"Vicksburg / Champion Hill visit" Topic

Just got home last night from a trip to New Orleans that included a side trip to Vicksburg. The National Military Park is well worth a visit and includes the USS Cairo (pronounced KAY-row, not KEYE-row). All the guns are the actual ones, salvaged from the Yazoo River. You can see the hole in the bow (drive a wagon through it) and walk inside the armored casemate, look at the engines and the paddle wheels. Talk about steam punk!

I drove out to the Champion Hill battlefield for a tour by Sid Champion V (yes, he's that Champion family). It was great, giving me a better grasp of the tactics of this pivotal battle. And it enlightened my wife, since Sid knows a lot about the family history of the area and the local flora and fauna. He also knows why the road that Bowen's division moved on was closed in recent memory. He was nearby when the local police raided an establishment down that road. But I digress.

We enjoyed the catfish at Rowdy's and the strong coffee at Highway 61 Coffeehouse, both in Vicksburg.

The downside? Between New Orleans restaurants and Vicksburg eateries, we both picked up a couple pounds. Now we have to dial back seriously before Thanksgiving. Or else buy new clothes.

I am envious.

A couple of pounds? Y'all must have been fasting!

When I went to Vicksburg 3-4 years ago, most of the area was heavily wooded, not at all like you would expect during a siege. The park ranger said that since they were in the National Park system, they couldn't cut the trees. I recall reading a year or two ago that they were going to cut some of the trees to make parts of the park look more like the original battlefield. Have they done any of that?

Yes, a number of the approaches have been cleared on trees so that they more closely resemble the siege view. But not all of the trees were cut.

Jim

The tree cutting is an ongoing process on all of the NPS battlefields. Starting with Gettysburg (which still isn't done) the "historical" people , as opposed to what some call the "rock and tree people" have pushed to restore the 1860s appearance where they can. The Cairo BTW is fascinating

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The trees are down between the Great Redoubt and Battery De Golyer, and other sites nearby. You can see how the attackers got all the way across only to find their scaling ladders were too short. The survivors had to run back again.

Also trees cut down in the southern part of the park around Fort Garott. Hovey's saps are much easier to see near the Confederate lines. Man, they were close at the end.