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.

Moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi

We waited out the storm that all the country experienced the last couple of days - moving slow but dangerous - heavy rain, flooding, high winds.  We were lucky that the weather was not worse.  Got on the road by 9am yesterday and drove our longest drive of all time.  We did 347 miles and did it in a little over 7 hours. Had to stop for a gas break (and the cats come out from hiding long enough to do a potty break while we are stopped) and got into the site here in Vicksburg by 4pm.

Cotton ready to be picked

Crossed back over the Mississippi to be on it's eastern side and got into Memphis and remarked that the last time we were in Memphis 4 years ago coming back from McAllen, Texas to Cleveland, the campground we were scheduled to stay at was under water. Ended up at the fairgrounds with FedEx airport terminal right near.  This time we just drove on through.  Hello, goodbye Memphis!

Again over the Mississippi

Tugs/barges tied up getting fuel 

Interstate 55 south of Memphis is a great road to travel.  Little construction, well maintained, nice rolling hills in Mississippi, not a lot of traffic.  Many fields of cotton waiting to be harvested.  However, I55 south of St. Louis to Memphis - we got our teeth jarred. Horrible, horrible roads.  We stopped in Canton, Mississippi to tank up and I had forgotten that Nissan has a very very large production plant there.  Looks bigger than Lordstown's Chevrolet plant in Warren, Ohio.

When Dave was setting up the outside of the RV when we got here, he noticed some things had broken or gotten loose.  Later today we have an RV fix-it type man coming to look at what he can repair.  Not sure if it was from the storm and high winds or the horrible jarring roads we traveled.  Hopefully this guy can get everything fixed.

We have paid for a week here, not sure if/how long the repairs will take. Thankfully the weather is gorgeous.  Will do sightseeing - travel the Natchez Trace Parkway for a bit, visit Vicksburg National Historical Park (Civil War battle), tour some historical sites in town, visit the scenic walkway along the river.

Kentucky Parkways and River Boats

We left Elizabethtown, Kentucky yesterday morning one day early because severe weather was predicted for Monday (today) and wanted to get as far south and west as possible.  We drove one of the nicest roads we have ever been on, Kentucky has a number of 'parkways' which are high speed, divided two lanes in each direction, well marked and beautifully paved.  Very little traffic on these roads and cannot figure out why?  Also noted that along the road were signs that said - "future Interstate 69". Okay, so when it becomes I69 will the road get torn up?  Kentucky - don't do it!

Lonely, beautiful roads 

Tennessee River 

Hello Mighty Mississippi

Tug coming up river

Beautiful state.  We have driven these roads before 8 years ago on our way to Paducah.  And I remember then that it was a 'future' interstate.  Leaves on trees are not colorful, mostly yellow.  However, when we got into Tennessee the leaves have not changed at all.

We crossed over the Tennessee River and shortly after on over the Mississippi.  Thought that once we crossed the Mississippi that we would not see it again for many years.  Our plans are changing - we will cross back over in Memphis and drive down to Natchez, Mississippi on our next leg of this trip.  We are watching the hurricane activity and of course will head west if one should come in.

Monarch butterfly eating bug juice off our window

Lady Luck Casino, Caruthersville, MO

Work boat (small one) and tug coming up river

Sea Gate (wall) behind us

We are located at Lady Luck Casino which is right on the Mississippi in Caruthersville, Missouri.  Can hear tug boats chugging up and down the river.  We will leave in the morning but will sit tight here inside the RV all day today.  We are under tornado watch till 5pm, high winds, flooding and do not want to venture far.  If we need to abandon the RV there is shelter at the casino.  What is bizarre is that we are on the flood side of the river, the casino has a sea gate here and we are on the side of the gate that water could come to.  The casino is a converted river boat, I stepped in it yesterday to register our camping spot and was so turned off - the smoke!  Blue inside.  Yuck.

Uh-oh.  Hunker down!

Chasing Bourbon and Antique Cars

We are in bourbon country.  Actually, Kentucky bourbon makers have 98% of all the bourbon market made in the world.  Journeyed out yesterday to tour one of the bourbon makers, Jim Beam.  And we were totally taken off guard.  Seems once a year there is a marathon - of sorts - that is called Bourbon Chase where over 200 miles of relay runs takes place with 300 teams of runners, starting off this year at Jim Beam and then commencing to all the other 8 makers and ending up in Lexington.  Takes 2 days for the teams to run the course.  With that said - we came into a mob of runners and supporters at the distillery.  Every 10 minutes a group would be sent off with people cheering them on.  Pure chaos. Oh well, we are here, lets check it out.

