Vicksburg Battlefield Tour

I took a trip with the Smithsonian Journey's group of the Vicksburg Campaign, March 24-28th, 2004. Our tour leader was the amazing Ed Bearss, this was my fifth tour with "General" Bearss. I'm a Bearss "groupie" and proud of it! FYI, Vicksburg was Ed's first assignment as historian with the National Park Service back in 1955. He was there until 1966 when he was promoted and moved to Washington, D.C. He's written the most detailed account of Vicksburg in his 3 volume set on the campaign. This campaign is one of the most studied by military historians world wide, and for good reason. This is Grant's tour de force - he does the unthinkable up until that time. He cuts loose and instead of having a long untenable supply line, has his men live off the land. I love Grant, he's my favorite Union general. My favorite confederate general being Old Pete Longstreet. Is it any wonder that my two favorite generals from both sides were best friends at West Point! We started off the tour in Jackson, Mississippi for dinner and a lecture Wednesday evening. I was happy to run into Gwen Wyttenbach, a veteran of the Bighorn tour. The National Park Service's Vicksburg site is chock full of facts and can explain the campaign better than I. This campaign of Grant's is far more important strategically than the win by Meade of the battle of Gettysburg in my humble opinion. Grant's victory of Vicksburg gives the Union the entire use of the Mississippi River and also splits the Confederacy in two. The Trans-Mississippi region is cut off from the main Confederate body. The Vicksburg campaign is from March 29th 1863 thru July 4th 1863 when Pemberton surrenders Vicksburg to Grant.

Unfortunately, there isn't much in Jackson, MS with regards to the campaign. Most of the battlefield is gone, there's only a few cannon in some state parks. Jackson was one of the 5 battles leading up to the siege of Vicksburg. We got up early Thursday morning and left for Vicksburg and the site of Grant's canal. Click on the photos in the photo albums to enlarge them. For maps, let the image load, then you should get a boxed icon in the lower right hand corner which will expand the image to regular size when clicked.

Our next stop was Grand Gulf, Mississippi. Grand Gulf is a ghost town preserved in a state run park. There are the ruins of 2 confederate forts which warded off the Union gunboats. Forts Wade and Coburn. Ed was the one who found these forts back in the 1950's - he helped preserve them and establish the park. The park also features other historical sites that were moved here to preserve them such as a mill, an old church as well as various buggies and also a still for moonshine! The museum houses several artifacts from ancient peoples up till the 20th century.

Our next stop was the ruins of Windsor an antebellum mansion built in 1859. Windsor is near Port Gibson, MS and burned down in 1890. A scene from Raintree County with Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift was filmed here in the 1950's. Ed remembered it well and told an amusing story about it. Several thousand people showed up while they filmed the scene. Ed knowing the ground so well knew exactly where to place himself so he could get a birds eye view. He was on the high ground and saw Elizabeth Taylor in her horse drawn carriage and very low cut gown as it passed! He said during breaks she had film hands fan her due to the hot weather. I imagine the house was quite beautiful in its day.

Early Friday morning our first stop was the town of Port Gibson. Grant infamously stated that Port Gibson was too pretty a town to burn! I'd have to agree, it had some lovely antebellum houses. A history of the Hand of God Church can be found here. Of course, Grant takes Port Gibson. Like I said he kicks major butt all during this campaign.

Our next stop was the Wintergreen Cemetery in Port Gibson. The most infamous grave being General Earl Van Dorn, CSA He didn't die in battle, he was shot by a jealous husband of his lover in Spring Hill Tennessee!

Our next stop was the ghost town of Rocky Springs, Mississippi. This was the site of Grant's headquarters for May 3-7th, 1863. From Private Osborn Oldoyrd's (Union) diary - about Rocky Springs:

"They encountered no resistance beyond the icy stares of the people who gathered at the side of the road to watch as the soldiers marched through town. Here we have good, cold spring water, fresh from the bosom of the hills."

Not all of the local inhabitants were southern sympathizers. Many were transplanted from the New York finger lakes district and had moved to Mississippi. They named their towns the same as upstate New York, such as Utica. A local woman named Mrs. Fisher gave Grant very good intelligence as to the strength and position of the confederates. Our next stop was Raymond. Here's a great website on the battle . Again a Union victory for Grant - he just keeps on plowing towards Jackson and anything that will impede with his encircling Vicksburg. The town of Raymond has started a friends group for battlefield preservation - always a good thing. They also have a page on the Texas memorial dedication (see photo of memorial photo below). Interesting side note - Grant setup his headquarters during the battle of Raymond at the Robert's house which was also used as a hospital. Grant couldn't take the sight of sick men and just as he did at Shiloh, preferred to sleep outside so he wouldn't hear the moaning of his wounded men.

