Park preserving the site of the American Civil War Battle of Vicksburg, waged from March 29 to July 4, 1863
General Information
Visitor Center: 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM daily
Tour Road: 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM daily (last vehicle entry at 4:40 PM)
Closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day
Motorcycle: $15 (valid for 7 days)
Pedestrian/Cyclist: $10 (valid for 7 days)
Children under 16: Free
How to Get There
From Vicksburg (3 mi): From downtown Vicksburg, take Clay Street (US-80) east toward the National Military Park entrance and continue to 3201 Clay Street, the main visitor center and entrance to Vicksburg National Military Park.
Vicksburg National Military Park preserves the site of the American Civil War Battle of Vicksburg, waged from March 29 to July 4, 1863. The park, located in Vicksburg, Mississippi (flanking the Mississippi River), also commemorates the greater Vicksburg Campaign which led up to the battle. Reconstructed forts and trenches evoke memories of the 47-day siege that ended in the surrender of the city. Victory here and at Port Hudson, farther south in Louisiana, gave the Union control of the Mississippi River.
The park includes 1,325 historic monuments and markers, 20 miles (32 km) of historic trenches and earthworks, a 16-mile (26 km) tour road, a 12.5-mile (20.1 km) walking trail, two antebellum homes, 144 emplaced cannons, the restored gunboat USS Cairo (sunk on December 12, 1862, on the Yazoo River), and the Grant's Canal site, where the Union Army attempted to build a canal to let their ships bypass Confederate artillery fire. The Cairo, also known as the "Hardluck Ironclad," was the first U.S. ship in history to be sunk by a torpedo/mine. It was recovered from the Yazoo in 1964. The Illinois State Memorial has 47 steps, one for every day Vicksburg was besieged.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Vicksburg National Military Park", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0
