May 5, 2008

May 5, 2008

This morning we drove into downtown Vicksburg, MS but we see little that interests us except for the Old Courthouse. Sitting high on a hill, it was the symbol of Confederate resistance and where the Union raised their flag of victory.

After this brief drive thru, we cross the Mississippi to see Grant’s canal, and the scene of one of his several attempts to take Vicksburg. This one was clever. The soldiers dug a canal across the elbow of the river, hoping to divert the flow away from Vicksburg. After suffering disease and heatstroke, instead of scouring a bypass, the slow-moving Mississippi just filled it with silt. All Grant needed to do was wait. About ten years later, Mother Nature changed the course of the river leaving Vicksburg high and dry. If it weren’t for the Battlefield Park and casino boats, Vicksburg would be a ghost town.

The civil war was hard on Mississippi. The state went from being the richest before the war to one of the poorest. Aimee and I decide we need a day of leisure, so we spend the rest of the day at the same RV Park relaxing.