Days 13-14 Vicksburg, Mississippi

[Kalon] From Duncanville we drove across Texas and Louisiana to Vicksburg, Mississippi.  I have always been interested in the Civil War but have never visited any of the historic sites.  Vicksburg was to be the first.

When we arrived Karen and I drove around the town a little and stopped at the National Military Park's Visitor Center.  There was a movie that  showed some of the reasons this was a major battlefield: the Union badly wanted to reopen the Mississippi River for their purposes as well as split the Confederacy in half. 

The next day I took a fairly extensive driving (and walking) tour through the Military Park.  My first question to my tour guide (Michael with grandparents on both sides of the conflict) was how could this be a battlefield when it was so forested with no lines of sights anywhere?  He said that in 1863 there were no trees and it was wide open (and the field has been partly kept open so that one can see what the tactical situation was for defenders and attackers.)

As you can see, it is hillocks and ravines - no large open fields like in Gettysburg.  In this picture the Union soldiers were in the area of the sign standard and were opposed by the Confederates at the top of the open hillside in the distance.

But this wasn't just a battle of infantries: on the Union side the Navy was involved.  They had built seven ironclad boats for use on inland waterways that were crucial at Vicksburg.  These boats sailed down the Mississippi and shelled Vicksburg as part of the campaign.  One of them (U.S.S. Cairo) was sunk by a remote controlled mine and was recovered from the river 102 years later.

 

This is the Cairo restored, an amazing exhibit.  One can walk through this boat and imagine how the crew of 175 men could live.

Another image, this time from the Confederate Line looking off to the Union positions in the distance.  The defensive positions of the Confederates were typically on high ground making direct assaults suicidal: hence there was a lot of trenching involved to get close to the Confederate line.

A marker of an important Confederate fortification.

There were many memorials to the soldiers on both sides of this campaign.  The next is an Illinois memorial with 47 steps (one for each day of the siege that ended in capitulation by the Confederates and the opening of the Mississippi to the Union).

My guide had numerous anecdotal stories to tell about the campaign, and I'd share some of them but this isn't intended to be a military blog.  Suffice to say I found Vicksburg fascinating and good preparation for visiting our next two Civil War sites: Harper's Ferry and Gettysburg.  But tomorrow we head to Decatur, Alabama and the Natchez Trace Parkway.

[Karen] While Kalon was learning about battles at Vicksburg I was once more involved with washing clothes and listening to some crazy lady from Dallas who is convinced that President Obama is sending troops to Texas because he wants to take away their rights. Perhaps she knows something that I don't and that the Texas Tea Party is going to push for secession. She kept hinting that people on the 'coasts' and in the north need to be willing to compromise with the other people in the country or 'perhaps there could be another civil war'.  Right now the skies are busy thundering like cannons, so perhaps she is right and it has already started. Kalon and I went out to dinner last night to a little restaurant in old Vicksburg, but I got such a tummy ache that tonight we are settling for good old reliable KFC and a good Napa wine! By the way we are staying at a 'pet friendly' motel. That evidently means that you can bring your dog to your room (or multiple dogs) and in fact they have a bowl of dog biscuits at the reception desk! Everyone but us seems to have a dog along. There was one woman with four small yappies! I did not see any cats though. I wonder how often they have to spray for fleas... or perhaps all these dogs are bathed and well groomed. At least I have not heard any dog fights but perhaps all Southern dogs are polite.