Civil War

Although Ridgeland was founded well after the Civil War, several actions took place in Madison County during the war. In May 1863, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston retreated to this area after the battle of Jackson and spent the next few weeks gathering troops and supplies for an "Army of Relief" intended to rescue Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton's army at Vicksburg. His troops generally found their camps in Madison County comfortable, and one soldier in the Fourth Louisiana Infantry called his regiment's quarters "a splendid camping place" with "a splendid spring of water that afforded a good supply." Johnston did not move toward Vicksburg until too late, and the garrison there surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant on July 4, 1863. Later that month, Union troops advanced up the rail line from Jackson into Madison County to destroy the railroad facilities at Canton, burning the depot at Calhoun Station, now known as Gluckstadt, along the way. After the war, Ridgeland was settled largely by immigrants from northern states, and a number of Union veterans became prominent citizens in the community. Samuel A. Moffett, a lieutenant colonel in the 94th New York Infantry, moved to Ridgeland from Chicago in 1911, died on March 24, 1917, and was buried in Jessamine Cemetery. Confederate General Joseph Eggleston Johnston, who lived from 1807 to 1891, was a West Point graduate and Mexican War veteran who, after the Vicksburg Campaign, led the Army of Tennessee through much of the Atlanta Campaign and in the Carolinas in 1865, where he surrendered his forces to Union Major General William T. Sherman.

Ridgeland, Mississippi · United States