Friday, May 10. In the morning right after breakfast we watched a movie "The Struggle for Vicksburg." It was a national park film and described the battles for Vicksburg. Federal forces fighting their way south from Illinois and north from the Gulf of Mexico, captured post after post the South had erected to control strategic points along the river. By late summer of 1862 only Vicksburg, Mississippi and Port Hudson, Louisiana remained as major obstacles to Union domination of the river. Vicksburg was protected by artillery batteries, a maze of swamps and bayous to the north and south, and by a ring of forts. General Sherman was defeated at the Battle of Chickasaw, and Grant's endeavors to come around Vicksburg in Louisiana failed when he was unable to cross the river. After failing against the Stockade Redan twice, Grant set up a formal siege of Vicksburg. The siege lasted for 46 days and on the 47th, July 4th 1863, Pembroke surrendered to Grant on the best attainable terms.

	The first stop of the tour of the Vicksburg National Military Park was Fort Hill. We walked to the top and looked out to the river and the over the terrain that was battled over. Throughout the park, blue markers showed the Union positions while red markers denoted the Confederate positions. There were monuments where each of the units stood and fought and from each of states, which had combatants at the Battle of Vicksburg. The Iowa monument has some very beautiful sculpture by a husband and wife team named Kittson. The Missouri monument was the first monument in the park to honor both the North and the South. Ohio had smaller monuments with bas-relief sculpture all over the park where different Ohio regiments or units fought. At the top of the Wisconsin monument was a sculpture of an eagle to commemorate the eagle, which they carried into battle tethered to a perch. The eagle survived the Civil War.   We passed the Shirley House which was the only building left after the Civil War battle and it was later the headquarters for the Union troops. The house was spared because the Shirley's were actually northerners and sent someone out under a white flag to tell the Union soldiers that they were Union sympathizers and not to shell the house. Our guide was an ex-military man and was really terrific. He explained how the different generals did things right and did things wrong. For excursions, I thought this was the best of the trip. We learned that a redoubt was a square fort; a redan was a triangular fort; and a lunette was a crescent shaped fort.

In the afternoon we took a shuttle into Vicksburg, stopping first at the old courthouse, which was standing at the time of the Civil War. A rumor told to Union Forces that Northern wounded prisoners were being housed at the top of the courthouse stopped the Union shelling of the building. In the building was a courtroom on the second floor replicating what would have been there in the 1860's. There were a number of interesting exhibits, costumes and furniture from the 1860's, Civil War memorabilia - cannon shells, rifle shells. From there we walked down Grove Street to Washington Street and visited where Coca Cola was first bottled in the country. Prior to that, it could only be purchased at a soda fountain. There we saw all kinds of Coca Cola memorabilia - bottles of different sizes and shapes, trays decorated with logos and pictures, posters, glasses, and so on. They also sold some very good ice cream and we each had an ice cream cone. Across the street was the Blue and Grey Naval Museum. They had a very large tabletop replica of the battle of Vicksburg. Thousands of little toy soldiers faced each other and fought and died across the hilly terrain. There were models of the sailing craft and gunboats of the time.  On our return to the barge, we found that the air conditioning had stopped working in our cabin. No problem. We reported it and went to the air conditioned auditorium and enjoyed Richard Raichelson playing jazz and ragtime on the piano, Scott Joplin, W.C.Handy, etc. He was so versatile and so good. We enjoyed hearing him each time he played. At dinner we found out from our tablemates that there were some water moccasins, poisonous snakes, swimming around the barge in the afternoon. Since I had no plans to swim in the river, I was only sorry that I hadn't seen them. After dinner we heard a music program by Billy Ray Reynolds. He not only plays, but also has written songs for Oral Jennings, Johnny Cash, and many others. He sang Civil War Songs, since this was our Civil War Day. He was a terrific entertainer and knew a lot about the songs sung during the Civil War. He has been in some movies in small parts. He says they mostly dealt with the North-South conflict and his roles generally left him dead each time.

Continue to Part IV.

Our Travel Page Index Part I. St. Louis & Oxford Part II. Memphis, the Barge, Jug Band Part III. Vicksburg Part IV. Natchez Part V. Baton Rouge and Onward Part VI. New Orleans