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
- Confederate Avenue has dozens.  Other times, you will see a tiny area of manicured grass leading back into the woods.  Go back there, and you will see a monument, a plaque, or a cenotaph.

This blog will be a pictorial guide to the areas of Vicksburg that have memorialized a group or event with a marker.  I will be setting up a GoogleEarth site to accompany my travels across town, so that I can record locations as well as the photo of the marker.  In some cases, I will do a little research, but mostly, it will just be about connecting the dots in my new hometown.

I will not use this venue to glorify the South.  I will not use it to denigrate the South.  I won't argue about the cause of the conflict, or about the people that fought.  I just want to get to know more about the siege, about the location, and about the people who participated.  I will try to get a new photo every week when I am in town.  And when I do, I will share it with you, along with whatever research I can use to back up the story.  Sometimes, it will be from wikipedia, that bane of every academic's existence (those will not get cited specifically).  Other times, I will cite my sources, because I am proud when I do some real research.

And I will also get stuff wrong. Please call me out when I do.  I'll set it right, as best I can.