Vicksburg National Military Park

The Battlefield

Just 14!

We have visited a couple of Civil War era sites but nothing to this magnitude or importance.  We sat through the movie at the visitor's center and was overwhelmed as to who did this or that.  They also had a laser presentation in another room which in blue colors for the North and red for the South, showed exactly how the troops where located, what battle took place, what happened when.  That laser show solidified the battle of Vicksburg to me.  One point to remember - Abraham Lincoln needed the Mississippi River to allow the federal government to send troops and supplies south.  By doing this it would virtually isolate Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana from their Confederate base.  The South built many fortifications along the river and by 1862 only Vicksburg, Mississippi and Port Hudson in Louisiana blocked the Union's free movement.  It took Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant 7 months to finally defeat the South's Lt. Gen. John Pemberton's troops.  5 days after the surrender of the city to Grant, Port Hudson was also defeated and the Mississippi River was in Union hands from Cairo, Illinois to the mouth at New Orleans.

Red signs - Cofederate, Blue - Union explain  where and who located

Guns positioned throughout battlefield

Missouri's State Monument - wow

Monument marker explanation

 

Busts of Officers throughout

National Cemetery

Ohio's are impressive monuments!

USS Cairo

The surrender of Vicksburg July 4, 1863 and the defeat of Gen. Robert E. Lee's army at Gettysburg, July 1 - 3, 1863, marked the turning point of the Civil War.  The first navel vessel sunk by a torpedo was the USS Cairo, a Northern iron-clad gunboat, sunk just north of Vicksburg on the Yazoo River as it was destroying the Confederates batteries and clearing enemy obstructions.  It sunk in 36 minutes with no loss of life and remained at the bottom of the river until it was raised in 1960.  Salvaged and on display, it provides a time-capsule look at maritime construction and history of the 1860's and life on a naval ship. Awesome.

Salvaged USS Cairo today- very impressive!

As you drive the battle field you see plaques, statues, interpretive signs explaining who was positioned where and what happened, honoring the troops of that particular state.  Impressive.   At times you would be looking over trenches and rolling hills right into the South (Confederate's) line of defense.  At one point you looked out over what was then the Mississippi but there was a flood and the river changed course and is no longer at the city's heart.

Driving through the National Cemetery within the park, you are clearly humbled by the graves.  Over 18,000 people are buried there and of those, just under 4,000 were identified.  Sad, solemn place.
Interesting day.  Not sure I want to visit any other Civil War battlefield, very sad the loss of life and the terrible dark days of this nation.