Vicksburg

Eighteen years ago we went through Vicksburg, MS on the way to Disney World. We quickly went through the Battlefield and vowed to return some day when we had more time to visit. Trying to decide where we would spend a week this summer, we decided to head to Vicksburg, then do the Natchez Trace Parkway, go to Huntsville and go to the space museum, on up to Lynchburg, TN and go through the Jack Daniels Distillery, and finish up in Nashville.

When we left, gas was still around $4.00 a gallon and our motor home gets about 7 miles per gallon. But never the less, I still would rather RV it than stay in hotels. Here is a little virtual vacation tour for those who were unable to leave their homes because of the high price of gas.

While visiting the Vicksburg National Military Park, we watched a cannon detachment load and fire this Civil War cannon. They used a reproduction Napoleon cannon, which is an exact duplicate of a cannon manufactured in 1862.

This is the Illinois State Monument. It is made out of Georgia white marble. There are forty-seven steps in the long stairway, one for each day of the Siege of Vicksburg. The Illinois Memorial is modeled after the Roman Pantheon. Sixty unique bronze tablets line the interior walls and name all 36,325 Illinois soldiers who participated in the Vicksburg Campaign. The monument stands sixty two feet in height. It originally cost $194,423.92 and was paid by the state of Illinois.




This quote by US Grant is above the door of the Illinois Monument: "We have but little to do to preserve peace, happiness and prosperity at home and the respect of other nations. Our experience ought to teach us the necessity of the first, our power secures the latter."



The cemetery encompasses 117.85 acres and includes over 18,000 interments. Graves of Civil War soldiers total 17,077, of which 12,909 are unknown.



Mike really enjoyed seeing this ironclad gunboat, the Cairo. This boat was sunk on December 12, 1862. It was discovered in 1956 and it wasn't until 1964 that they were able to bring it up out of the Mississippi River.

While in Vicksburg, we also went to the Old Courthouse Museum. The Old Court House, built in 1858, stands today as Vicksburg’s most historic structure and has hosted such guests and speakers as Jefferson Davis, Ulysses S. Grant, Booker T. Washington, Teddy Roosevelt, and William McKinley. It also had this on display:


The minie ball is displayed with a long caption describing what happened. In battle, it whizzed right through a young Confederate soldier who was standing next (probably REALLY closely next) to a flower of Southern maidenhood. It (the minie ball) went through his private parts and kept going, right into the flower of Southern womanhood. Miraculously (miracle one), he lived. Miracle two (considering heat of a bullet in flight), she became pregnant. He, honorable southern gentleman that he was, married her. *Now, I'm not saying this story was true, but that this was on display at the musuem. You can believe whatever you want to believe.

Hope you enjoyed this virtual tour of Vicksburg, MS.