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History–Tours
186318 May – 4 July 1863 · Vicksburg, Mississippi

Siege of Vicksburg

1863 photograph of Union soldiers' dugouts on the hillside below the Shirley House during the siege of Vicksburg
Archival image: O. D. Finch. CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Ulysses S. Grant crossed the Mississippi below Vicksburg, won a string of battles inland and then besieged the river fortress city for 47 days while its civilians sheltered in hillside caves. Its surrender on 4 July 1863, the day after Gettysburg ended, gave the Union the whole Mississippi and split the Confederacy in two. Vicksburg did not celebrate Independence Day again for generations.

Sites

  1. Site 1: Vicksburg National Military ParkA sixteen-mile tour road past trenches, forts and over 1,300 monuments.Map ↗
  2. Site 2: USS Cairo Gunboat and MuseumThe raised hull of a Union ironclad sunk by a mine in 1862.Map ↗
  3. Site 3: Old Court House MuseumHilltop 1858 courthouse that Union troops raised their flag over in 1863.Map ↗

Guides who take you there

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