Morning brought us up and headed over the Visitor’s Center
at Vicksburg National Military Park. We
caught the 8:05 orientation movie and settled into a fascinating morning of
reviving a time in the civil war when General Grant was instructed to take over
Vicksburg as the final city on the Mississippi River that would keep the South
from easily getting supplies and cut the Confederation in two. Lincoln said that Vicksburg was the key to
winning the war and he wanted that key in his pocket. Jefferson Dais told his General to hold on to
Vicksburg at all costs.
In 1862, there were many different efforts that failed. Finally in the spring of 1863, it became
clear that they needed to put the city under siege and so did this for 47
days. Everything went into lock down in
the city of Vicksburg with no reinforcement troops or supplies arriving. There was nearly non-stop firing of cannons
and other guns, as well as charges to try to take over various parts of the
fortified city. There were nearly 70,000
Union troops arrayed around the city with 30,000 confederate troops as well as
many civilians inside. After the 47
days, on the 4th of July 1863, Vicksburg surrendered and spent the
remainder of the war as a city under Union control. At this point, there were
only 17,000 Confederate troops that were battle ready, all of them were starved
surviving on quarter rations, and so many of them were sick.
The military park consists primarily of a 16-mile drive, narrated
by a high quality CD with many stops along the way to visit the various memorials
and areas of particular engagements. All
states that had troops there were invited to build a monument to their contributions. Many of these were very moving.
Over half of the Union troops were from the state of Illinois. Their memorial, similar to the Parthenon in
Rome, lists inside the name of each of their 37,000 soldiers. They also made a decision to have only
peaceful symbols on their memorial. On
the outside is the Lincoln quote “With malice towards none, with charity
towards all.” They also included the name of Ulysses
Grant’s 11-year old son who came along with daddy to work-and probably to try
to keep him from drinking so much.
The Kentucky Memorial included statues of both Abraham
Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, both born in Kentucky and both Presidents of their
side during the war. Many of the states
had to acknowledge having soldiers on both sides, talking about brothers
fighting brothers.
Most of the troops came from states that were along the
Mississippi River, or its connecting tributaries: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri,
Kansas, Ohio, Tennessee, Indiana, and Illinois.
We were told that Grant, also Midwestern, was able to lead
these men in the goal of returning and defending the Mississippi River—a river
they all knew well and personally.
We so enjoyed hearing three different park ranger talks,
knowing that the Park Service consistently provides excellent information and interpretation
at all of their sites. We were amused to
see that in Vicksburg, they have a relationship with a local university and
often hire History majors as summer rangers.
Go history majors. We met two of
them who gave us some great information, even though they had worked at the
park only since June.
One of the other unique things about Vicksburg is that they
have on display the only surviving ironclad gunboat from the time. This one, The USS Cairo, was sunk in a river
near Vicksburg in the fall of 1862, so didn’t get to be part of the siege. It was sunk, but then rediscovered and raised
in the mid 1960’s. In 1977, the remains
of the ship were brought to Vicksburg, and they have been restoring it, plus
putting many of the artifacts on display.
Fascinating!
Vicksburg is also the largest of the National Cemeteries
with Civil War dead buried there. Generally,
it was only the Unison troops that were buried in national cemeteries, with
confederates were buried elsewhere.
There are over 17,000 military dead buried in Vicksburg. A very grim reminder of how deadly this war
was with a total death count from battle and disease of over 600,000.
This campaign was also the first use of black troops by the Union army. Thousands of former slaves had flocked to the Union camps surrounding Vicksburg. Grant decided to accept them into the army, arm, and drill them. After several months of training they engaged in their first fight. They performed better than the white troops that they were to support. Their achievements on that battlefield was evidence of their capabilities and led to additional black troops being accepted, trained,and used in battle on all fronts.
We also were happy to be able to see the first of our
costumed interpreters: three rangers dressed
soldiers from the south protecting the city of Vicksburg. In the sweltering 100-degree heat, they were
able to tell us some of the realities for the men who were in the war. They demonstrated the some of the weapons and
increasingly complex fortifications that played important parts of the
battles. They also told us about how the
wool clothes weren’t that hot once you have totally sweated through them. Thanks to all those who spend their time
educating people about the ways our ancestors lived!
Evening brought us to a great overnight visit with one of
Patti’s storytelling friend, Laura, who with her husband Bob are now living in Tuscaloosa
AL. It was fun to hear their reflections
on being a transplant into life in the Deep South. They have been really appreciative
of the gracious, polite ways of the people they have met here. Later, their college aged daughter and her boyfriend, Melissa
and Steve came over and we were introduced to a complicated board game that
included collecting commodities, building roads and settlements and creating strategies. Patti was the surprise winner.
We got to experience a couple more southern rain showers,
complete with thunder. Their Dog,
Audrey, a cute little Whippet, was quite agitated at the thunder and was put
into her high tech “thunderjacket” which helped calm her down.
Up late talking.
Another fine day on our adventure.
it was wonderful to see you!
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