THEN WE'RE GOING TO PAROLE IT. Memorial Day began as Decoration Day, a ceremony of placing flags and flowers at the graves of Civil War dead, and its adoption in the Union States may have been inspired by similar remembrances in the states that seceded. For today's Memorial Day post, a visit to the Vicksburg battlefield, here looking at the siege itself. The cutting off of the army in Vicksburg, as well as the trip report, are the subjects of earlier posts.

Some of the original Jackson to Vicksburg road remains in essentially its wartime condition on the east side of the battlefield park. (Did the shadow of the photographer ever get into a glass-plate negative of that era?)


The terrain favored the defender, but the defender was not able to resupply with northern troops inland and the river held by the Navy.


The defenders prepared defensive positions as best they could, although that resupply problem hampered their effectiveness.


The contemporary battlefield has a large number of position markers and monuments. Many of the states adopted a uniform design for their unit markers. This Illinois marker recognizes the Chicago Mercantile Battery, a unit that lives in reenactment.


Ohio went for variations in its unit markers, including this rendition of a Minie ball.


The states also appropriated funds for state-specific monuments. Missouri had to purchase two, one for its loyalist units and one for the rebel units, shown below.


Illinois built a large monument, modeled on the Roman Pantheon, complete with the hole in the dome. (There's some Latin term for the hole but that escapes me at the moment.)



Inside, there are plaques with the names of all the Illinois troops, including some women. A few family members of the senior officers merit mention as well.

The Wisconsin monument also lists units and their members. Although the monument does not mention the 31^st nor 34^th Reg^ts in which some collateral ancestors served, elements of both regiments were at Vicksburg. The eagle atop the column honors a very specific eagle, Old Abe, who went into battle with the 8^th Wisconsin and who may have inspired the 101st Airborne's shoulder patch.


At battle's end, Gen^l Grant accepted the surrender of the army in Vicksburg and then paroled it, rather than allocate transportation to prisoners.