MISSISSIPPI — An ex-employee of the Vicksburg National Military Park in Mississippi has pleaded guilty to stealing visitor entry fees.
Yolanda Ward, 40, was a supervisory fee management specialist for the park, which is home to the Vicksburg National Cemetery where more than 17,000 veterans are buried, making it the largest Union cemetery in the country.
Ward removed cash from a safe and kept the money for her own use while she worked in a supervisory role from 2017 to 2019.
She admitted pocketing the money to pay personal bills and gamble at a casino and said she also gave some of the stolen money to family members for gambling. Vicksburg is home to riverboat gambling along the Mississippi River.
The formal charge Ward pleaded guilty to was theft of government funds, and she faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when she is sentenced Nov. 4, according to a news release issued today by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi.
The amount of money Ward stole is not specified in the news release.
The National Military Park in Vicksburg contains nearly 1,400 monuments and markers honoring those on both sides of the Civil War, according to the National Park Service.
Vicksburg was the location of one of the more pivotal Civil War battles with the Siege of Vicksburg lasting 47 days during which Union troops led by Gen. Ulysses Grant brutally attacked the Confederates and took control of the Mississippi River. President Abraham Lincoln called Vicksburg the “key” to ending the war.
