Vicksburg National Miltary Park

Vicksburg National Military Park

I thought I'd share some shots from one of our favorite places. It's right here in the heart of Vicksburg called the Vicksburg National Military Park. The park commemorates the campaign, siege, and defense of Vicksburg during Civil War. The city's surrender was on July 4, 1863.There are over 1370 monuments, a restored Union gunboat, and a National Cemetery. It's a 16 mile tour road. We sometimes get there when the gates open at 7AM chasing that ever elusive daybreak magic light. There is always something new that we find. Also there are deer, turkeys and other wild life that you can catch with the camera if you're lucky. The monuments are amazing. Here are some photos of different parts of the park to give a little taste.

One of the many, many monuments

If you like cannons this the place for you. They are everywhere you look.

Each state that was in the war erected there own monuments in the park. Here it the Illinois State monument which has the names of 36,000 soldiers on engraved on the walls. Pretty stunning.

More Cannons

Another Stately monument

The USS Cairo (pronounced Care-o), a Union ironclad commanded by Thomas O. Selfridge, Jr., was named for Cairo, Illinois, and commissioned on January 16, 1862. On December 12, 1862, in the Yazoo River north of Vicksburg, Cairo struck two underwater torpedoes (today called mines) sinking in less than 12 minutes with no loss of life. Preserved by mud and silt, Cairo sat on the bottom of the Yazoo River for 102 years. It was raised in 1964, and later restored. The ironclad is now on display within Vicksburg National Military Park.

Vicksburg National Cemetery encompasses 117.85 acres and includes over 18,000 interments.  Graves of Civil War soldiers total 17,077, of which 12,909 are unknown.  An additional 1,280 graves are occupied by soldiers who participated in the Indian Wars, Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, and the Korean Conflict.

A Sunday Afternoon Drive for Dean and Becky's Hummer Adventures

Yesterday (June12th, 2011) Becky and I decided to take a Sunday afternoon drive and see how the flooding had receded. The flood waters have gone down a tremendous amount. I took a few shots to show where they opened up the flood wall. On the opposite side of the flood wall on Levee street you can see the high water marks on the wall. The photos on this blog are mostly taken with my Canon point and shoot camera. If you want to see the good photos you will need to go to Becky's web site when it is complete. It's in the works and I imagine will be live by the end of June. We also spotted a few alligators around the levees north of Vicksburg.

This is a casino boat where it is normally dry around it. The flood wall shows where the water rose to 57.9 feet.

This is the boat launch side of the flood wall. The other side has beautiful murals depicting the history of Vicksburg.

We saw 57.9 ft. The flood of 1927 was 56.2 ft.

My Becky doing what she loves. Taking great pictures.

this was somebody's lot north of town with the crape myrtles blooming and the bird bath now above water.

Life getting back to normal in Vicksburg with the kids playing in the water at the park by the flood wall.

One of our gator friends up by the flooded levees. It appeared to be about 11 or 12 ft long. A big one.

They can be very hard to spot as most times they are only showing there head and nostrils above water.

We think this one was sleeping as he wouldn't stir when we came close.

Vicksburg Carr Mid-High school March 2011

This past March Becky and I were invited on a photo adventure with our friends Marty, Robert and Jerry. They wanted to go inside an old abandoned mid-high school building close to downtown. It is call CARR Mid-High. It was a dismal, overcast day for photos but we were game. We parked a little ways away as to not let people know we were there. We spent a couple of hours wondering through the old halls, classrooms and different stories of the building. Robert and Jerry had actualy attended school there at one point. So the memories were very vivid. I took a few shots to document our excursion.

This was the auditorium.

A desk left behind.

The heart of the school

Cypress Swamp May 30th 2011

Memorial Day we took an afternoon drive along the North shore of the Ross Barnett Reservoir. This drive is on the Natchez Trace Parkway. We had heard of a  pull out called Cypress Swamp and that it was a cool place to visit. 
It has water tupelo and bald cypress trees that can live in deep water for long periods. After taking root in summer when the swamp is nearly dry, the seedlings can stay alive in water deep enough to kill other plants. The trail leads to an abandoned river channel. As the channel fills with silt and vegetation, black willow, sycamore, red maple and other trees gradually replace the bald cypress and tupelo. It's also a good place to spot some reptilian friends. We were able to see three alligators and they were all young ones. The big ones were hiding well. Here are some photos.

The Hummer finds the spot.

Cypress swamp - Can you see the gators?

Can you see them in here?

Looks like a Turtle maybe for lunch!

A young Alligator

Here's the one hiding in the emerald green water. No photo doctoring here this is what it looks like.

The Great Mississippi Flood of 2011 May2011

Becky has been takeing a lot of photos to document the flooding here around Vicksburg. It crested here at 57.9 feet. Flood stage is 43 feet. It surpassed the flood level of 1927. I took a few shots to post. The town of Vicksburg is built up on a bluff about 200 feet above the river and most of the area of Vicksburg is up high. The flooding around Vicksburg was to the north and south of town where it is lower by the river. North of Vicksburg is where the Delta land starts and the flooding came in about 5 miles from the river.

The river was closed to all boat and barge traffic due to the water level

 and the fast flow

Here is where they closed in the openings in the levee wall downtown along levee street.

North 61 before the water crossed the road. This is about 5 miles north from our house.

Chasing the flood waters.

All the yuck that the flood pushed up. This was from road 465 which had the water covering and was closed to traffic.

A trip to Windsor Ruins Feb. 2011

This past February 2011, Becky and I took a day trip down to what is called the Windsor Ruins. It is just south of Vicksburg.
Built in 1859-61 by Smith Daniell who only lived in the large mansion for a few weeks before he died. The Windsor plantation once sprawled over 2,600 acres. Legend says that from a roof observatory, Mark Twain watched the Mississippi River in the distance.
A Yankee soldier was shot in the front doorway of the home. During the Civil War the mansion was used as a Union hospital and observation post, thus sparing it from being burned by Union troops.
However, after the Civil War, during a house party on February 17, 1890 a guest left a lighted cigar on the upper balcony and Windsor burned to the ground. Everything was destroyed except 23 of the columns, balustrades and iron stairs.

 Our first siting of a live Armadillo. Usually we just see 

them dead on the side of the road.

 The columns for the house showing the upstairs metal 

balcony railing.

This was a huge plantation home.