Vicksburg 11/3/2013

After making a crock pot dinner to be ready on our return, we set out for the Vicksburg National Military Park.

At the Visitor Center, we watched a short movie that explained how critical it was to Union forces in the Civil War to capture Vicksburg from Confederate control. Vicksburg is situated at a critical point on the Mississippi that allowed supplies to flow to the Confederates. Cutting off this supply route was necessary for the Union Army. But its location, high on bluffs above the river, made the assault on the city very difficult. From May 18 through July 4, 1863, the city was in siege by Grant's army. Union casualties for the battle and siege of Vicksburg were 4385, Confederate, 32,697 (29,495 surrendered). The full campaign since March 29th claimed 10,142 Union, and 9091 Confederate killed and wounded. It's hard to wrap your mind around those numbers.

But this story is not one of numbers, but of the people who endured this battle: the Confederate soldiers who surrendered due to starvation and sickness, the Union soldiers killed and wounded (although death occurred more frequently due to illness than to wounds), the townspeople who hid in crudely dug caves during the siege.

The Military Park takes you on a 16 mile auto tour of the battlefield. What comes to mind as you drive the route is how different the landscape is now from what it was then. Before the Civil War, all this area had been  cleared for farming, and the battles took place on sites and fields that were completely open.
So Union forces, to defend themselves, dug trenches at night, and attacked from those positions during the day. Now, there are many trees there, planted in the 1930s to prevent erosion. All along the road, there are monuments to the various Union and Confederate units that served here.

One particularly moving monument was erected by the state of Illinois. It's a massive marble dome whose inside walls are lined with plaques listing the names of Illinois men who fought at Vicksburg. The ceiling of the

Illinois memorial

dome is open to the sky. Unfortunately for us, a family including small children ran in just as we were entering. The children ran in, screaming and laughing, sliding on the smooth marble floor. Their parents obviously had no respect for others who were visiting, nor the somber nature of the memorial that spoke of tears and loss and the over 36,000 Illinois soldiers who fought there.

We had the opportunity to see the salvaged remains of a Union Ironclad boat named the Cairo that

Remains of the Cairo

Confederates sank in the Mississippi during the siege. And the auto tour takes you into the Vicksburg National Cemetery where 17,000  Union soldiers are buried, a number unmatched by

Vicksburg National Cemetery

any other national cemetery. 75% of the dead are listed as "unknown".

The odd thing about Vicksburg is that this city on the east side of the Mississippi is very hilly. As you look across to Louisiana, you can see that the land there is absolutely flat. This is due to an oddity of geology. We had an interesting chat with a park ranger in the visitor center about Vicksburg's history, geology, and people. She is one of the reasons our National Parks are a treasure.

After the auto tour, we drove through the old Vicksburg village--obviously a work in progress. There are some beautiful historic buildings, but for every one great building, there are at least 3 or 4 empty storefronts. They've put concrete planters in the street (not on the side of the street) that are nothing short of hazardous.

Lastly, we felt compelled to visit at least one of the casinos here in Vicksburg. All I can say is that I guess we're just not casino people. We walked in, the cigarette smoke hit us in the face like a brick, we walked around the hundreds (thousands?) of slot machines, then walked out. It was weird to note that every one of the at least 30 handicap parking spots in front of the casino was taken, but the whole parking lot was no more than 1/4 full.

BTW, we really like our site in the RV park we're staying in.