Last updated: May 11, 2021
Place
Tour Stop #9 - James Jourdan's Grave at the Battle of Brices Cross Roads
NPS Photo
Quick Facts
Location:
Brices Cross Roads Battlefield, Union County Road 168
Significance:
Burial of James Jourdan
Designation:
National Battlefield Site
MANAGED BY:
Amenities
2 listed
Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Parking - Auto
James Jourdan was a confederate soldier from Alabama who was wounded at the Battle of Brices Cross Roads and died nearby at the Phillips family home. Sergeant Jourdan was buried on their property, and at some point two cedar trees were planted to mark his grave.
Over three hundred men were killed in the battle on June 10, 1864. The bodies of the dead soldiers were hastily buried. The bodies of Union soldiers were exhumed in 1867 and re-interred in the national cemetery at Corinth, Mississippi. The graves of many soldiers, especially those strewn along the Federal Army retreat route, had no markers and are now unknown to history.
Confederate burials were given more care. Some like Jourdan, were buried on private property. Some of those bodies--such as that of John Rice, who was buried on the Agnew property--were later removed and taken home by friends and relatives. Still other soldiers were laid to rest in a section of the cemetery at nearby Bethany Church. While some soldiers have memorial gravestones at the Bethany cemetery, the actual locations of their remains are unknown.
During the Battle of Brices Cross Roads there were 12,000 men engaged on June 10, 1864 with 3,105 killed or wounded. See 1st LT Oscar Kelton & John Milton Hubbard to learn about some of those men that fought and died that day.
The Brice's Crossroads Battlefield main battlefield is managed by the Mississippi Final Stands Visitor and Interpretative Center in Baldwyn, Mississippi.
Over three hundred men were killed in the battle on June 10, 1864. The bodies of the dead soldiers were hastily buried. The bodies of Union soldiers were exhumed in 1867 and re-interred in the national cemetery at Corinth, Mississippi. The graves of many soldiers, especially those strewn along the Federal Army retreat route, had no markers and are now unknown to history.
Confederate burials were given more care. Some like Jourdan, were buried on private property. Some of those bodies--such as that of John Rice, who was buried on the Agnew property--were later removed and taken home by friends and relatives. Still other soldiers were laid to rest in a section of the cemetery at nearby Bethany Church. While some soldiers have memorial gravestones at the Bethany cemetery, the actual locations of their remains are unknown.
During the Battle of Brices Cross Roads there were 12,000 men engaged on June 10, 1864 with 3,105 killed or wounded. See 1st LT Oscar Kelton & John Milton Hubbard to learn about some of those men that fought and died that day.
The Brice's Crossroads Battlefield main battlefield is managed by the Mississippi Final Stands Visitor and Interpretative Center in Baldwyn, Mississippi.