Illinois Circle, at Sunset

I started off trying to find a place to take a pretty sunset picture.
And ran across another set of monuments.

I used to travel down Hall's Ferry Road in Vicksburg just about every day, but now that Kathe and I are in the new house, we take a different route. So the trip now ends up being the exception, rather than the rule.

At the top of the hill is a road to nowhere.  No buildings to access, not a business or even a power station.  It is just a small roundabout, encircling a small hillock, with pretty significant erosional gullies on the front side.

And quite a few monuments and markers.

One of the formal entrances to Vicksburg.  Serves as a community bulletin board where they announce events like the annual Lebanese Food Festival in February.  

The monuments sit atop a hill, right behind the welcome to Vicksburg sign (one of six highway exits that funnel into town), The sign has an interesting feature - the side posts are in the form of the 'pierced column' motif found on ole Vicksburger houses around town.  It is an quaint trait peculiar to Vicksburg.

Vicksburg's Corners Bed and Breakfast - note the use of the 'pierced column'.

Right behind the welcome sign is a blue marker - blue references Union locations - that describes the area as part of Lauman's Division.  Not sure what the spur is, (at the left of the marker).  But General Lauman came from Memphis, bringing with him the 12th and 33rd Wisconsin, filling a gap in the Vicksburg siege (Rood, H. Wisconsin at Vicksburg) between McClerndon's forces and the Mississippi River.  

There is a sharp hill with erosion patterns that are typical of the loess soils of Vicksburg - and this is where the monuments themselves are located.  I geek out about the soils, because they are perfect for cutting vertical faces into, carving out caves, and holding their form forever.  (One roadcut had been adorned with the words "REMEMBER DWAYNE ALLMAN" and had stayed that way for ten years.)  Loess caves were common during the Civil War, as Vicksburgers would evacuate their homes for hobbit lairs.  Some of the caves were still available to visit a few years ago.

If the loess is not cut on a vertical, however, the erosion is severe, and takes a while to stabilize.  

Loess soil erosion - from the top of the hill.

  The sunset picture didn't quite come out the way I wanted, but there were a number of cenotaphs and markers in the area.  A Wisconsin cenotaph honoring the leadership of Colonel George E. Bryant, Lt Col DeWitt C. Poole, and Maj. William Strong:

The Ohio Light Artillery also got some love, with the 15th Battery and the two 20-pound Parrott rifles through the second part of the siege.  Union marker, by the blue color.

Ohio got more markers honoring the 7th Battery Light Artillery, led by Captain Silas Burnap.

All of the markers are located on the slope just above Halls Ferry Road on Illinois Circle.  It was once part of Vicksburg's Military Park.  The markers remain, even after the land is no longer part of the park.

Illinois' 32nd Infantry, under the leadership of Colonel John Logan, arriving in Warrenton, MS, about June 27, and "remained there to end of siege."  

Um, guys.... that is a whopping seven days. Pretty heavy-duty monument to honor service of seven days!

The Ohio Fifteenth Battery is commemorated by a lovely stone marker, complete with eagle on a perch.  Well, almost complete. The eagle's head seems to be missing.

The 15th Battery Ohio Light Artillery was commanded by Captain Edward Spear, and manned two more parrot rifles at the location for a couple of months at the end of the siege.

The location of the site was pretty close to the highway, and takes advantage of a natural ridge, which the Union forces used to enclose the circle of the siege.