May 16 – 19, 2019
The Best Laid Plans….
We originally planned to start our summer 2019 trip in mid April with the intention of spending 10 days in the Destin area at Camp Gulf and a few weeks at Buckhorn Lake RV Resort in Kerrville, TX. However, two things caused us to modify those plans.
- Our RV lot upgrade in Cypress Woods (see previous post for more details)
- A needed roof repair on our RV (more about this in the next post)
… Require Flexibility
We finally left Ft. Myers, Florida on May 16 and headed north on I-75. We had smooth going for a while but then we hit a snag near Gainesville. A military vehicle had rolled causing a complete standstill for northbound traffic. We spent two hours sitting in the truck or standing on the highway in the shade of the camper. Finally the accident was cleared and we were able to continue to our overnight stop at Traveler’s Campground near Alachua, Florida.
The next day we continued on to Milton/Gulf Pines KOA in the Florida panhandle for another overnight stop. From there we traveled on to our first destination.
City on the Bluff
Our first destination of this modified trip was Natchez, Mississippi. We enjoyed our visit here two years ago and decided it would be nice to visit again for a couple of nights. Our campground of choice here was Riverview RV and Resort in Vidalia, Louisiana, just across the Mississippi River from Natchez. This is a great campground overlooking the Mississippi River – a great place to watch the barge traffic on the river.
Like our previous visit, the Mississippi River was above flood stage. Our campsite was in the upper section of the campground where it was “high and dry”. The lower section was not as fortunate.
After setting up camp, we headed into Natchez for dinner at Fat Mama’s Tamales – known for great tamales and frozen margaritas – yum!
Vicksburg National Military Park
The following morning we decided to drive into Vicksburg, Mississippi (about an hour and a half away) to tour Vicksburg National Military Park – the site of the Siege of Vicksburg.
To Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Vicksburg was the “nailhead that holds the South’s two halves together.”
President Abraham Lincoln remarked “Vicksburg is the key” to victory, and could be the north’s lifeline into the south.
The Vicksburg Campaign began in 1862, and finished with the Confederate surrender on July 4th, 1863. For over 18 months, various armies would maneuver throughout the western theater, and occassionally face each other on the battlefield. Both Union and Confederate armies realized the importance of Vicksburg, but it would take over half a year and over 48,000 casualties before the fate of Vicksburg and the Mississippi River would be determined. — nps.gov
The Siege of Vicksburg (May 18 – July 4, 1863) was the final major military action in the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. In a series of maneuvers, Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee crossed the Mississippi River and drove the Confederate Army of Mississippi, led by Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton, into the defensive lines surrounding the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi.
Memorial Arch
Marking the entrance to the battlefield is the Memorial Arch.
Illinois Memorial
The battlefield includes 1325 historic monuments, tablets, and markers. Many of the states that sent troops to fight at Vicksburg have erected monuments and memorials in their honor. One of the most imposing monuments is the Illinois Memorial.
Stone Mountain (GA) granite forms the base and stairway of the Illinois Memorial. Above the base is Georgia white marble. There are forty-seven steps in the long stairway, one for each day of the Siege of Vicksburg. Modeled after the Roman Pantheon, the monument has sixty unique bronze tablets lining its interior walls, naming all 36,325 Illinois soldiers who participated in the Vicksburg Campaign. — nps.gov
Trenches and Cannons
There are 20 miles of historic trenches and earthworks as well as 144 emplaced cannons scattered across the battlefield.
As the Union forces approached Vicksburg, Pemberton could put only 18,500 troops in his lines. Grant had over 35,000, with more on the way. However, Pemberton had the advantage of terrain and fortifications that made his defense nearly impregnable. The defensive line around Vicksburg ran for approximately 6.5 miles, based on terrain of varying elevations that included hills and knobs with steep slopes which would require an attacker to ascend them under fire. The perimeter included many gun pits, forts, trenches, redoubts, and lunettes.
Federal troops began to dig in, constructing elaborate entrenchments which the soldiers of the time referred to as “ditches”. These surrounded the city and moved steadily closer to the Confederate fortifications. — wikipedia
The Shirley House
The only remaining wartime structure within the park is the Shirley House.
The Shirley House was owned by James and Adeline Shirley and was referred to as the ‘white house’ by Federal soldiers during the siege.
On May 18, 1863, as the Confederate rear guard fell back into the Vicksburg defenses, soldiers were ordered to burn all the houses in front of their works. The Shirley barns and outbuildings were quickly burned to the ground, but the soldier assigned to destroy the house was shot before he could apply the torch.
Mrs. Shirley, her 15-year-old son Quincy, and several servants, were caught in the cross-fire as Union soldiers approached Vicksburg. Fearing for their lives, they remained in the house huddled in a chimney corner for three days before Mrs. Shirley tied a sheet to a broom handle and had it placed on the upper front porch. The frightened occupants of the ‘white house’ were finally removed by Union soldiers and given shelter in a cave. — nps.gov
The USS Cairo
Also within the park is the restored ironclad USS Cairo which was sunk by a mine on December 12, 1862 on the Yazoo River. It was recovered from the Yazoo in 1964.
One of seven shallow-draft City Class river ironclads, The U.S.S. Cairo was commissioned in January of 1862. The formidable gunboat and her “six sisters” prowled the Mississippi River and connecting shallow waterways, menacing Confederate supply lines and shore batteries. Named after towns along the upper Mississippi and Ohio rivers, the City Class gunboats were designed by Samuel M. Pook and built by James B. Eads.
The Cairo’s career was short, seeing limited action in battles at Plum Point in May, and Memphis in June, 1862.
The Cairo’s skipper, Lt. Commander Thomas O. Selfridge, Jr., was an aggressive and skilled captain. On the cold morning of December 12, 1862, Selfridge led a small flotilla of gunboats into the hazardous confines of the Yazoo River. Tasked with destroying Confederate batteries and clearing the river of torpedoes (underwater mines) the flotilla inched its way up the murky waters. As the Cairo reached a point seven miles north of Vicksburg the flotilla came under fire and the aggressive Selfridge ordered his guns to the ready and called for full steam, bringing the ironclad into action. Seconds later, disaster struck. Cairo was rocked by two explosions in quick succession. The first tore and gaping hole into the port bow of the wooden hulled ironclad. The second detonated a second later near the armored belt amidships on the starboard side. The hole on the bow proved to be catastrophic. As the doomed ironclad took on water, Slefridge ordered the Cairo to be beached and the crew to abandon ship. Within twelve minutes the Cairo slid from the river bank into six fathoms (36 feet) of water without any loss of life. Cairo has the dubious distinction as the first warship in history to be sunk by an electrically detonated torpedo/mine. — nps.gov
The Vicksburg National Cemetery
Vicksburg National Cemetery lies on ground once manned by the extreme right of Major-General William T. Sherman’s XV Army Corps, facing the extreme left flank of the Confederate defenses situated on high ground to the south known as Fort Hill. Embracing 116 acres it is the final resting place of 17,000 Union Soldiers, a number unmatched by any other national cemetery. The cemetery was established in 1866 and burials began in early 1867. Soldiers buried here had originally been interred in scattered locations throughout Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi during the campaign for control of the Mississippi River.
Upright headstones with rounded tops mark the graves of known soldiers. Small, square blocks, incised with a grave number only, designate the unknown veterans, and a few graves are marked by other than government-issued headstones. — nps.gov
Time to move on
After our driving tour of the battlefield, we returned to our campsite near Natchez and prepared to leave the following morning. Stay tuned to find out where our needed roof repair led us.
