General Ralph P. Buckland at Vicksburg

The 4th of July 1863, marked the culmination  of the long land and naval campaign by the Union forces to capture the key strategic position of the Civil War - Vicksburg on the Mississippi River. President Abraham Lincoln stated that "Vicksburg is the key, the war can never come to a close until the key is in our pocket." Capturing Vicksburg severed the Confederacy and opened the river to Union traffic along its entire length. Brigadier General Ralph Buckland commanded Tuttle's First Brigade made up of the 114th Illinois, 93rd Indiana, 72nd Ohio, and 95th Ohio. 

Ohio decided that instead of a single monument devoted to all of the Ohio veterans who fought at Vicksburg, it would erect a monument to each of its 39 generals. This brochure, created in 1912, was used to solicit funds from veterans for a monument for General Buckland at Vicksburg Military Park's Union Avenue . 

General Ralph P. Buckland Monument at Vicksburg as it appears today

Vicksburg Battlefield as it appears today