Vicksburg - The Beleagured City

Well, in the day or so I've been off the air, as it were, the Fellowship has been broken. My mother and sister have flown off to New York, where they'll spend a week or so before heading on to London. Whereas my Dad and myself flew to Jackson, Mississippi, via Houston (Alright, I admit it - I was in bloody Texas, if only for half an hour or so.) Anyways, after spending last night in Jackson, we drove the 40 odd miles to Vicksburg, one of the most famous Civil War towns. Check the Wikipedia link for the whole story, I can't be arsed typing it out. A primary reason for that is the amount of George Dickel Tennessee Old No.8 Whisky I've consumed. The local booze here is fantastic. And cheap at the price. Absolutely brilliant. The old man would agree, if he wasn't lying on his bed swigging whisky from a plastic cup and watching a documentary about the Taliban.

Anyways, the trip to Vicksburg National Battlefield Park was simply amazing. The battlefield is beautifully preserved - even to the point of removing vegetation to ensure the terrain remains as similar as possible to the way it was 150 years ago. Trenches and artillery redoubts still remain as they were dug. Cannons are sited where cannons would have been firing when the battle was raging. Pretty much the only thing that hasn't been preserved as it was when the battle occurred is the Mississippi River itself - it changed its course in a large flood back in 1876.

One thing that is incredible is the amount of memorials that exist at the site of the battlefield. There are memorials erected to individual companies, regiments and commanders, as well as more imposing monuments and statues to senior Generals. Undoubtedly though, the most incredible memorials are those erected by each state, to honour all the regiments and men from that state who fought and died at Vicksburg.

The plan tomorrow is to head to the old Vicksburg Courthouse and the museum there, before crossing over "Old Man Ribber" and staying somewhere in Louisiana. After that, we'll head on up into Tennessee, to visit Shiloh, which, like Vicksburg, was another of Ulysses S Grant's finest hours.

Anyways, I've bored you long enough. Here's the pictures.


First of all, let's start with a touch of humour. Mr Andrew Hickenlooper here has won the inaugural Kerry Dawson award for the most memorable name in Civil War History.


This is a view of the Mississippi River from the Louisiana Redoubt. During the siege of
Vicksburg, the Confederates sited large calibre cannons and mortars atop these bluffs, to counter the fire of Union gunboats on the river itself. For a river which is over a kilometre wide, it has a ferocious current - locals reckon it flows at around 10 mph. No wonder it's so difficult to swim across.

This is me, (obviously) standing beside a 3" Whitworth rifled gun. This gun is part of a battery the Confederates had facing Grant's siege lines.

The old man and myself posing beside a gigantic Dahlgren naval gun. This photo was taken after I worked out how to activate the 10 second timer on my camera.


The USS Cairo. This Union gunboat was sunk by a Confederate mine in the Yazoo River, and lay at the bottom for over 100 years before it was raised, restored and put on display at the Battlefield Museum here. All the cannons have been recovered, and even a great deal of the wood is original. The hole which the mine blew in the hull of the ship can be seen on the front port bow.

Onto memorials now - this is the memorial erected by the state of Mississippi, to honour the soldiers who fought and died to defend their homeland. The size of these memorials is incredible - this one, for example is at least 30-40 metres high to the spire. It even had a lightning conductor fitted to it. I chose this memorial, since it has some of the most detailed sculpting out of any memorial, as will be demonstrated.

An example of the copper sculpting on the Mississippi memorial. The detail is incredible. A fitting tribute to the gallantry displayed by the Mississippi soldiers.

A tribute to Mississippi's greatest scion - the President of the Confederate States, and Abraham Lincoln's rival in war - Jefferson Davis. His plantation was not far from Vicksburg, and the loss of his native state to Union forces after Vicksburg capitulated was a devastating blow to his pride.

Less favourably treated, and indeed maintained, is the memorial to John Pemberton, the commanding General of the Confederate forces in Vicksburg. Although treated favourably by Jefferson Davis after the surrender of Vicksburg, the same could not be said for the rest of the South. Many people in Mississippi, even to this day view him as a traitor, as Pemberton was a northerner by birth, but chose to side with the South, as his wife was a Southerner. Even to this day his memorial is neglected, and seems to have been erected simply for the fact it had to be, given he was the Confederate commander and all.


Far more imposing is the memorial erected in tribute to Ulysses S Grant, the Union commander. Astride his horse, a cigar clenched between his teeth, he surveys the battlefield, as if plotting his next blow against the Confederates. Perhaps a bottle of whiskey should have been included, to be truthful to history, but I'm prepared to put grandeur ahead of accuracy.

Finally, we have the memorial to the ordinary soldier - once you get past the statues, the immense memorials, the cannons and the plaques, you realise that first and foremost this was a battleground, where death and destruction reigned supreme for almost 2 months in 1863. Grant may have fought for the glory of victory, while Pemberton received the ignominy of defeat, but soldiers, both Union and Confederate, fought for survival, and for at least 13,000 of them, that fight was unsuccessful. This is but a small section of the graves present at the Vicksburg National Cemetery. The larger headstones are named, whereas the smaller headstones are simply numbered. Unknown soldiers. Unidentfied graves.

One is struck by the solitude and quiet in this area - where the rest of the battlefield seems active, this area is strangely silent. Truly the United States knows how to honour its dead. No doubt I'll see a similar sight and honour accorded when I visit in Normandy.

Sorry to end on a melancholy note, but I feel it needs to be said - just as I needed to be reminded of the significance of these sites. I often think of the action and fighting that took place at these Civil war sites, but rarely think of the dead, of the grieving mothers.

Well, this is Paul, signing off from Vicksburg, and I'll no doubt check in again in a few days time.