Vicksburg, MS - March 6-10,2013

We traveled into MS on US 80 and then I-20 to Vicksburg.   Must say the roads left a lot to be desired-- the table and basket in the kitchen traveled across the floor, the drawers in the hall and bedroom were open when we pulled into the River Town Campground on 61S in Vicksburg.  

Our first tour was of course the Vicksburg Battlefield.   The size of the battlefield is awesome.  We viewed a 20 minute film  recounting the campaign.   The park includes 1340 monuments, markers and tablets, a 16 mile tour road, the restored gunboat, Cairo, and a National cemetery of 116 acres.   The cemetery holds the remains of 17,000 Civil War Union Soldiers, 13,000 of whom are unknown.   We were there 5 hours; if I was to do it again, I'd do the tour in two days.  

Other tours in the city included:

The Biedenham Coca-Cola Museum.  - This is the first place to bottle Coca-Cola.   It was invented in Atlanta and sold as a fountain drink.   Mr. Biedenham owed a candy store, and decided that he would try bottling it in 1894.   This is the first place anywhere in the world that Coca-cola was bottled, and it only grew from there!

Lower Mississippi River Museum and Riverfront Interpretive Site offers a glimpse of life along the river.  There was an orientation film and interactive displays.   The museum includes a tour of the Mississippi IV which gives a feel for life on board the boat.  

Martha Vick House (1830) - the last original VIck family home in Vicksburg.   It was built for the unmarried daughter of Vicksburg's founder, Newit Vick and has been restored and furnished as a fine and comfortable home.  

The Old Court House Museum (1858-1860) was considered one of the finest antebellum structures in Vicksburg, built by slaves in the 1858-1860 period.  It now serves as a 9-room museum containing thousands of artifacts  from pre-Columbian implements  to ladies dresses and artifacts of the Civil War and the siege of Vicksburg.

The Old Depot Museum - The museum houses  the Gray and BLue Naval Society of models of ships, riverboat models, and military vessels.   It also has the only diorama of the Siege of Vicksburg with a comprehensive layout of the battlefield (wish I'd seen that before the actual battlefield).

No trip to Vicksburg would be complete without a walk on the historic downtown Washington Street and at least one trip to a casino (the town has FOUR).   We ate at Bella's on Saturday evening in the Ameristar Casino.  

On Monday we leave for New Orleans.      A good stop.