Toured the National park today, 2500 acres, 12 mile driving tour of the battle or Siege of Vicksburg by General Grant in 1863, a 47 day battle. Very interesting seeing how close the battle lines were, I think average a 100 yards, maybe a little more. There are 1300 monuments dedicated to all the aspects of battle. There were over 100,000 troops involved in the this key battle. The winner controlled the Mississippi river. Just over 19,000 union and confederate soldiers were killed or wounded in the battle. The national cemetery has 19,000 graves from the civil war. The picture of the large canon, the wheel height is almost 6 feet. The USS Cairo gunboat, ironclad was raised from the Mississippi River, seeing the size of this steam boat was amazing. Most of the metal was recovered including the canons. The best thing was since I have the National Park senior pass, it’s free to visit. I decided to do the blues trail tomorrow since I am in the Mississippi delta.
