Today started with the Hop on, Hop off bus tour of Vicksburg. We didn’t have time for much before our excursion started, but we did visit the Old Depot Museum with the coolest set of electric trains east of the Mississippi. The outstanding feature though was the diorama of the Battle of Vicksburg. Too bad we couldn’t have done this exhibit after seeing the actual battlefield. Stay tuned.
On to the Church of the Holy Trinity, famous for having six Tiffany glass windows. The remaining German windows were brighter and livelier while the Tiffany windows had subtle colors and seemed calmer. No opinions here except we liked the German windows better— a lot better.
The Anchuca Mansion, which the docent said retains original floors and molding was our favorite house of the whole trip. The decorations retained the approximate style of the time, but the stairway was the amazing centerpiece of the house. It was double-wide with two ways up to the middle and two ways up from there, like a big X. It was just great. During the Civil War, the story goes that this was a boarding house for both Union and Confederate officers at the same time! The two sides got along so well that they drank and played cards together at night. They housed the Union men on the top floor so that the building wasn’t hit by canon fire. The other fun fact is that Anchuca was owned by Jefferson Davis’s older brother (like a father to him, they said) so when Davis was released from Fortress Monroe after the Civil War, this is where he came. While he could not give any political speeches, he did step out onto the large balcony off the second floor and greet the citizens of the town. Very cool house and story.
We had just enough time to stop at the Lower Mississippi River Museum and look at modern ways to keep the river from filling up with silt— lots of heavy equipment to lay a concrete carpet on the floor of the river. Interesting, but no more time. Back to the ship to catch our next bus!
Off we went to fight the Battle of Vicksburg! It took nearly an hour to get there and then another slow one hour to tour around the park. This was definitely a battlefield to see. Imagine tightly rolling hills and valleys, one after another, divided by stands of trees. Amazing to think that they could call those hillocks “forts”. A fun fact was that in 1906 the park committee called all Civil War veterans to come back to the battlegrounds and tell their stories. The result is the most accurate recreation of what really happened here.
It almost made me laugh when we rolled up to the final stop on the tour. The U.S.S. Cairo, an ironclad, is right there in the battlefield and open for touring. It was amazingly real but so strange to see a ship surrounded by grass! The only reason this ship survived the war is because it sank in 36’ of water. The resurrection came 100 years later and in pieces, but they’ve put it back together and it’s awesome.
We had dinner with our two gay and wonderful dinner partners and now have added the gay judge, an amazing man both in philosophy and in world travels. We’re having a good time. Good night.