Military Park

3,521 rounds of ammo fired in 90 days.

Remi, Gabi, Brittany, Kathe and I went to the Military park this past weekend.  When I started the blog, I consciously decided that writing the blog about the monuments in a park where there are more than 1800 monuments is probably not the way to go.  If you want the description of that park, go check out the National Park Service website.  I focused instead on the monuments outside of the park.

But the park is incredible, and I would be doing a disservice if I did not pay at least passing homage to the incredible remains and the memorials.  The work that people have done to recreate the sense of the battlefield is simply amazing.

Earlier in the day, Remi and I had been running the streets, and drove on a road that passed through the park.  Deep woods on either side.  We talked about what it would have been like to try and fight uphill in an area you couldn't see, against an enemy that owned the high ground.

We agreed that pacifism would have been a very noble goal, and that we would have probably pursued those ends, rather than being cannon fodder.

The park is well trimmed.  The Park Service does a yeoman's job of keeping the entire site accessible by beating back the wilderness that encroaches at every opportunity.  I repeated my statement of fact that the fields are a new thing. Original battle would have been done in the woods.

And then had to retract my statement.  A very little bit of research showed me wrong.  These were ag fields during the Civil War, and all the trees would have been cut down to make room for crops.  So when the battle began, the combatants would be fighting with little cover at all.

Gabi in the tunnel, heading away from the battlefield.
Photo by Brittany Beltram

Which makes the bravery even more shocking.  It also made the engineering of the attacks and the fortifications and the positioning of the cannon even more impressive.  Cannons on top of the hill, pointing downward.  Soldiers working their way up the hill, with gabions to take the impact of the cannonballs, digging trenches as they climbed the hill.  Trenches and embankments and earth moved to suit the needs of battle everywhere.  A tunnel that extended beyond a ridge to the supply lines, protecting the lines while protecting the supplies (see figure).

In the early part of the 20th Century, the states that had sent soldiers (and sailors - the biggest monument at the park is an obelisk raised in honor of the Navy) raised memorials in the park to commemorate the battle.  It is an equal opportunity memorial, with Confederate and Union monuments along a 19-mile course (although in the early 20th C, southern states were still struggling economically, and it shows in the monuments).

Location of 3d battery, where the Ohio Light Artillery had their cannons.
Almost the entire upper left quadrant of the picture is pure National Park.

The park is amazing.  It is a fantastic place for biking, walking, running, or just walking.  It is also a great place to learn about history.  The USS Cairo (pronounced Kay-Row) was recovered in the early 1960s; its museum sits next to the reconstructed ironclad, with much of its original wood still in place.  The museum houses an amazing collection of items that were recovered after the ship was rapidly abandoned after hitting a torpedo.

The layout of the entire park provides you with a sense of context that you simply cannot get from reading.

There is also a lot of nature, all around.  As we were driving around the park, there was a cedar tree that seemed to be moving...On two sides of the tree, a swarm was working to cool the hive.  And thousands of bees just covered the surface of the tree. (I LOVED that little bit.)

We had a great time, even with the grumpy NPS guy shooing us away from the Cairo ("SEVEN minutes remain for the park to be open."  "FOUR minutes remaining for the park to be open.")  The place is is serene, beautiful, and provides context for the battles and the siege for which Vicksburg is so famous.

When you come, we will go.  It is worth it.

You're standing WHERE?

Years ago, my marido David Anderson told me about research he did for his college thesis.  In it, he looked at perspective of the viewer.  Who, exactly, is seeing the monument? Where are they looking when they see it? How does that affect the nature of our interpretation of the monument?

He was looking at carved stone monuments in Maya sites.  And it poses an interesting question - what is the ruler looking at while the subjects are looking at him?  

I just didn't expect to be asking the same question in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

The image above is taken from across the street - at the local Taco Casa - on Pemberton Avenue.  Lieutenant General John Pemberton was the commander of the forces in Vicksburg during the siege, and there are a number of places in town that are named in his honor.  The picture is not terribly clear, so I will provide a close-up of what you see from the street when you drive by the bronze plaque.

That's right.  The plaque is intended to be read from the other side.

Also in the grassy area between the Newk's parking lot (a McAlister's deli kind of sandwich shop) and the beloved Taco Casa (replete with its Ty-D-Bowl blue fountain out front) is a slight rise, with a circle of carved monuments and obelisks.

You can just make out the circle of monuments in the grassy area.
The yellow pin at the top shows the location of the bronze plaque.

None of them - not the monuments nor the cenotaph -  are visible from any convenient area.

This is the point in the narrative where the hero has an opportunity to discuss the personal risks taken

Opening Salvo, Vicksburg Monuments and Cenotaphs

Cenotaph to the 1st Missouri Light Artillery.
 Located at the intersection of the I-20 Frontage Rd and Halls Ferry Road, in front of the gas station.
Where you can get any size fountain for less than a penny.

Vicksburg is lousy with monuments.  I have never lived in a place that has as many commemorative markers in so many places.  When I first came to Vicksburg, I noticed it in a place or two, here and there. Then I went to the Military Park, and drove/wandered through the more than 1300 monuments, markers, tablets and plaques.  It is overwhelming, and astonishing.

The park is no glorification of war. Nor is it a museum of horrors.  It also does not whitewash the harsh realities.  It does describe the strategies of the two sides, the ways in which they worked to achieve their objectives. It tallies the dead, and each state built monuments in the early 20th century to honor those who fought.  But the monuments are not only relegated to the National Park (meaning there are more than 1,340 of them in Vicksburg!)

Vicksburg - all of Vicksburg - was the site of one of the more decisive conflicts in the Civil War.  And now I find I can scarcely go to the grocery store without having to dodge a marker or twenty.  Sometimes they are right along the road