Road Trip Day 8 - Vicksburg

Vicksburg appears to be such a cute little town.  As I said before, we stopped here for lunch on our way to New Orleans.  We ate in downtown Vicksburg which is an adorable, old-fashioned downtown with sidewalks covered by balconies and shops lining both side of the street.  When we came in to the town last night, we came via the interstate straight to our hotel, never passing through downtown.  I realized that someone who is only passing through, who doesn't take the time to look around a bit, would never even know that the quaint little downtown is even there.  And they'd be missing out!

Today was a day full of history.  We started bright and early with a guided tour of the Vicksburg National Military Park.  It turns out Vicksburg was the location of a pivotal battle in the Civil War.

 General John Pemberton was the confederate leader at the Vicksburg fort.  General Ulysses Grant attempted several attacks on the fort, and failed due to the rough terrain.  He finally decided that the only way to win was to lay siege.  What's that mean, you ask?  Well, it means that the Union army cut off all supply sources to the Confederates, and then just waited.  There was some fighting during most of the 43 day siege, but when Pemberton surrendered, it was due to the disease and starvation plaguing his fort.  Our guide was a bottomless well of information.  There were memorials for every of soldiers who were involved in this battle.  The cool thing is that this park was built while the Civil War veterans were still alive.  They came back and told the park "This is where my regiment was stationed" or "This is as far as we got during an attack before we had to retreat" and that was where the memorial was built.  Right there in what appear to be totally random locations.  The biggest thing I took away from this tour was this:  the front lines for the Confederate and Union armies were so close in places that the soldiers could and did talk to each other between skirmishes.  Some of them were friends, family, neighbors.  And when Pemberton and Grant agreed on the terms of surrender, one of the first things that happened was the Union soldiers sharing their food and supplies with the starving and sick Confederate soldiers.  I also learned

that there are several known woman-disguised-as-men serving in the Civil War - and probably many more unknown - as well as boys as young as 8 years old who served in, and were injured in, the Civil War.  We also got to walk around the USS Cairo, the last of the ironclad warships from the Civil War.  It was torpedoed and sunk in 1862 and raised 102 years later.  It sunk in 12 minutes.  No lives were lost but the crew didn't have time to pack up their belongings before abandoning ship.  The museum is full of the things they left behind.  The medicine bottles you see in one picture are exactly how they were left.  The cork kept the water out and the medicines in.

After our tour was done, we did a tour of our own around town at some of the historical homes that were built as far back as the 1820's.  We also walked through the Old Courthouse Museum and walked through the soda shop where Coca-Cola was first bottled - not BY Coca-Cola, but by the owner of the shop.  You see, Coca-Cola would just

send their syrup to the shop.  If you wanted a Coke, you had to go to the soda shop where they would mix the syrup with carbonated water in the soda fountain.  The owner realized that people who couldn't make it to his shop would probably enjoy some too, so he put it in some bottles and traveled around town with them.  And tada!  Bottled Coca-Cola was invented.  

We also found two other cemeteries to check out.  First we drove around the Anshe Chesed Cemetery which is an all-jewish cemetery.  Then over to Beulah Cemetery - which is an all-african-american cemetery. Unfortunately, this one is currently closed to the public so we couldn't explore.  But it looks like they're working on making it more accessible.  We also accidentally found what appeared to be an old hospital that was most definitely not in use anymore.  The whole building was fenced off, weeds were taking over the yard and driveway, and kudzu was covering parts of the building. We drove all the way around it and found a sign that said "Marian Hill" - according to the internet this is a rehab center, currently still in use.  But it sure doesn't look like it.  

We did find a bunch of "No Trespassing" signs though, so we didn't get too close. It was cool and creepy at the same time.  Got some pictures of it here.

Tomorrow we start the long trip back home.  It's about 16 hours from Vicksburg to Petoskey.  We're breaking up the drive with an overnight stay in Mattoon, IL.  Why Mattoon?  Well, it's about halfway, it's along our route, and Carl has fun saying the town name LOL