Vicksburg MS
Because of the city's location on the Mississippi River, in the 19th century it built an extensive trade from the river's prodigious steamboat traffic. Between 1881 and 1894, the Anchor Line, a prominent steamboat company on the Mississippi River from 1859 to 1898, operated a steamboat called the City of Vicksburg.
During the Civil War the North had endeavored to close the Mississippi River to all traffic in an effort to choke the South by limiting its access to food, munitions and basic supplies. But the site of the town was well selected as it sits atop bluffs that rise several hundred feet above the river surface and was an ideal position to defend and a difficult site to attack. It remained the final major River port city by May of 1863. General U. S. Grant had made several unsuccessful attempts to attack the fortifications of the city until he decided to besiege the city beginning on May 25. With no reinforcement, supplies nearly gone, and after holding out for more than forty days, the garrison finally surrendered on July 4. This action (combined with the capitulation of Port Hudson on July 9) yielded command of the Mississippi River to the Union forces, who would hold it for the rest of the conflict.
Crater at the 3rd Louisiana Redan
By way of explanation of a little bit of military lingo, a Redan is a French term for a V-shaped feature in a fortification projecting toward an expected attack.
Late in the siege, Union troops tunneled under the 3rd Louisiana Redan and packed the mine with 2,200 pounds of gunpowder. The explosion blew apart the Confederate lines on June 25, while an infantry attack made by troops from Logan's XVII Corps division, followed the blast.
The white house to the right in the picture is Shirley's House, also known as the White House, during the siege of Vicksburg, 1863. Union troops of Logan's division set about as engineers and sappers to undermine Confederate fortifications but they had to stay under cover for fear of Confederate sharpshooters.
The North artillery stood amassed while the South employed a scattered artillery strategy. But when the South fired a volley at Union lines the massed cannons all concentrated on the single enemy piece and neutralized it easily. Above is part of the Northern artillery line above the crater caused by the blast.
Of course no Military Park would be complete without the many monuments commemorating the service of the many states' army and navy units. Here is a particularly large memorial from the State of Wisconsin we photographed just for the enjoyment of our Wisconsin readers!
Within the Vicksburg National Cemetery is located the USS Cairo Museum commemorating the recovered remains of a Union Ironclad sunk in the Yazoo River near Vicksburg. In all 7 such ships were commissioned and built to provide vital cargo transport as well as naval operations in the Siege of Vicksburg. Each was named for a town on the Mississippi.
The Cairo was sunk by the Confederates using a crude underwater mine detonated from shore by a simple battery operated electrical source. Hidden soldiers waited until the Cairo was over the mine and detonated the device which struck in the section of the hull shown above. It quickly sank in 36 feet of water but all aboard were rescued by other nearby craft.
The remains were discovered in the 1960s and raised from the bottom 100 years after the Cairo was sunk. Restoration and reconstruction was completed in 1964 and the results were placed on display. Above is looking across the boiler tubes toward the stern wheels.
Guess who I caught reading about steam propulsion machinery in the Civil War?
On our first day here we visited the Vicksburg National Military Park which encompasses the fortifications and battle sites. Also contained within the Park is the Vicksburg National Cemetery which holds the remains of 17,000 Union Soldiers from the Civil War. It is the most Civil War dead in any cemetery. Confederate dead from the Vicksburg campaign originally buried behind Confederate lines, have now been re-interred in the Vicksburg City Cemetery (Cedar Hill Cemetery), in an area called "Soldiers' Rest." Approximately 5,000 Confederates have been re-interred there, of which only 1,600 are identified.
Margaret's Grocery
Located north of downtown Vicksburg on old Highway 61, Margaret's Grocery is a unique vernacular art environment created by Reverend H.D. Dennis. Margaret Rogers Dennis ran the former country store for years. When she met and married Reverend Dennis in the early 1980s, he promised her that he would transform her simple store into a place that the world would come to see.
And, above, is what we found on November 26, 2012, pretty much rubble and ruin. Recalling that Rev. Dennis who created this was born in 1916, it seems he has reached his promised land.
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Below is a photo of the Old Court House Museum which was built in 1858-60. It is considered the finest antebellum structure in Vicksburg. Today it houses an impressive museum of local and regional artifacts ranging from pre-Columbian tools and implements from the earliest native settlers to a collection of ladies fashions dating from the Civil War era.
There is a separate room displaying personal possessions and documents of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy. Davis and your scribe have a birthday in common, though he predates me by 133 years. Also in the museum is an overwhelming display of military hardware and munitions. It was an educational and enjoyable afternoon.
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