We asked our Garmin to take us to The Vicksburg National Military Park, putting our fate in the hands of just one mapping program. We paid little attention as she told us to take the exit off of I-20. As we wandered through a neighborhood and windy narrow streets, we wondered if she really knew where we were going.
Eventually we rolled down a hill to a check point for the park. There was no one there and the gate was open so we did not need to show our park pass.
The entrance was near the USS Cairo exhibit – this was an ironside ship sunk by the confederates. It is odd that, because it was sunk, they were able to recover some of the pieces and reconstruct it. The ships that survived the battle were all dismantled after the war.
We drove around looking for Dan’s ancestor who had fought here. Some states like Texas had impressive monuments.
The section with the monuments for the Massachusetts regiment was closed. Apparently they still don’t like those northerners here.