Day 5 - Vicksburg, mile 437

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Geo: 32.3501, -90.8815

A beautiful day, but a bracing -2 deg C when we started out. Very unusual for the South, where mild winters are the norm.

Really interesting battlefield tour today, recounting the 47-day Siege of Vicksburg. The Confederate defeats here and at Gettysburg, both in early July 1863, are considered pivotal events in the course of the Civil War. With the fall of the heavily fortified and defended Vicksburg, the Union gained control of the Mississippi River and denied the South this critical supply route.

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Photos

Vicksburg National Military Park
The US Parks Service runs 75 military national parks commemorating various actions in the Civil War. The Civil War claimed between 500,000 and 700,000 American lives, by a long way the most American casualties ever lost in a war. Historians argue whether the battle of Vicksburg or of Gettysburg was the most influential in securing the eventual Union victory. Lincoln himself is quoted as saying: "Vicksburg is the key, and we must put that key in our pocket".

Battle Lines
The history is well presented in the Park with red and blue signs depicting Confederate or Union information and dispositions. LTGEN John Pemberton commanded the 35,000 well-prepared defenders. MAJGEN Ulysses Grant led the 45,000 attackers, whose numbers swelled to 77,000 by the end of the siege. After initial successes in several disparate battles, Grant's frontal attacks on the Vicksburg defences in May '63 were convincingly repulsed. Realising the defences were too strong, Grant changed strategy and besieged the city. Hunger, sickness and low ammunition compelled Pemberton to surrender on 4 July, after a bloody and brutal siege.

Acropolis Museum
Acropolis Museum

Illinois Memorial
At the beginning of the 20th Century, the American states started building war memorials in the Park. 27 state memorials now exist there. Grant and Abe Lincoln were both from Illinois and 36,000 soldiers from that state made up the majority of Grant's Vicksburg Army. In 1905 the State of Illinois built this memorial, modelled on Rome's Pantheon. They spent a whopping 20% of their annual state budget. (Robyn with Jim from Texas.)

USS Cairo
An interesting side story is of the seven, iron-clad river gun boats built by the Union in 1862. The USS Cairo was sunk by an electrically detonated torpedo (today called a mine) and it settled on the river bed. Its smoke stacks were knocked off and the wreck lay rotting in the mud for a hundred years. It was rediscovered and salvaged in the 1960s, uncovering a treasure trove of naval information.

USS Cairo again
The hull was mostly preserved in the mud, but the superstructure was lost by the time of its salvage. One of Grant's (unsuccessful) offensive tactics was to dig a canal to divert the bed of the Mississippi River away from Vicksburg. However, some years later the shifting riverscape decided to follow the path of the canal and Vicksburg was stranded. The Corps of Engineers diverted the nearby Yazoo River into the original Mississippi channel. Now Vicksburg is on the bank of this much smaller river, which rejoins the Mississippi a little further downstream.

Comments

[Lowie]

I'm envious. Vicksburg is a bucket-lister for me. But, since I am in Birmingham ...4+ hours drive away ...I am looking good!Lowie

[Ruth]

How amazing Kaylene. Great photos of amazing places. We have just arrived home from our Bundaberg/Sunshine Coast Christmas festivities and are having a few quiet days. Talk soon. Ruth x