Vicksburg National Military Park - Vicksburg, Mississippi

Vicksburg National Military Park - Vicksburg, Mississippi

Martha and I recently visited the Vicksburg National Military Park in Mississippi on our way to Texas for Thanksgiving. I have struggled with posting this blog entry due to the sobering effect it had  on both of us. 

If you reflect on the conflict and do some cursory genealogy you will likely find someone in your family that was on one side or the other of this conflict. 

The Facts

General Ulysses S. Grant was tasked with tanking Vicksburg. Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton, was responsible for holding defensive lines surrounding the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Both sides agreed that the Mississippi River was the most vital pipeline for moving men, materials, reinforcements and food to strategic locations.

The campaign consisted of many important naval operations, troop maneuvers, failed initiatives, and eleven distinct battles from December 26, 1862, to July 4, 1863. Military historians divide the campaign into two formal phases: Operations Against Vicksburg (December 1862 – January 1863) and Grant's Operations Against Vicksburg (March–July 1863).

Grant initially planned a two-pronged approach in which half of his army, under Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, would advance to the Yazoo River and attempt to reach Vicksburg from the northeast, while Grant took the remainder of the army down the Mississippi Central Railroad. Both of these initiatives failed. Grant conducted a number of "experiments" or expeditions—Grant's Bayou Operations—that attempted to enable waterborne access to the Mississippi south of Vicksburg's artillery batteries. All five of these initiatives failed as well. Finally, Union gunboats and troop transport boats ran the batteries at Vicksburg and met up with Grant's men who had marched overland in Louisiana. On April 29 and April 30, 1863, Grant's army crossed the Mississippi and landed at Bruinsburg, Mississippi. An elaborate series of demonstrations and diversions fooled the Confederates and the landings occurred without opposition. Over the next 17 days, Grant maneuvered his army inland and won five battles, captured the state capital of Jackson, Mississippi, and assaulted and laid siege to Vicksburg.

After Pemberton's army surrendered on July 4 (one day after the Confederate defeat at Gettysburg), and when Port Hudson surrendered to Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks on July 9, Texas and Arkansas were effectively cut off from the Confederacy, and the Mississippi River was once again open for northern commerce to reach the Gulf of Mexico, and as a supply line for the Union Army. Grant's Vicksburg Campaign is studied as a masterpiece of military operations and a major turning point of the war. Source - NPS Vicksburg Military Park

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The Military Park

The entire park is a drive through, self guided trip. As you start the journey you will see all sorts of monuments that denote the various states and and military units that participated in the battle. Some of the markers are simple plaques with information about specific units and how many dead, wounded and missing soldiers were claimed as a result of that area of responsibility. Other monuments are extremely ornate and show the names of all that were involved during the battle.

As I said earlier it is sobering. To that end I cannot add much more other than the area that was defended by the confederacy commanded a large area of the Mississippi River strategically. It is difficult to imagine how either side claimed victory on this rugged part of the river. I will let the photos we took tell the rest of the story

The Visitors Center

Through out the park there are monuments erected by the States that were represented in breaking the occupation of the Confederacy in Vicksburg. We saw the Union side of the park and were going to come back the next day to see the Confederate side.  Unfortunately,  our RV had a problem that required our immediate attention so we weren't able to complete the tour. As a result the monuments shown were all from the Union side of the conflict.

The monument in the background was erected by the State of Illinois to commemorate those who fought and fell in Vicksburg.

There were so many monuments and battle line markers it would impractical to post all of the photos we took. I can tell you that this battlefield was very somber an sobering. If you are ever near Vicksburg take the time to see the park and allow yourself a lot of time to see it all.

My next blog entry will be about the Ironside vessel the Cairo which was sunk in the Yazoo river in a battle before Vicksburg. The remains were salvaged and put on display in the Vicksburg Military Park.

The Lost Colony of Roanoke Island, Outer Banks, NC - National Monument

"The Lost Colony" of Roanoke Island, North Carolina



(Click on any photo for a larger view)

First, apologies to our readers for taking so long to post this, our latest blog entry. This is one of the more enigmatic places we've visited during our travels.

A History Lesson

For those who are unfamiliar with the "Lost Colony" it was Sir Walter Raleigh who proposed that England expand its territories to Queen Elizabeth. He offered to lead the expeditions and Elizabeth forbade Raleigh from going.  Instead, Raleigh , an English soldier, explorer, poet, and courtier who funded two voyages to Roanoke Island  to establish an English settlement and fort (1584–1587).

