Dear Mississippi: With the great (and highly justified) resurgence in Confederate pride (witness the recent, glorious victory of the 1894 State Flag!), I just wanted to remind the members of the list about some excellent sources for Mississippi Confederate Heritage information. The Mississippi Civil War Bulletin Board at www.misscivilwar.org/wwwboard/general/ continues to be the very best site on the web for posting queries about your Mississippi Confederate ancestors and their units. This site is routinely monitored by about a dozen of the most knowledgeable Mississippi Confederate historians in the nation. Post your queries and see if you can learn more about your proud Mississippi Confederate "Heritage of Honor"! Several of the monitors of the above board have access to H. Grady Howell’s "For Dixie Land, I’ll Take My Stand," the best-ever index to MS Confederate Patriots (3 volumes, 3600 pages, 149,000 names, & published in 1999 & 2000). Post as complete a name as you can about your MS Confederate ancestor (along with where he lived at the time of the war, if known) and see if you can identify a Southern Patriot in your family. (Hint: I’m 45 and I have thirteen bona fide Confederate ancestors. You probably have as many or more!) Information on individual soldiers is found in each soldier’s Compiled Service Record (CSR). Additionally, if a soldier served in more than one unit, he would have a CSR for each unit. I would suggest that you order this soldier’s/these soldiers’ CSR(s) from the MS Dept. of Archives & History (faster and about the same price as ordering through the National Archives; slower but much cheaper than ordering through Broadfoot). The MDAH is on-line at http://www.mdah.state.ms.us/ Confederate Pension Applications for Southern Patriots living in MS at the time of their filing for same are also available from the MDAH. Betty Wiltshire has a fine, three-volume index to these MS applications, but it is not available for use on-line. However, Ms. Wiltshire imforms me that it is available for purchase on-line at www.pioneersoutheast.com, along with many other books authored by her and others. The Pension Applications sell for $25 each book, Vol. A-G, H-O, and P-Z. "Mississippi Confederate Grave Registrations," which I think is also by the renowned Ms. Betty Wiltshire (but I'm not sure) lists most registered Confederate burials after about 1905 in the state and might include a listing your ancestor(s). Note that the book is only an index and that you would then have to either consult or ask the MDAH to consult the original Confederate Graves Registrations to provide you with specific info regarding the actual burial site of the deceased (location of cemetery, etc.). The MDAH is on-line at http://www.mdah.state.ms.us/ Please note that the original Confederate Grave Registration forms contain only scant information, mainly describing the location of the cemetery in which the veteran was buried. Information about nearly every MS Confederate unit may be found at the MS Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), history page at http://www.mississippiscv.org/mississippi_history.htm. (www.mississippiscv.org is the homepage address.) These capsule histories also contain information on counties of formation for each company (where known). If you like these histories, contact our superb webmaster, Henry Irving, and let him know that you appreciate all his hard volunteer efforts! The Civil War Units Researchers’ page at http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/unit4.html contains links to researchers willing to share information about various Confederate units, from Mississippi as well as other Confederate States. Check this and associated pages out if you’re interested in a particular Confederate regiment. If you have a lot of info to share about a particular regiment, contact the webmaster and offer yourself as a point of contact for others interested in the same unit! Share the honor of having Confederate ancestors! The Official Records of the War of the Rebellion (i.e., the War of Northern Aggression) remain the single most important source for primary information on Civil War units, personalities, and actions. Andy Ramsay noted on the Mississippi WWW Civil War Board (www.ebicom.net/~moorer/scripts/wwwboard/) that the OR has been digitized by Cornell University and is online and searchable at http://www.cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/moa/_browse.html. The lins for both the Army and Navy OR are about halfway down this page. You can search for any term or phrase. When read online, it is read as images (pictures) of the original publication. To see a listing of Mississippi Confederate flags in the possession of the MS Dept. of Archives & History in Jackson, go to www.mississippiscv.org, click on "Mississippi History," go to the bottom of the page, and click on the MDAH flag link. Additionally, the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia (www.moc.org), has the following MS Confederate flags in its collection: Stanford’s Battery (MS Light Artillery), 7th MS Infantry, 11th MS Infantry, 16th MS Infantry, 19th MS Infantry, 24th MS Infantry, 29th MS Infantry, 34th MS Infantry, 41st MS Infantry, and one unidentified MS Infantry flag that belonged to a regiment in Gen. Sears’ Brigade and was captured at Richland Creek after the Battle of Nashville. You can also see recent postings at the MS Civil War Board for a more complete listing of MS Confederate flags! For information concerning obtaining a free, Government headstone/marker to commemorate the valor of your noble Confederate Patriot sires, please go to the Department of Veterans Affairs marker program webpage at www.cem.va.gov/hm.htm. Please help mark every Confederate grave you can for the benefit of future generations, so that every person who visits a Southern cemetery will see at least one reminder of the valor and patriotism of our ancestors -- and maybe become interested in researching their own roots, hopefully eventually discovering their own noble Southron Patriots! Gentlemen: Please considering joining the SCV. Information about membership in the SCV may be found on our national website at www.scv.org. Prospective members may also call 1-800-MYSOUTH. Ladies: Please encourage your female relations to join the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC). Information about the UDC may be found at www.hqudc.org. If you have any photos of your ancestor(s) or other MS Confederates in uniform, please contact H. Grady Howell, Jr., 103 Trace Harbor Road, Madison, MS 39110, and send him a copy of your picture(s). Grady is collecting MS Confederate portraits for a second volume of MS Patriots in uniform. Be sure to send him a copy of your MS Confederate(s) in order to insure the survival of these precious images! Many libraries and archives purchase Grady’s books, so your ancestor’s photo will, in this manner, be transmitted unto future generations of descendants! Also, you will be thanked by many other descendants or researchers who may not know you and may not know you have such pictures! Grady’s first volume of Confederate Patriot portraits was phenomenal! It is a real treat to see a book of nothing but proud Mississippians ready to sacrifice their all to repel the foreign invasion of their homeland! Please send Grady a short note along with your picture(s), telling him what you know about the soldier(s), their full names (if known), their units, wounds, etc., so that he can provide a suitable caption in the book. Grady also welcomes portraits of unidentified MS Confederates in uniform. Again, include as much info as possible about these unknowns when you write him. (Info such as where you acquired the photo, whom it might possibly be, etc.,) On the off chance that you had ancestors in the 43rd MS Infantry, please see our small website at www.43rdmississippi.homestead.com/index.html then contact me. Thanks! I hope all of the above information has been of both use and interest to you! -- Jim Huffman, Adjutant, Gainesville Vols, Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 373, Pearl River County, MS www.geocities.com/bourbonstreet/delta/3730 Deo Vindice! ("God Vindicates!")