Natchez, Mississippi

On our road trip through the south in January we stopped for lunch on Sunday in Natchez, Mississippi.  We arrived there by way of the Natchez Trace that we picked up south of Vicksburg near Port Gibson.

The Natchez Trace is maintained by the National Park Service and is a 444 mile road from Nashville, TN to Natchez, MS.

It commemorates a trail first used by Native Americans and then by European settlers of this area.

The road is only two lanes and on Sunday it was little traveled.  There was still ice in spots and thankfully when the well pointed buck ran across in from of us it was not on an icy patch of road.  We missed him thankfully, but it was a near miss.

This was a remarkable looking church in Natchez.

Joining Inspired Sunday

View of the Mississippi River from the riverfront park.

We ate here at the Biscuits and Blues Restaurant and then headed on our way south to Baton Rouge, LA.

U.S.S. Cairo

"On December 12, 1862, the Union ironclad gunboat, Cairo, and several other vessels steamed up the Yazoo River, north of Vicksburg, to destroy Confederate batteries and clear enemy obstructions from the channel,  Suddenly two quick explosions tore holes in the Cairo's bottom.  In minutes the ironclad lay on the river bottom, only tops of its smokestack and flagstaff showing above the water.

Cairo was the first vessel ever sunk by an electronically detonated torpedo (today called a mine), but its place in history comes from what went down with it.  Preserved like a time-capsule were information on naval construction, naval stores, armament, and the crew's personal gear."

quoted from Vicksburg National Military Park brochure.

The exhibit under a huge tent is a mixture of the salvaged parts of the iron clad and reconstruction.

This is the amazing part of this story.  Read below.

A model of the Cairo.

Despite its sinking it was a formidable looking vessel.

Vicksburg National Military Park

The National Park at Vicksburg is not one that you'd walk around to see.  After stopping in the visitor center to see the film, your car and your cell phone are the best way to see how the Union Army won this battle for this critical spot on the Mississippi River.  This was one of the turning points in the Civil War coming as it did with the defeat of Lee's troops at Gettysburg.  The Vicksburg battle showed off Grant's tenacity to not give up.

Read more here about this battle.

The road takes you from behind the Union lines all the way around then behind the Confederate lines.  It's a 16 mile tour.

The Union troops here were from all over.  There are monuments commemorating the sacrifices of men from Minnesota,

Michigan, Kansas,

New York, Illinois, Indiana, 

Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania,

New Hampshire, Massachusetts, West Virginia, Ohio.

The terrain is very hilly from all the digging both sides did to gain territory and avoid the shelling.

Look closely at the top of this hill.  The blue sign is the Union line and the red sign the Confederate.  They were in hailing distance near the end.

From the South the states represented here were Tennessee,

Mississippi,

Arkansas, Alabama,

Missouri, 

Louisiana,

Texas, Georgia.

Kentucky had a Confederate and a Union Memorial.

If you are in Vicksburg, MS you need to stop at this Park - an important part of US history.