Vicksburg, Mississippi

Here is Teressa's account of our visit to the Vicksburg battlefield:

Brrrrr... it is cold here in the south. The temperature dropped into the low 30's last night. Fortunately our propane heater keeps the trailer toasty warm, but the dog walking chore is not the most popular these days.

This morning (Thursday), our first stop was the Vicksburg Park and Museum. The museum has one of those boards that light up with red for the Confederate troops and blue for the Union troops and shows their movements throughout the days of the battle. We studied that for a few minutes and proceeded to the auditorium for a short film about the battle followed by a drive through the battlefield with an informational CD.

Everyone, it seems, wanted to control the Mississippi River, and for a long time the Confederates had it. But, Federal naval and military forces fought southward from Illinois and northward from the Gulf, capturing post after post. By the summer of 1862 Vicksburg was one of the last areas on the river still controlled by the south, and it was--according to Lincoln--the "key." General Grant marched his troops down the Louisiana side of the river and circled back to trap General Pemberton at Vicksburg. After trying to take Pemberton's army the honorable way, through hand to hand fighting, Grant finally resorted to a siege and basically cut off all supplies to the Confederate troops as well as the civilians of Vicksburg until, nearly starved, the Confederates called a truce.

Again we were amazed and horrified by the number of dead. The cemetery at Vicksburg contains the remains of 17,000 Federal soldiers. Only 4,000 are identified (and have full-sized grave markers). The other 13,000 graves are marked only by a 4" square white marker. Although the Union won this battle, only 5000 Confederates are interred in Vicksburg making it a monumental win but at an incredible price.

Our children are sick of Civil War battlefields, so I believe this will be the last. ;-) The rest of our day was spent driving. We were underwhelmed with Mississippi. The small towns between Vicksburg and Memphis are depressed. The countryside is heavily treed and views were few until we got to the northern part of the state. Tonight we are at the Audubon Point RV Park in Horn Lake, Mississippi. Upon arrival, they filled our propane tank and sent someone out with a compressor to top off our tires. This is a pretty area and is just 10 miles from Memphis.