Born a commoner in Devon, England, Raleigh nevertheless had connections to Elizabeth through his mother and exploited those relationships to win a place at court. He wrote poems to the queen and advised her on policy in Ireland, where in 1580 he had helped to slaughter papal troops and became one of Elizabeth's favorites. Raleigh used his wealth and power to pursue dreams of colonizing the Americas, first at Roanoke and then at Guiana.

Raleigh's mission, as he wrote in his long poem "The Ocean to Cynthia" was "To seek new worlds for gold, for praise, for glory." In so doing, he relied on the genius of English mathematician and astronomer Thomas Hariot, the master propagandist Richard Hakluyt, and artist John White. Raleigh also relied on the faithful protection of Elizabeth, protection that conspicuously disappeared when he secretly married one of her maids of honor. After the queen's death in 1603, Raleigh was accused of plotting against her successor and spent much of the rest of his life in the Tower of London. A second failed expedition to Guiana, during which he disobeyed the king's instructions, resulted in his beheading in 1618.

Raleigh funded two attempts to establish permanent settlements at Roanoke Island, in the region now known as the Outer Banks. The first, in 1585–1586, resulted in John White's iconic images of Virginia Indians and Hariot's A briefe and true report of the new found land of Virginia (1588). The second expedition, led by White in 1587, resulted only in the disappearance of the so-called Lost Colonists. Source -Encyclopedia of Virginia

Raleigh, meanwhile, continued to be enriched in both wealth and power through his standing at court. In July 1585 he was appointed Lord Warden of the Stannaries, allowing him to exercise judicial and military authority for Cornwall and Devon. Source - Encyclopedia of Virginia

The Story And Timeline Of The "The Lost Colony"

In 1584 Reconnaissance - Sir Walter Raleigh was given a charter from Queen Elizabeth and Raleigh sponsored England's first sustained exploration and settlement of the coast of North America to what is now known as the North Carolina Outer Banks. His venture was to find a suitable place for settlement and to have a position from which to counter Spanish domination of the new world.  In July 1584 Raleigh's vessels captained by Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlow arrived off the North Carolina coast, where the captains of the two vessels established relations with the Algonquians on Roanoke Island.  The English were made to feel welcome with feasts, trading and relating much about the lands they occupied. After several weeks the English departed for England. Amadas and Barlow took with them two Algonquians named Wanchese and Manteo (Man E O) so as to show the discovery in the best light to Raleigh.

1585 Establishment of a Military Outpost

Raleigh dispatched seven ships and 600 people to Roanoke Island, the land he named Virginia. The company was commanded by Sir Richard Grenville, upon landing the earthen fort was erected. Grenville left Ralph Lane in command of 107 soldiers and colonists. Things did not go well for the colonists. They grew increasingly more dependent on the Algonquians for food and the indians started dying from European diseases that were introduced by the colonists. Suspecting conspiracy Lane killed Chief Wingina. When Grenville failed to return by the expected time and by the coincidence Sir Walter Drakes armada stopped near Roanoke Island. Drake offered to take the colonists back to England and they accepted. Drake left fifteen men there to guard the stake in the new world. 

1587 The Cittie of Raliegh

Led by John White the soldiers and crew of his ship a search was launched to find the 15 soldiers left behind to guard the new world foothold. They were never found. The ships pilot refused to take them any further deeming that further attempts would surely sink them in the unpredictable shifting sands of the North Carolina coastline.The only thing found that could have indicated where the colonists went were the letters "Croatan" carved into a post and the letters "CRO" carved into a tree.

When White's crew was finally convinced that the colonists may have tried to reach Croatan (modern day Cape Hatteras) but hurricane winds forced the ship and crew to abandon efforts and return to England.  White wouldn't return to England until 1590.

The Foothold

The colonists endured much to establish a foothold in the new world. They began by erecting an earthen fort which was common for the day. From the late 1800's until 1940 the only indication that the fort had been there were granite markers placed around the original earthen structure sometime in the past.  In 1947 and 1948 Archaeologists located the original fort and did an full study of the site. 

By that time it had been reduced to a gentle swale on the forest floor. In 1950 a a representation of the original was built on the same site.

