Vicksburg - we visit the battlefield

  Vicksburg, Mississippi, United States
Sunday, April 29, 2007

Today we visited the battlefield of the Siege of Vicksburg. The Union wanted to own the Mississipi to prevent the South getting supplies & being able to sell produce to the outside world. It would also isolate the states of Texas, Arkinsas and most of Louisiana. The federal navy fought its way south along the Mississipi from Illinois and north from Gulf of Mexico until only Vicksburg was left.

Downtown Vicksburg

Old Station in Vicksburg

One of the many gambling boats

The fortified town of Vicksburg defended by a formidable array of cannon sat above a high bluff overlooking a bend in the river. Grant managed to force back the Rebels to the Vicksburg fortifications where a 46 day seige endured ending on July 4th 1863 in the Unionists favour.

Re-enactment of Vicksburg

The Cairo

The Cairo from the front with 3 guns

The battlefield itself isn't so interesting but they had recovered and restored a gunboat from the time (The Cairo) which must have looked like a huge, smoke belching black turtle brissling with guns.  These city class boats patrolled with Mississipi preventing movement of goods and troops byt the South. It had been sunk in 1862 by a remotely denoted mine sinking in 12 minutes with no loss of life and just a hole in the front. Much of the top deck had been destroyed over the years in the river but they had remade those parts to provide a full-sized vessel you could walk on and see the boilers/rudders/paddle and guns. It was an amazing sight.

We spent the afternoon in a park by the Mississipi and then watched Tom Cruise in "War of the Worlds" - but hey, it was Saturday afternnon and we'd worked hard at being tourists all week!

In the evening we toured Vicksburg for a decent restuarant and failed but went back to the Mexican and had a shared meal that would easily have fed 4 people for £8. More margaritas which were perfect from the word go and a bill of $34 - we can't see how they can do it for this price.

We're planning to try and get a 3 day extension for our visit when we are in Memphis so we can retain our booked flights - the Virgin flights have magically disappeared so we left with $335 Air India (otherwise it's $1,200 single or $884 return from all the other airlines - what ever happened to competition if they all have this crazy system)