Vicksburg, Mississippi

Thursday, March 12, 2020 brought us another sunny warm day to check out Vicksburg.  Our ship had to turn to the northeast off the Mississippi  River onto the Yazoo River to get us there.

We took an "Antebellum Vicksburg Experience" shore excursion that started with a walking tour of a mansion named Anchuca.  It is owned by the fellow above with the white shirt,above, who is a great-grandson of Jefferson Davis.  They open their home for tours to help pay for upkeep in the historic district of Vicksburg.

Above the fireplace is Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy, who had a plantation outside of Vicksburg.  He was here when he got the message that he had been elected president and his wife cried.

Back at the riverfront is this large flood wall to hold the river back when it is trying to overflow.  On it are beautiful large mural paintings.  Each of the 32 murals has a brass plaque explaining the scene and explaining how it fits into history.

This one shows where a man in town first discovered how to bottle Coca-Cola.

This mural depicts the time when Teddy Roosevelt came to do a bear hunt nearby.  A local hunter caught a bear in advance and tied it to a tree for Roosevelt to shoot.  He decided not to kill the animal and got the nickname of Teddy and thus was often seen in cartoons with a small teddy bear.

Here is the other (river side) of the wall.  Note the  marks where and when high water was held back.  The Mississippi river varies in depth each year by 40 feet, but these are the flood years.

Vicksburg, Mississippi was a very important city during the Civil War.  It was situated on an important vantage bluff on the River, and was also a railroad hub.  A critical  battle happened here like at Gettysburg.  It took a 47-day siege by the Union forces to make the city surrender.

We visited the Vicksburg Military Park and was given a tour by a Park Ranger.  We learned that there are 17,000 soldiers buried here, second only to Arlington.  It was very similar to Gettysburg.

Here is the ironclad battleship USS Cario that was dug out of the mud and reconstructed.

This is what it looked like when it was shelling the town from the river.

The military park had an excellent museum.  Here are different kinds of ordnance that were shot out of the cannons.  Note the bottom row - center hollow ball.  That kind had explosives inside that were lit by a fuse before the ball was fired from the cannon.

We got back to the ship in time for a departure up river toward Memphis.  When you leave or return to the ship you have to touch your badge to this small screen at the door.  This is how the ship keeps from leaving passengers behind.
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