Vicksburg

Since I am a huge history buff, and I just finished studying the Civil War with Gabe during his history lessons, I just couldn’t resist the chance to go to Vicksburg, Mississippi.  Vicksburg is one of the two most important battles of the Civil War, with Gettysburg being the other.  Both battles ended on nearly the same day and turned the tide of the war, however, Gettysburg happened by chance.  Vicksburg was a patient and calculated campaign for domination of the Mississippi.  The city, located on a hill overlooking the Mississippi, was the last Southern stronghold on that important water highway.  It took over a year to get near the city, and then another 3 months for them to lay siege and starve out the army there and force them to surrender.  Our pilgrimage started with the visitors center where they shot a cannon!  They had a bunker laid out similar to the southern fortifications within the city.  They actually went through the motions required to shoot a cannon, then they really shot the cannon.  It was loud and messy.  There was smoke everywhere.  It was very exciting.  We drove around the Northern and Southern lines surrounding the city.  There were lots of monuments designating the locations of various battalions that fought there.  Each state had a large monument dedicated to their men who died there.  One of our favorite stops was the ironclad ship.  It had sunk in the Mississippi River and was recovered about 120 years after the war.  They had restored it and put it on display.  It was really fun to go on this monstrous ship that changed the course of naval warfare.

We went into the city of Vicksburg to visit their other claim to fame, the first bottling plant for Coca Cola.  It was a tiny museum with a lot of Coca Cola paraphernalia.  But it was a fun visit.

We also hopped over to downtown Jackson for a quick walk around Mississippi’s state capitol.  We had a lovely walk, and despite the fact that it was 3:00 on a Monday afternoon, we hardly saw anyone else on the streets.  There was almost no foot traffic, and we hardly even saw any cars drive by.  There weren’t any stores or even café’s open (we were looking because we were really thirsty!)  Maddie commented that she never realized just how fast our lives are living in Los Angeles.  This was amazingly slow and calm.