Vicksburg: A Drive Through the Civil War

A Double Mississippi Sunset (over the Mississippi in Miss.)

To split the drive down to New Orleans into more relaxing days, we decided to stop off in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Our main reasoning was due to the National Military Park located on the outskirts of the city.

This park is dedicated to the Siege of Vicksburg during the Civil War, considered by Lincoln himself as ‘the key’ to winning the war, as it was one of the last Confederate posts stalling Union control of the Mississippi. He believed ‘that war can never be brought to a close until that key is in our pocket’. With that in mind he had Ulysses S. Grant centre his campaign on Vicksburg during late 1862 and 1863. I will let you delve into the history of the battle, but a quick synopsis is that everything Grant threw at Vicksburg failed, even an attempt to bypass Vicksburg by digging a canal failed. At last, the Union turned to siege tactics, and surrounded the city and hammered the Confederate fortifications with everything he had. After 47 days of siege, Pemberton (the Confederate General) officially surrendered Vicksburg to the Federals, and 5 days later, after the fall of Port Hudson, the Mississippi was in the hands of the Union and one of the major Federal war objectives was realised.

The Confederates were split in two…

Michigan Monument with the Illinios Memorial in the background

The park has a 16 mile loop that allows you to drive around the park and take in the influential battlement defences, significant battle sites and the numerous monuments dedicated to the siege. 28 States are represented with memorials dedicated to the fallen soldiers of the war, with states such as Kentucky erecting two monuments for those ‘brothers’ that fought on both sides of the conflict.

Missouri Monument – dedicated to both the Confederate and Union troops

The park also contains the Vicksburg National Cemetery, where sadly, of the nearly 17,000 Union soldiers buried in the hallowed grounds, almost 13,000 are unknown.

Vicksburg National Cemetery

It is also the final resting place of the U.S.S Cairo and dedicated museum, which was the lead ship in the city-class ironclad Western Gunboat Flotilla. It was the first ironclad to be sunk by a naval mine and was forgotten to history and left in its watery grave for 94 years before being discovered in 1956, and fully salvaged in 1965.

U.S.S. Cairo

Vicksburg provided us with a great insight into one of the more pivotal battles of the Civil War and gave a different perspective than most war dedicated museums, and to be honest a refreshing one at that. Driving around definitely beats walking around…we really are becoming honorary Americans!