Today was a great chance to explore one of the best preserved and documented battlefields from the Civil War in Vicksburg Mississippi. As a history reminder, Vicksburg and Gettysburg both ended on July 4th, 1863. While Gettysburg was a short but massive battle in a remote crossroads, Vicksburg had been fought over for a year and ended with a brutal 40+ day siege of one of the largest cities on the Mississippi. It was a strategically important battle to completely open up the Mississippi for Union traffic and split the Confederacy.
US Grant boldly moved troops around the city, defeated troops nearby in Mississippi and then failed at a direct assault on the heavily defended city of Vicksburg. The resulting trench warfare presaged developments in Virginia in 1864 and eventually succeeded in getting the confederate troops to surrender.
I have been around the Gettysburg battlefield many times by bike, so it was an interesting chance to ride on a similarly preserved and enshrined battlefield. The road thru the battlefield starts on the Union lines, then proceeds back along the Confederate lines closer to town. The road on the Confederate lines was partially closed due to damage from Hurricane Harvey, but bikes could get by. The battlefield was very quiet this time of year, with more local runners and walkers than cars.
As with Gettysburg, Congress gave each state the permission to build a monument on the battlefield to their fallen soldiers. The Illinois and Wisconsin monuments were the largest on the Union section.
On the Confederate section, the Missouri and Mississippi monuments were two of the more notable.
One of the more interesting monuments was the one to the Navy, highlighting their impact on the battle from the river with the largest monument of all.
Finally, the critical role of US Grant was shown by a horseback statue of him.
In addition to these major monuments and statues, the battlefield had hundreds of plaques and smaller monuments.
It was fascinating to see the layout of the two lines of battle and get a feel for the ground by riding it on bike. Given that the battle is famous for being fought on the bluffs over the river, it was somewhat hilly (1,800 ft. of climbing in 21 miles). I would still highly recommend the ride as a great way to see the battlefield and also recommend the visit to Vicksburg.
View of the Union lines with smaller monuments from the Confederate lines:
After the initial battlefield tour, I rode down into Vicksburg and had lunch at a fantastic place (Monsour’s at The Biscuit Company). This is located in an 1830 building that had been a newspaper office, bank, shoe factory and biscuit factory. I had fresh biscuits and shrimp with rice, both of which were great! Biscuits were for a minimum order of 4 and were made from scratch with a 15 minute wait…
A great local coffee shop was right across the street (61 Coffee), where I had a nice cappuccino and recovered from lunch.
It was a challenge to ride back uphill thru the battlefield after such a lunch and coffee, but the fading late fall daylight and rising moon made for a great ride back to my start. A 21 mile ride and lunch ended up taking 5 hours with all the exploring, but it was another day well spend on the bike!
Scene from the Bike 