Dateline: Vicksbug, MS

I've slowed down a bit, spending two whole nights in one place. Partly, it's because I needed a rest, and this is the halfway point. Partly, it's because Vicksburg was supposed to be the hinge of the whole trip, around which everything else was pretty much built, and the battlefield is huge.

I even splurged and got a nice (OK, decent) hotel room for two nights. I figured, if I was going to spend a lot of time in a hotel room, it would be nice if it were civilized. I've spent a lot of time reading over the last couple of days, really trying to understand the Civil War in general, the Western Theater in particular, and especially the Vicksburg campaign, battles, and siege. I plan on doing a series of posts (then again, I plan a lot of things) distilling what I've learned under the tag, "Civil War", but here's the short version.

Vicksburg, more than any other battle (though Antietam/Sharpsburg and Gettysburg come close...and Gettysburg and Vicksburg were only a day apart) was the turning point of the war. Lincoln claimed that it was worth "forty Richmonds" (Richmond being the Confederate capitol), and that it was the "key" to winning the war. William Tecumseh Sherman was characteristically more blunt and less flowery:

"Vicksburg should have ended the war; but the rebel leaders were mad."

At it turns out, the war (almost exactly four years long, from April 1861-April 1865) is split in half by Vicksburg (July 4th, 1863). The war went on for quite some time, but things got progressively bleaker for the South. Why so important? Vicksburg was the last stronghold (The "Gibraltar of the West") on the Mississippi for the Confederacy (actually, Port Hudson was the last, but it was much more weakly defended-without Vicksburg it surrendered 5 days later...I stopped there on the way up, too-it's in Louisiana on Old 61 as you come north). As long as the CSA held Vicksburg, two things were true:

1. The South had access to the west of the Mississippi, namely Arkansas and Texas. Lincoln called this, "hogs and hominy without limit, fresh troops from all the states of the far South." Cutting that off cut the South in two, and made the oceanic blockade all the more painful. It brought Winfield Scott's "Anaconda Plan" to its logical conclusion, and the big snake squeezed the CSA harder and harder over the next two years.

2. The Mississippi was blocked to the North. This was especially important to the Old Northwest: MI, WI MN, IA, IL, IN, OH. Their outlet to the world was the Mississippi River, and the guns of Vicksburg meant that they had no alternative but the Erie Canal.

The Battle of Vicksburg was a failure. General Grant tried poking and prodding at the defenses, but they were too strong. So he set in for a siege, and over two months, he starved the denizens and defenders out. They were running out of horses, mules, cats, dogs, and rats to eat when the surrender came on July 4, 1863. In contrast to the Battle, the Siege of Vicksburg was a success. "The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea," quipped Lincoln.

So what have I been up to? Well, the drive up Old 61 from Baton Rouge to Vicksburg is lovely, up a country highway that gradually goes from swamp to forest. You can actually hear the occasional song in cajun creole on the radio (!), and as you come up to Vicksburg, you start climbing in a way that makes you realize you haven't seen a hill like that since San Antonio, Texas. It's not a giant hill by any stretch of the imagination, but you get what this whole "Gibraltar of the West" thing is about. The city is atop high cliffs far above the Mississippi: a commanding fort to be sure.

Did I mention the South is really hot and humid? It is. I got me a place for two nights, right outside the battlefield, and tried driving in. I was so hot, I could only do the brief drive-through and pay a visit to the USS Cairo (pronounced Cay-row, rimes with Pharaoh), named after Cairo, Illinois, which lies at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. It is an ironclad that lay on the Mississippi bed for a century before being salvaged. It's pretty impressive, from the steam engines to the huge paddle wheels to the armor and guns, to the massive boiler-works. I have to give props to this museum and Port Hudson's. Both acknowledged the existence of black people in the South. Vicksburg's was frank in confronting the slavery issue (perhaps cushioned by the fact that Vicksburg, and mercantile trading town, was pro-Union), and both featured the role of African American units in the respective campaigns. It was these actions that answered the question "Will they fight?" and caused the US Army to expand the Colored Regiments.

I realized among other things that I didn't have nearly enough of a mental picture of the battle to understand what I was seeing on most of the battle site itself, so I resolved to go back to the hotel room and do a lot of reading before the park opened at 7:30 AM.

Well, I got a lovely dinner at a riverfront restaurant, not far from the gambling riverboats. And I read, and read, and read. I don't think I have a command of the Battle of Vicksburg, but I feel like I got an outline. But plenty didn't make sense (why attack there and not there, too?!?) until I drove through today (oooooh....there's a *ridge* along that advance, and that other one is a deep ravine...). I took the afternoon off to plan the next week, rest, and catch up on some overdue chores (well, partially catch up...there's more to do) and got a very mediocre dinner downtown, a letdown after the great meal the night before.

Here's a rough itinerary:

Thu: Vicksburg, MS; to Shiloh Battleground, TN; via the Mississippi Delta and Clarksdale, MS (housing the Delta Blue Museum!).

Fri: Shiloh, TN; to Columbus, KY; via Fort Pillow, TN; New Madrid, MO.

Sat: Columbia, KY; to Chattanooga, TN; via Forts Henry and Donelson, TN; Nashville, TN; Murfreesboro, TN.

Sun: Chattanooga, TN; to Roanoke, VA; via the Cumberland Gap and Shenandoah Valley.

Mon: Roanoke, VA; to Sharpsburg, MD; and the Antietam/Sharpsburg battlefield.

Tue: Sharpsburg, MD; to Gettysburg, PA; and the Gettysburg battlefield.

Wed: Gettysburg, PA; to Rutgers and my new home in New Jersey.