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Work on the site continues today as there is evidence of new digs to investigate the site for new clues as to what happened to the colonists.

                                                  This is what the site looks like today  

There has been endless speculation as to what happened to the 115 colonists that stayed behind

Experts may never be able to put together a positive theory that finally located where the colonists went after leaving the original settlement. During the three years that it took White to get an expedition together to return the colonists simply vanished. 

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Wright Brothers National Monument - Big Kill Devil Hill, NC

Wright Brothers National Monument - Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina

(Please click on any photo in this blog entry to enlarge the photo and be taken to a slideshow of them)

The Wright Brothers National Monument recognizes and honors the Wright brothers for their achievements and relentless pursuit to invent and fly an aircraft that was controllable and travel under it's own power.

If you went to grade school you've no doubt read or studied about the achievement of the Wright Brothers. The two brothers from Ohio that ran a bicycle shop while they dreamed of mastering the still just-out-of-reach achievement of flight. For years, the Wright Brothers designed intricate plans and blueprints out of the their small bicycle shop before heading to the town of Kitty Hawk in 1900. This coastal town, they determined, had the ideal conditions for testing their 

     gliders,with towering sand dunes and consistent winds to assist with the initial launching 

They conducted tests with a state of the art hanger, shop and living quarters at Big Kill Devil Hill in North Carolina. The "Hill" was a massive sand dune and was the place they chose to conduct experiments in a machine that was built to achieve manned flight. Library of Congress

The Brothers made hundreds of test flights using their model as a kite to test control surface warping which was the precursor to controlled flight.  They used Big Kill Devil Hill and the consistent higher winds to perfect wing lift and the control surfaces necessary to make manned flight achievable.. 

On December 17 1903 Wilbur and Orville make the first free, controlled, and sustained flights in a power-driven, heavier-than-air machine. Three men from the Kill Devil Life Saving Station and two from Nags Head witness the four trial flights. First trial is made by Orville at 10:35 A.M., stays twelve seconds in the air, and flies 120 feet. John T. Daniels photographs the first flight with Orville’s camera. Wilbur makes the longest flight in the fourth trial, fifty-nine seconds in the air and 852 feet. Source: Wright Brothers National Monument

At the National Monument there is a stainless steel statue that is an approximation of the Wright Brothers 1903 Flyer. It was built by sculpter Stephen H. Smith

Wilbur Wright was the first man to fly a heavier than air machine under it's own power

Orville wrote in his diary: "When we got up, a wind of between 20 and 25 miles was blowing from the north.

We got the machine out early and put out the signal for the men at the station. Before we were quite ready, John T. Daniels, W. S. Dough, A. D. Etheridge, W. C. Brinkley of Manteo, and Johnny Moore of Nags Head arrived."

Source: Eyewitness to History.com

Watching History in the making

After running the engine and propellers a few minutes to get them in working order, I got on the machine at 10:35 for the first trial. The wind, according to our anemometers at this time, was blowing a little over 20 miles (corrected) 27 miles according to the Government anemometer at Kitty Hawk. On slipping the rope the machine started off increasing in speed to probably 7 or 8 miles. The machine lifted from the truck just as it was entering on the fourth rail. Mr. Daniels took a picture just as it left the tracks. Daniels had never used a camera before.   Source: McFarland, Marvin, The Papers of Wilbur & Orville Wright

The distance of the first flight distance was less than the wing span of a modern 747 Jumbo Jet. But they had done it. 

The monument to the Wright Brothers achievements was begun in 1929 with the stabilization of the large dune known as Big Kill Devil Hill. Native grasses were planted in preparation for the erection of the Monument. 

Orville, Wilbur and Amelia Earhart at the Commemoration ceremony 

12 Seconds That Changed the World Forever

Get off the Ground They Did!

This was a trip worth making. Even though the Visitors Center is closed for remodeling right now there is just something about being at the very place where controlled and powered flight began. It is an awesome place.

The twelve seconds that changed the world forever

Imagine the exhilaration and sense of achievement that the Wrights must have had during those first flights.

They knew it was the first time in history of mankind that anyone had ever flown in a heavier than air machine under it's own power making the machine go where they steered it.

Big Kill Devil Hill with the Wright Monument on Top

I hope we've inspired you to visit the Wright Brothers National Monument. For me, standing in the very place that modern powered flight started was one of those goose pimple moments.