The Vicksburg National Military Park was our destination for today. We were trying to squeeze it in between breakfast and the onset of a massive and nasty storm approaching from the west. We have never been in this part of the world before so we had no idea what to expect; our first stop was the park’s visitor info center. The VIC parking lot was filled with big tour busses on the paved section and lots of cannons on the grassy parts.
The park consists of two loop roads – the outer loop where the Union forces were surrounding the Confederate forces who held the inner loop. Inside the Confederate loop was Vicksburg, a crossroads for river and train traffic supplying the Confederate Army throughout the South. On both loops, many memorials have been installed where each unit from each state was positioned during the initial battles and finally a 49-day siege. There are memorials to each military unit (Iowa 22nd Cavalry, Missouri 49th Light Artillery, many others), each state that sent soldiers to fight, almost every officer above the rank of colonel and, surprisingly, some distant non-participants. Blue signs depict where Union forces were positioned and red signs show the Confederate lines. Sometimes the lines are very close – maybe 15 feet between them. They must have been able to spot each other because there were 19,000 battle casualties with about 3,600 killed. Where the lines are further apart, there are large expanses of deep grass. I imagine anything bigger than a twig between the lines was vaporized in May 1863.
Also inside the park is the reconstruction of the U.S.S. Cairo which was originally an ironclad patrolling near Vicksburg where the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers come together. The Cairo must have sailed a bit too close to the Confederate shore batteries because it was sunk in the Yazoo. The hulk was excavated from the mud and reassembled under a nifty Kevlar tent many years later. The park also holds Vicksburg National Cemetery where the abundant dead bodies were interred after the siege was over. The Confederates lost the siege and the South was pretty much screwed thereafter due to supply issues.
The park is fantastic. There’s plenty of places to wander around afoot but the whole place can be seen by taking the 17 miles of loop roads in a car. Those who gotta go should probably do so before entering the park because once you go in, you won’t be getting out for a while and you will exit in a different place than you entered. Two entries (but only one entry fee) into the park are required to see both sides’ positions. It must have been a horrible place during the spring of 1863 but is quite breathtaking now. Abundant birds sing in the trees.
After two loops through the park, we headed into Vicksburg to check out the great architecture and the waterfront bordering the Mississippi. They had a glorious train station you can check out, modern paddlewheeler landings and barge traffic up the Yazoo.
There are some pictures of Vicksburg if you click here