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Civil War Union Artillery Battery

In July of 1863, Union forces established their encampment on what was then the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum grounds. While the soldiers did not harm the patients or staff, they did help themselves to the Asylum's produce, cattle, chickens, hogs, and other resources. The Asylum had opened only eight years earlier and was an expansive three-story building.

As Union troops left town, it was one of the very few structures that remained standing. Most of Jackson had been reduced to ashes, with only chimneys remaining. "Chimneyville" became the city's nickname for decades.