Overview
Instead of repeating the lead-up to the siege of Vicksburg, I’ll link to my article, “Vicksburg 1.”
Visiting Vicksburg National Military Park
Two museums are located in the park. One is at the site of the USS Cairo and the other in the Visitor Center. Neither is outstanding, but they are worth the visit. You enter the park through a fee station. After that, visitors have two choices: drive the loop road to the various sites in the park, or head to the Visitor Center and Museum.
If this is your first visit to Vicksburg National Military Park, the Visitor Center is the better choice. I found the rangers exceptionally knowledgeable about the Civil War in general and Vicksburg in particular.
The museum consists of a few dioramas depicting scenes from the siege. Scenes include a Union Officer’s tent, CSA troopers in a trench, and civilians living in a cave. There is also a well-stocked bookstore. Visitors can visit the Cario Museum at the halfway point of the loop tour. Less informative than the Visitor Center, the USS Cario is still worth a stop.
Terms and definitions
I use the same terminology that the National Park Service uses in describing sites at the Vicksburg National Military Park.
- Approach – A series of trenches used by Union troops to get close to CSA positions with the intent of blowing them up
- Battery – A group of Cannons under a single commander
- Lunette – From the NPS website – A lunette was employed in much the same fashion as a redan, with two faces forming a salient angle, two flanks adjoining the faces, and the rear open to interior lines.
- Redan – A redan is a triangular earthwork used to cover points to the rear such as bridges or river fords, and had two fronts and three angles.
- Redoubt – A redoubt is an enclosed square or rectangular earthwork with four fronts and four angles.
- Units are normally referred to by their regiment. For example, 3rd Louisiana
CSA Sites North Side
Shortly after leaving the USS Cario Museum, you arrive at Fort Hill, the northern or riverside anchor of the CSA lines (AudioTour Stop #9). This location was so well built and defended that the Union never directly attacked it. They tried to mine and blow up the defenses, but the defenses held.
Union troops charged up the Graveyard Road twice, attacking the Stockton Redan (Audio Tour Stop #10). Twice they were repulsed. The road is littered with markers indicating what unit did what. One marker is just footsteps away from the redan.
One of the most poignant sites at the Vicksburg National Military Park is where the two leaders, Grant and Pemberton, met to discuss surrender. Just before you arrive at the Great Redoubt site, a road to your left is labeled Pemberton Ave. The site is midway between the Union and CSA lines.
While visiting the Union lines, you stopped at the Battery De Golyer, a Michigan cannon battery. Looking across the rolling terrain, you saw a tall monument. That monument is the Louisiana State Monument, very near the Great Redoubt (Audio Tour Stop #11). Another CSA defensive position that suffered a major attack and almost constant cannon fire, but never fell.
The last stop on the north side of Clay Street is Audio Tour Stop #12, the Texas Lunette. Once again, Union troops got within feet of the earthworks but were unsuccesful in overrunning them.
Sites South Side
Part of the Vicksburg National Military Park lies south of Clay Street. Smaller, it contains only three sites, two CSA and one Union.
The first site is Audio Tour #13, The Railroad Redoubt. Texans manned it to protect the railroad as it entered Vicksburg, and the Union attacked, pushing the defenders out. Shortly, the Texans counterattacked and retook the redoubt in heavy fighting.
While most of the park is heavily wooded, unlike it was during the siege, the area south of Clay Street is mostly open. This lets you see and understand what happened more clearly. This is illustrated even better at the next two sites. They cover the battle for Fort Garrott. Audio Tour Site #14 from the CSA side and Audio Tour Stop #15 from the Union perspective.
Fort Garrott isn’t what people typically call a fort. It is a small raised section of soil with a redoubt on top. Not a wall in sight. With clear sight lines, especially from the Union side, the zig-zag trenches called Hovey’s approach are still clearly visible. As with other Union approaches, troops got within feet of the fort but couldn’t capture it.
Conclusion
History does not need to be a long list of dead white guys and dates. Visiting a site like the Vicksburg National Military Park, you can experience history and never learn a date or about a dead white guy. It is almost all outdoors; Mississippi summer weather can be brutal, so plan accordingly.