Gift shop at Jim Beam - runners getting ready for start

Starting line of Bourbon Chase

Beginning stage of bourbon making - corn, rye, barley and yeast

Took the 1 1/2 hour tour that took us through the beginning history of Jim Beam (founder Jacob Beam started making a little hootch back in 1795) to current times which is now in the 7th generation of making bourbon.  From seeing the corn, rye, and barley come together and start the fermenting to the end product of bottling (your own if you wanted to buy) the bourbon and having it waxed sealed. At various times we were able to taste - if you wanted to - the product at the beginning was 140 proof! WHITE LIGHTNING!!

140 proof - first taste

Jim Beam is now the largest maker of bourbon (95% of the world) and also owns Maker's Make bourbon.  I was fascinated by the actual plant - only 300 employees run this particular plant.  Talk about efficient.  And by the mechanics.  My steel mill days of being a foreman were kicking in.  At the end we were taken into a 9 story warehouse where barrels were being aged.  At this particular plant are 8 warehouse buildings full of barrels.  That's a lot of bourbon.

Some things that stood out: smell - at times you could smell strong odor of corn, other times of dough (yeast), other times you could smell CO2 from the aging process; sight - big plant, very few employees, very stream lined, very clean; sound - some areas of the plant we toured was extremely loud - turbines running, chillers, etc. The warehouses take advantage of the hot summers and the very cold winters - needed for the aging process where the wood barrels can expand and contract, adding the wood flavor into the bourbon.  Taste:  yuck.  I do not like bourbon, it definitely burned going down.  And I don't think it agreed with Dave - he had a reaction to the small amount of sips of bourbon we had from the tasting room.  Sensation:  people are gaga over bourbon!  One woman on our tour couldn't wait for the end to purchase the stuff.  People buying a lot of it in the gift shop.  You could purchase a used barrel for $120!  Tshirts, sauces for cooking, many trinkets - and were being purchased big time.

Physical plant where bourbon made

End of tour - bottling your own bourbon

9 story warehouse - filled with barrels of bourbon

The tour ended by having a taste testing where we could sample 2 out of 18 that they offered.  Since neither one of us are bourbon drinkers, we were kinda at a loss - not sure what to pick.  I tasted the maple bourbon which wasn't bad.  By the time we left we were both a bit tipsy.

Their own fire department

Back in Elizabethtown we went to the Swope's Cars of Yesteryear, an antique collection of 60 plus cars that the Swope family has.  Swope is a huge car dealer here, sorta like the Liberty car dealerships of Cleveland.  Beautifully restored and they all run.

Tucked in between the Ford and Chevy Dealerships

Tin Lizzie 

Lots of antique cars on display

Today is clean up day, laundry, etc.  We are leaving a day early to head to Missouri, bad weather is predicted for here on Monday so we want to get gone, tomorrow is our travel day. We have had rain every day but one, seems we have been in rain for the past 3 weeks.  Looking forward to the sunny blue skies of Arizona.

Hodgenville and Lincoln's Birthplace

Kentucky is proud to say they are the birth home of Abraham Lincoln.  We are camping not far from his birthplace and his boyhood home, very dense woods, lush greenery.  Our drive was short, only 10 miles or so, and we came to the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park. We listened to the video and then walked the grounds.  There is a large granite building that houses a replica of his family's home. As you walk up the steps - 56 that represents the age of Lincoln - I felt I was looking at a building that belonged in Washington DC.  Pretty impressive outside.  Once inside I was disappointed that the replica was not lit and it was not furnished in period furniture and utensils that they may have used (fireplace tools, bed, benches, etc.) Instead the replica had nothing in it. 

56 steps to symbolize Lincoln's age

Replica of Lincoln's birth home 

Interpretive sign for Sinking Springs

We walked the trail around the site and saw Sinking Springs, the naturally flowing spring that the Lincolns' used for every day living.  The Lincolns only lived here two years and moved to Knob Hill, about 10 miles to the northeast.  Knob Hill was Abraham's first recollections of boyhood memories.  There are no longer any structures at Knob Hill but you have to imagine a working farm from over 200 years ago.

Knob Hill farm - Lincoln's earliest memories are from

How they lived

We did not learn anything new, but it was good to put the location together with the rest of his history - his time in Springfield, Illinois.  We did marvel at how did they lived and survived back in the early 1800's - one interpretive sign said that the farm, Knob Hill was not large enough to support the Lincoln family.  Nancy, Abraham's mother, was known as an excellent spinner (maker of yarn) and seamstress and Thomas Lincoln, his father was a carpenter.  So I am assuming that the parents probably supplemented their food needs with this additional income.  Still, knowing how rugged the country is - Abraham and his sister Sarah - had to walk 2 miles to school.  The trail at Knob Hill that the two children used to go to school is rated strenuous.  Not something I wanted to do yesterday.

