November 6, 2023

We woke up in Vicksburg, Mississippi the site of what some historians call the Battle that turned the Civil War. We were well prepared for our tour of the Vicksburg National Military Park having attended two Zoom lectures on the subject before our trip. Vicksburg was the last Confederate stronghold on the river when it finally surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant on July 4, 1843. The surrender gave the Union control of the entire Mississippi, effectively cutting the South in half. Once surrounded by Grants armies, with Union Ironclad gun boats in the river the Union laid siege to the city. The Confederate army held the high ground around the city, and repulsed several attempts to breach the defenses, but in the end after a 47 day siege General John Pemberton surrendered close to 30,000 soldiers under favorable terms to end the battle and mark the beginning of the end of the Confederacy. The Pemberton’s army in addition to the men, surrendered 172 cannons and 50,000 rifles.

The army of both the North and South were in most cases made up of National Guard type units from a the various states. The memorials constructed on the battle field are therefore state memorials. The biggest is the Illinois memorial since Lincoln and Grant were from that state.

The U.S.S. Cairo, a Union Ironclad was sunk during the war and brought up from the river bottom and it is the center piece for a separate museum display.

Next to the Cairo Exhibit is a National Cemetery where many of the casualties of the battles of Vicksburg are interned as a reminder of the horrific number of casualties of the Civil War which are estimated as 360,222 Union deaths and 258,000 Confederate deaths .