Two black Union soldiers will be laid to rest for the secondtime Saturday during a Civil War era reinterment ceremony at GrandGulf Military Park.

The two soldiers were exhumed Dec. 28 by members of the ThirdBrigade of the Sons of Confederate Veterans in order to save theirremains. The graves were in danger of being carried away by a rainwashout through the cemetery.

“I’m anxious to see it. It’s going to be awe-inspiring,” said EdFunchess, adjutant of the Stockdale Rangers, Summit’s SCV chapterand an organizer of the ceremony.

The program, slated for 2 p.m. in the park’s historic cemetery,will begin with the funeral procession. It will be led by PageBrooks, a Baptist preacher from Jefferson, La., who will play thebag pipes. He will be followed by the color guards of the PortGibson High School Army JROTC, 18th Indiana Light Artillery, theMississippi Division of the SCV (Jeff Davis Legion), Third Brigadeof the SCV, the caissons of the 18th Indiana Light Artillery withcoffins perched on top, and uniformed troops representing allorganizations and reenactors.

“The caissons will take your breath away,” Funchess said.”They’re really something to see.”

The caissons, which are being used to transport the coffins tothe grave site, are each drawn by six horses. They were used duringthe war to carry artillery supplies, such as ammunition.

Pallbearers will carry the coffins to the graves after theposting of colors.

“Everybody who is involved in the ceremony is in uniform,”Funchess said. “Most are Union soldiers.”

The graveside service will be conducted by Kent Oestenstad, amember the Sons of Union Veterans, and the Rev. Stan Copeland, aretired U.S. Army major and the pastor of the Multi-Racial ReformedChurch in Pensacola, Fla.

“(Oestenstad) bestows the military honors whereas the chaplainbestows the Christian honors,” Funchess said.

The honor guard will fire a tribute, and Jennifer Hughes ofMcComb will play taps.

The two Union soldiers being reinterred are Jackson Ross andWesley Gilbert.

Ross was a member of Company I of the 47th U.S. ColoredInfantry.

“He was probably a private, because we did have one up here whowas a sergeant and he did have his rank on the tombstone,” said BudRoss, director of Grand Gulf Military Park.

Gilbert, also assumed to be a private, was a member of Company Eof the 51st U.S. Colored Infantry.

Not much else is known of the two men, however. Funchess said atthat time many black men, having just emerged from slavery or onlyat most a few generations removed from being slaves, did not havelast names and often took the last name of someone they admired orwho had helped them.

In consulting records from the time, including enlistmentpapers, they found a John Wesley Gilbert who may have been theWesley Gilbert buried at Grand Gulf, but it couldn’t be provedconclusively.

Ross said he cannot even say conclusively if the men died duringthe siege of Grand Gulf or later during the occupation.

The cemetery itself provides few clues, he said. It existedbefore the war and was probably created in the 1830s, according toinformation gleaned from the earliest tombstones there.

“We’ll probably never know more about these two men than we donow,” he said.

The coffins of the men contain their remains and all artifactsdiscovered within the graves during the disinterment in lateJanuary. Items found in the graves included bones, a few buttonsand other small scraps of uniforms and the casket handles. Thecoffins being used were constructed according to militaryspecifications at the time of the two men’s first burial.

The project of saving the two graves was proposed to Ross aftermembers of the SCV heard of their peril. The SCV is funding theentire project.