Vicksburg, Mississippi

Vicksburg, Mississippi

DESTINATIONS

THESE DAYS IT’S A SLEEPY LITtle town high on the bluffs above the east side of the Mississippi River, but for 47 days during the Civil War, the eyes of the world were on this place, as Union armies put Vicksburg to siege. Capture of the town’s rail and river links was a critical element in what Union General Winfield Scott called “The Anaconda Plan,” designed to squeeze the life from the Confederacy. What’s remembered, now. is

not that after incredible hardship, the town finally fell on July 4.

I 863. What’s remembered is that the town withstood the siege so

long, and so bravely.

Echoes of what is called “The Struggle” reverberate through tiny Vicksburg, and the wonderful array of well-kept roads throughout the area make it an ideal riding destination.

Take several days. Stay at the Cedar Grove Estate, an antebellum mansion which still contains battle scars, including a cannonball lodged in one wall. Visit the bluffs where defiant Southern troops dug in against Union interlopers. And maybe best of all, visit the last resting place of the USS Cairo, a Union ironclad sunk in the Yazoo River by a Rebel mine, raised a century later, and now displayed in a beautifully designed and maintained outdoor/ indoor museum below the Vicksburg bluffs. It’s an unforgettable opportunity to ride wonderful roads and to recall a part of history that deserves to be remembered.

—Jon F. Thompson

Information: Vicksburg Military Park Visitors Center I-20 at Hwy. 61 Vicksburg, MS 39180 601/638-0583 Vicksburg Old Courthouse Museum 1008 Cherry St. Vicksburg, MS 39180 601/636-0741