The rest of the day was spent doing some upgrades to the RV.  Rain is forecast for the next 7 days so we will see what else we can see for inside sites.

Elizabethtown And Leveling An RV

Made the drive yesterday from Cambridge, Ohio to Elizabethtown, Kentucky.  Since it would have been our longest drive, we split the drive up 3 ways, Dave took the first leg west into Columbus and started south on Interstate 71.  Stopped just south of Ctown to gas up and I took over.  In rain.  South I71 into Cincinnati and then continued on into Louisville, Kentucky.  Talk about construction!  Ohio has never seen the likes of what we saw in Louisville.  Terrible.  Seems the entire city's interstate is torn up.  Major work.

And it was till raining  - my entire time at the wheel was rain.  Continued on through Louisville dropping south towards Nashville.  However, about 40 miles north of Elizabethtown we switched driving, stopped to tank up again, and Dave navigated into the campground.  We started on the road at 9:10am and pulled in here at 3:05pm.  Not bad, 326 miles later.  No issues with RV or car other than they got so totally dirty with road scum.

We were assigned our site and came over to it, could not for the life of us get the RV level.  You have to have the RV level in order for the refrigerator to work.  Major concern. I went back up to the office and asked for any other sites - yes, down in the 'holler' there are 2 back in sites we could choose from.  Okay, pulled the RV and car over and down behind the pool area - in no man's land, backed into the first site - nope, we were too long and stuck out.  So Dave pulled over the the next one and said - go for it.  Muddy, yucky.  Oh well, bad weather coming in so we just hooked up water and electric, tried to get it as level as possible.  Dave got full of mud from hooking up. Came inside and thought - what a terrible place!  Then, to make matters worse - during the night there were two dogs just yapping away.  Grrrrr.  Terrible storm came in, and for once I was glad we were in holler due to the high winds, we were sheltered.

This morning we asked the office if there weren't any other sites we could go to?  Gave us 2 more to check out, and since we would have to fill our propane tank within the next couple of weeks - stopped and had it topped off.  Pulled into the first site and decided to go with it, we did a first.

We normally just press a button and the jacks come down, level side to side, front to back and voalla! The green light comes on to say we are level.  Again, couldn't get it level so I suggested we do it manually - which meant I push the buttons on the direction I want - raised the front left jacks a bit, then the right, then dropped the back left to right.  We are semi-level but stable and set solid.

Got a couple of things to see here, bad weather was here all day - we have a tornado watch going on till late tonight so it is just as well we stayed close.  Next couple of day's weather looks great and will head out to do some sightseeing.

Search for the S Bridge!

Took a little trip today, 6 miles back into Old Washington which is the town just east of Cambridge.  There we found the roadside markers that explained the Civil War battle that took place in this town in 1863. The third most populous state in the Union at the time, Ohio raised nearly 320,000 soldiers for the Union army, third behind only New York and Pennsylvania in total manpower contributed to the military.  Several leading generals hailed from Ohio, including Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, and Philip H. Sheridan. Five Ohio-born Civil War officers would later serve as the President of the United States.  Morgan's Raid was a highly publicized event by Confederate cavalry into the Northern states of Indiana and Ohio during the Civil War. The raid took place from June 11–July 26, 1863, and is named for the commander of the Confederates, Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan.  As we walked through the old cemetery we were stunned at how old some graves were - some gravestones dating back to 1805.  Saw the Confederate flags of the 3 southern men killed during this particular phase of Morgan's run.

The Path Morgan Took

Plaque describing memorial to 3 Confederate soldiers

While we were visiting with Dennis and Jackie a couple days ago, we asked them about the S Bridge that is somewhere around the area.  When the National Road, Route 40, was being built, usually when they came to a river or stream, they wanted to build the bridge over it at a 90 degree angle.  They came up with the S bridge design but once the road was widened, these S bridges often where quite dangerous.   Motorists would not slow down coming around the S curves and often times would hit the concrete sides, or hit the oncoming traffic.  This particular bridge was built in 1828.

The curve is amazing!

Today there are 4 remaining S bridges left in Ohio - still standing although not usable.  The bridge we visited today had a load limit of 3 tons - not enough for a car.  Quite interesting to see the S curve in it.  Drove back into Old Washington to look at the old houses there.  If we could only hear the tales of what these buildings lived through.  Wonderful architect. Wonder what they look like inside? Tomorrow we leave Cambridge for Elizabethtown, Kentucky.  Will be a long day, will be the longest we have driven on this trip.