Vicksburg-the Key
Imagine. You are a Union soldier, looking over the rolling fields to the high point beyond where the Confederate soldiers are trying to protect Vicksburg, the last stronghold on the Mississippi. Direct assaults aren't working so General Grant lays seige to the city for 46 days. The citizens dig caves to survive your onslaught. Finally on July 4, 1863 the city surrenders. The Mississippi flows free and the Confederacy is split-the key to winning the war says Lincoln.
37,000 men from Illinois, over half the Union contingent, fought here. On the walls of this memorial, erected in their honor, every man's name is cast in bronze panels.
The Illinois State Seal created from tiny tiles decorates the floor of the monument.
African-Americans who fought for the Union were not honored until 2000 with this statue.
The US Cairo patroled the Mississippi for the Union and was the first gunboat to be sunk by a mine. It was raised and restored so that people can now walk on the boat. The greater treasure may be all the personal and naval items also recovered with the boat that are housed in the adjoining museum. It is quite a complex.
17,000 Union soldiers are buried here at the Vicksburg National Military Park but the Confederate soldiers were moved to local Vicksburg cemetaries. Thousands of these men were buried unknown.
We toured the 16 mile battleground route with a CD auto-guide filled with details and sound effects. The Union and Confederate lines were so close that on occasion a truce would be called and soldiers who might be family or friends would cross lines to meet and visit. As I walked around I could almost hear the bugles and the shouts of soldiers.