American Civil War historic site
Vicksburg National Military Park preserves the site of the American Civil War Battle of Vicksburg, waged from March 29 to July 4, 1863. The park, located in Vicksburg, Mississippi, flanking the Mississippi River, also commemorates the greater Vicksburg Campaign which led up to the battle. Reconstructed forts and trenches evoke memories of the 47-day siege that ended in the surrender of the city. Victory here and at Port Hudson, farther south in Louisiana, gave the Union control of the Mississippi River.
Battlefield.
The park includes 1,325 historic monuments and markers, of historic trenches and earthworks, a tour road, a walking trail, two antebellum homes, 144 emplaced cannons, the restored gunboat USS "Cairo" (sunk on December 12, 1862, on the Yazoo River), and the Grant's Canal site, where the Union Army attempted to build a canal to let their ships bypass Confederate artillery fire.
The "Cairo", also known as the "Hardluck Ironclad," was the first U.S. ship in history to be sunk by a torpedo/mine. It was recovered from the Yazoo in 1964.
The Illinois State Memorial has 47 steps, one for every day Vicksburg was besieged.
Cemetery.
The Vicksburg National Cemetery, is within the park. It has 18,244 interments (12,954 unidentified). The Vicksburg National Cemetery is abutting the Beulah Cemetery.
The time period for Civil War interments was 1866 to 1874. The cemetery is not open to new interments.
The cemetery has only one Commonwealth war grave, of an airman of Royal Australian Air Force buried during World War II.
Grant's Canal.
The remnants of Grant's Canal, a detached section of the military park, are located across from Vicksburg near Delta, Louisiana. With the approval of President Abraham Lincoln, the project was commenced by Union Army Major General Benjamin Butler in June 1862, with the work assigned to Brigadier General Thomas Williams. The project was halted in July of that year due to massive amount of disease and sickness among the soldiers and former slaves doing the hard labor of constructing the ditch, and falling water levels on the river.
in January 1863, Union Army Major General Ulysses S. Grant ordered the project re-started as part of his Vicksburg Campaign; the task was assigned to Brigadier General William T. Sherman. Neither Grant nor Sherman had any faith in the success of the canal, but the scheme was a favorite of Lincoln's.
The goal of the project was to alter the course of the Mississippi River in order to bypass the Confederate guns at Vicksburg. For various technical reasons the project failed to meet this goal. Grant, however, utilized the canal project to keep his troops occupied during the laborious maneuvering required to begin the Battle of Vicksburg.
Administrative history.
The national military park was established on February 21, 1899, to "commemorate the siege and defense of Vicksburg". The park and cemetery were transferred from the War Department to the National Park Service (NPS) on August 10, 1933.
In the late 1950s, a portion of the park was transferred to the city as a local park in exchange for closing local roads running through the remainder of the park. It also allowed for the construction of Interstate 20. The monuments in land transferred to the city are still maintained by the NPS. As with all historic areas administered by the NPS, the park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. Over half a million visitors visit the park every year.
In 2000 the Mississippi House of Representatives approved funding a monument to recognize African-American soldiers in the United States civil war.
References.
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