So we went to the Vicksburg National Military Park.
The park features a 16-mile driving tour of the Battlefield of the Vicksburg Campaign.
Throughout the park are red and blue signs marking trenches and battle lines of the North and the South.
This is the Illinois State Memorial, the largest monument in the park. It was dedicated in 1906, and built for $194,000. Today it would cost more than $45 million to build a similar structure.
The wall inside is filled with the names of thousands of infantrymen of the Civil War. We were able to locate Palmers, Burtons (Jean's maiden name), Carrolls (Angie's maiden name) but no Fleenors.
The only wartime structure remaining in the Vicksburg National Military Park is The Shirley House below. According to the National Park website, the soldier who was to burn the house was shot before he could apply the torch.
There are currently plans to renovate the interior of the house and open it as a museum.
The park ranks among the most heavily monumented parks in the world with over 1,300 various monuments. Here are but a few, the first one being a monument to Andrew Hickenlooper, great-grandfather of the Denver Mayor, John Hickenlooper.
The park features The U.S.S. Cairo, the first armed vessel in the history of warfare to be sunk by a torpedo. It sunk in 12 minutes in 1862 and was not raised from its watery grave until over 100 years later in 1964. For more info, go to http://www.nps.gov/vick/u-s-s-cairo-gunboat.htm .
Over 13,000 of the 17,000 buried at the Vicksburg National Cemetery are officially listed as unidentified.
For more pictures of the Vicksburg National Military Park, go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2007/september/exploring-vicksburg-ms-/ .
To be continued...
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