Campaign of Vicksburg

Today we spent several hours at the Vicksburg Mississippi battlefield.  This is a great park to see on a beautiful day.  First we saw a movie then we listened to a CD while driving through the park and stopping at various important points in the campaign.  The battles and then siege at Vicksburg killed or wounded over 10,000 union troops and 9,000 confederate troops.  It finally ended when the confederate army surrendered on July 4, 1863.  It's said that Vicksburg refused to celebrate the Fourth of July for 81 years after.

Within the same national park is the USS Cairo.  It's a Union ship that was blown up by a Confederate mine.  It was partially restored for this museum.  The museum includes lots of the items from the ship and personal items of the sailors.




Finally, the park has a National Cemetery. Not only were the Union solders from these battles buried here (Confederates were buried in a city park), but solders from other battles are here too.   Of the 18,000 graves, 2/3's are unidentified solders.  These are the smaller gravestones in the picture.