

The unit was also commended several times by its generals forthe excellence in which it conducted itself in engagements againstthe enemy.