The battle of Champions Hill was on May 16, 1863. Grant really has the rebs on the run, again he's kicking major butt. Confederate Brig. General Tilghman gets killed while acting as a rear guard - holding the ground at all costs so the rest of the rebel army can escape. Here's the NPS website which describes the battle quite well.

The last barrier between the union force and the town of Vicksburg is the Big Black River Bridge. Naturally the rebels use it to slow down Grant and company. A battle of course ensues, and yet again another union victory. Here's a website on it.

Grant pursues the rebels to Vicksburg itself on May 18th. He decides to go for an all out assault on the morning of May 19th. The main point of attack at the Stockade Redan - #5 and #10 on the National Park Service Map #1. As is the case in most frontal assaults - it fails with heavy losses - mostly Sherman's men. In this photo album I've included both the overall National Park Service Map of the entire campaign and Vicksburg Siege as well as maps provided to us by Ed Bearss.

Grant is determined so he goes for it again on May 22nd - his second assault. This time its over a 3 mile front from Stockade Redan to Fort Garrott. Its met with heavy losses and Grant realized its not worth the frontal assaults and sits in for a siege. He will starve out Pemberton. It will last until July 4th, 1863. Contrary to popular belief - the confederate soldiers fared better than did the citizens of Vicksburg. They were on reduced rations - the citizenry weren't so lucky to have planned ahead. They ended up paying exorbitant amounts for rat meat - yuck! Anyway during the siege the town was bombarded by union shells from the naval gun boats as well as Grant's front lines. The people of the town burrowed into the bluffs which were called Louis Bluffs or locally known as walnut hills. The soil was very soft and when erosion set in, would melt like sugar in water. The only caves left are boarded up for safety sake. Ed said nobody's been in the one left since the early 1970's. The union soldiers called the bluffs prairie dog town.

I can't put hyperlinks into the photo albums. Here's some interesting websites that pertain to some of the photos:

Old Abe the War Eagle - Mascot of the 8th Wisconsin - he's atop the Wisconsin Monument
Yazoo River Diversion Canal - This site explains the history of the canal and how it saved Vicksburg from losing its harbor
They Fought Like Demons - a great book about women who fought in the civil war - by Diane Blanton and Lauren M. Cook

Vicksburg also houses the U.S.S.Cairo gunboat and its museum. None other than Ed Bearss himself helped discover the wreck of the Cairo in the late 1950's. He even went onto a game show in the early 1960's to raise money for the salvage effort - of course Ed won! After several years, they finally had enough money to raise her in 1964-1965. What's amazing isn't so much the wreck of this Union ironclad, but the amount of items retrieved from her. The mud and silt of the Yazoo River kept these items well preserved - some of them look almost new. Ed wrote a book about the history of the boat and its salvage which you can still get. The Park Service of course has a great website on it. This was a highlight of our trip - having the actual historian who raised this magnificent boat nearly 40 years ago as you tour guide! Even the park staff came out to hear Ed talk about the Cairo.

My little digital camera can also do movies. So I went for it and filmed a bit of Ed explaining the evolution of cannons up until the civil war. This doesn't do him justice but it will give you a taste of this amazing 81 year old historian in person. He really is a national treasure as Dr. James McPherson calls him. His voice just booms and he really makes the history come alive. I love him! Click here to view Ed in windows media player.

We ended our tour with a lovely dinner at the historic Duff Green Mansion. Its a beautiful antebellum in the Palladian style of architecture. It also according to the owner sports a few residential ghosts. I was teased unmercifully again by our tour leader as a Mary Lincoln wannabe! Its a badge of honor to be teased by Ed and called by a historic personages name throughout the tour. He knew I didn't particularly like Mary Todd - she was a bit of a shrew and some even suggested she was nuts. I agreed with Julia Grant in her assessment of Mrs. Lincoln - she didn't like her! Though I do feel sympathy for the poor woman - I just wouldn't have wanted to spend an evening with her.

All photos and videos by Ann Collins, maps were provided by The Smithsonian, Ed Bearss and the National Park Service