BY DENNIS SEID
Daily Journal
TUPELO - Gerald Creely wanted to help preserve the land his family has owned since 1842, and thought the best was to do that was to put some of it in the hands of experts.
On Monday, Creely, along with the Brice's Crossroads National Battlefield Commission Inc. and the Civil War Preservation Trust, closed on a core piece of property off Mount Vernon Road where the second day of the Battle of Tupelo occurred. The closing took place at the Tupelo Rotary Club's weekly meeting.
"I'm one of the few left of the Creelys, and we felt like this would help preserve the integrity of the farm," Creely said.
The site - a little more than 12 acres - was sold by Creely to the two groups, which acquired another two acres.
John Haynes, a Baldwyn bank executive, the executive director of the BCNBC and a Rotarian, said the deal has been in the works for about five years.
The Battle of Tupelo was fought July 14-15, 1864, involving about 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers, resulting in about 2,000 casualties.
After Confederate forces won at the Battle of Brice's Crossroads, Union General William T. Sherman's march to Georgia was threatened by attacks on his supply line. Union forces met Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest and chased him off after the two-day battle.
The first day of the battle was near Harrisburg, and the second day was fought near Mount Vernon Road.
Through a $1.5 million grant, officials plan to build a pull-out area for cars and buses and have interpretive information at the site. No date for completion for the project was announced.