A Visit to the Vicksburg National Military Park

Today, I took a long lunch to explore a bit of history.  I work in Vicksburg, Mississippi a town known for its role in the US Civil War.  About a mile from my office is the Vicksburg National Military Park and Cemetery.  

The base I work on was established, in part, due to the large number of engineers the Union Army sent down here to overrun Vicksburg, and then to work on reconstruction.  The Corps of Engineers then decided that a presence on the Mississippi was a good thing, after having the importance of this river demonstrated to them by the Southerners.

The Importance of the Mississippi River

At the time of the war, the largest and quickest mode of transportation was using the Mississippi River.  In Vicksburg, the river made what is referred to as a "switchback" forcing all traffic on the river to go past the city not once, but twice.  Grant ordered his men to dig a canal to allow ships to bypass the switchback, but it was of limited use.  

Control of the river was of great concern, because if the Union troops could control it, they had a quick path to inject reinforcements deep into the southern states.  The stronghold of Vicksburg, however, thwarted those plans until the city was put under siege in 1862 by Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his troops.  Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton was charged with the mission of holding the river, and he and 50,000 men made a valiant effort to do so.  

The river was defended by a massive fort on top of what can only be termed as "a big ass hill".  This steep embankment was able to withstand the enemy for the entire duration of the siege, and pose a huge problem to the Union ships on the waters, because some of the largest guns in the Confederate Army were mounted at the top.  The Union Army never shut down this imposing battery of guns.

The last straw in all of this was the sinking of the USS Cairo.  This ironclad warship was taken out by the first electrically operated torpedo, designed by Confederate Engineers. Today, we call these devices mines.  The ship was sunk up to her smokestacks in a matter of moments, without a shot fired by the Confederate batteries along the river.  The ship has been raised, and is usually open to tours, but they are making improvements to it at the moment, and I was unable to get close to take photographs.  Many of the features of the ship have been rebuilt, and I believe the process they are undergoing now is to assist in building a replica.

The Battle Moves to Land

Once the Union Army realized that an attack from the river would prove unsuccessful, Gen. Grant decided to close off the city, and force the people inside to surrender.  The 50,000 men inside were not about to give up this outpost, and the land did not wish to surrender either.  The area around Vicksburg has massive hills and valleys, and made progress difficult.  Shown here is Thayer's Approach, just one of the nearly mountainous climbs the Union Army had to make to overrun the Confederate strongholds. 

Thayer was a crafty guy, and after having many of his men killed attempting to run up the hill, he had a tunnel dug under the road.  It was bricked to provide strength and protection from the cannon rounds constantly pounding the road. This tunnel allowed his men to mass in large numbers without being seen across the ridge of the road, and they made a fast dash up the hill, full speed with their funs unloading on the Confederate positions on the top.  After several tries, Thayer eventually held the high ground.

The terrain was treacherous and made battle hard.  Without it, the city would have been easily overrun, but it would also have not been of such importance.  I cannot imagine fighting my way through this land, against a people determined not to surrender it.  It was an amazing effort, and only serves to increase my admiration to the men who fight to serve their nation.  

The Weapons of War

Cannons played a big part in the war.  These massive guns were mounted on wheels and could be easily transported by a small crew of about fifty men.  While portability was not their largest asset, the dedication of these soldiers allowed these weapons to be used in strategic areas and to provide strong reinforcement for the infantrymen.  

The men would shelter their guns in bunkers made of earth or of other materials.  This persevered bunker is still in service, and a reenactment group fires a shot every couple of hours for visitors to watch.  Instead of the normal load, however, they shoot a tightly compacted ball of tinfoil.  It's not uncommon for the ball of tinfoil to take out a tree or two on its path into the woods.  Certainly scary stuff if you were on the other end of one of these weapon's wrath.

The Residents

Houses trapped in the middle of the battle became hospitals and areas of command.  The Confederate Army used this house as its headquarters, and it has been lovingly restored and now houses the offices of the park's directors.  

This other house, called the "White House" was on the Union side of the battle and quickly became their headquarters as well.  Inside the basement walls have been reinforced with withstand the blasts of Confederate cannons.  The Confederate soldiers made many raids on this location, coming within 500 feet of the house before being pushed back. The camera position in the distance shot is the marker of the Confederate line.

Of course, during these battles, the citizens had to leave their homes.  With cannon fire bombarding the city, people did what they could.  Many fled to the hillsides and dug caves in which to live and to hide.  With nothing coming in or out of the city, they took what they could to save it from looting.  The soldiers lived in tents pitched behind bunkers, or out in the open.  Shown here are two replicas, one of each type of structure.  Doesn't the cave look like a nice and comfortable spot for avoiding cannonfire?

What Stands Today

The Military Park was established in 1899.Since that time, many of the states who lost men and women in battle constructed monuments to their regiments within the park.  None of them is as striking as the Illinois memorial.  Inside this huge marble structure, every name of every soldier who served from Illinois is represented on plaques, or on the walls, and floors.  Fifty steps lead up to the structure, representing a nation dependant on all of its parts to reach the goal.  

Other monuments, such as this one also stand out within the park, but most are simple affairs marking the locations of units and the men who led them.  At the moment, Louisiana is constructing a new monument to their men, with construction to begin soon.  My favorite, however, lies at General Grant's headquarters.  It is of him, on his horse, surveying the battlefield from a distant hill by himself.  If you look at his face, you see not an expression of satisfaction, but the look of pain.  The human emotions the sculptor managed to capture in the monument speak more than any words that could be offered.

What Remains

Because of the tremendous numbers of men who were killed in this battle, transporting the dead back to their home states was impossible.  Instead, the men were buried together in a site now declared a national cemetery.  If you survey this field, you see hundreds of tombstones lined up.  Some were tall, marking men of importance, and others are but a lump of stone, some without even names.  

Union soldiers were laid to rest next to their Confederate brethren.  In this war, everyone lost, and the pain and tragedy must have been unbearable for the families whose sons had gone off to fight to secure the nation as a whole.  The human cost in all of this was incredible.

The Outcome

Because of the actions that took place on this piece of soil, that flag still proudly waves over the South, and the entire land.  Certainly the efforts of reconstruction that came later and the bitterness of defeat tainted the people of the South for many more generations, and will continue to do so until long after I've left this ground.  It is because men like these are willing to give their lives for a greater purpose that we have the freedoms we enjoy today.  This place makes me remember what so often is easy to forget.  Our freedoms came with a price, a cost that I cannot repay, and it is my duty to help ensure that future generations enjoy the liberties these men left us.