The Original Vicksburg National Military Park and Vicinity

By David B. Dumas

The Vicksburg National Military Park as it exists today is about two-thirds the size of the original park. The book describes the park as it was when the park was created. The book contains the name and location of markers and monuments that are currently located in the park. The book contains a brief history of the park, early photographs, descriptions, and styles of state markers and monuments. There are early maps of the park showing all the trenches and approaches. This book will give the park visitor far more insight as to the locations of all the markers that were associated with the park.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Dec 14, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524652043

David B. Dumas

David B. Dumas was born in Galveston, Texas, and holds a PhD in geophysics. He is an amateur historian and a photographer who has been photographing and visiting areas relating to the Vicksburg campaign and battles in Mississippi for the last thirty-five years. He has published tour guides of Grant’s March in Louisiana, the Yazoo Pass Expedition, and the Steele Bayou Expedition. He is retired and continues to travel to Mississippi, photographing sites from the Civil War.

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© 2017 David B. Dumas. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 12/14/2016

ISBN: 978-1-5246-5203-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5246-5204-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016919638

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Contents

Preface

A Brief History of the Park

Early Park Photographs

Monuments and Tablets

Site Locations Methodology

Tables and Locations of Monuments and Markers

SECTION 1: Iowa Avenue and US 61 South.

SECTION 2: Hall’s Ferry Road and Pemberton Square Blvd.

SECTION 3: Confederate Ave (1) between US 61 and All Saints School.

SECTION 4: Confederate Avenue (2) between All Saints School and Wisconsin Avenue.

SECTION 5: Confederate Avenue (3) between Wisconsin Avenue and Military Avenue, Including Indiana Avenue, Lower Part of the South Loop Inside the Park.

SECTION 6: Upper Part of the South Loop north of Kentucky Ave. South of R.R. Redoubt.

SECTION 7: North of the Railroad Redoubt and Visitor Center Area.

SECTION 8: Minnesota State Memorial to Surrender Interview Site: Union Avenue.

SECTION 9: Shirley House Area, ³d Louisiana Redan and the Old Jackson Road:

SECTION 10: Union Avenue between the Wisconsin State Memorial and Tour Stop 5:

SECTION 11: Grant Circle to Union Avenue:

SECTION 12: Union Avenue North.

SECTION 13: Navy Memorial Area.

SECTION 14: Upper Water Batteries.

SECTION 15: Confederate Avenue between Fort Hill and the Tennessee State Memorial.

SECTION 16: Confederate Avenue between the 2⁶th Louisiana and Stockade Redan.

SECTION 17: Sherman Avenue (East).

SECTION 18: Sherman Avenue (West). This includes Sherman Avenue not covered in Section 17.

Mapping the Sites

Additional Reading

Acknowledgement

Preface

In the early 1980s, I became a football official in the Southwestern Athletic Conference. My first assignment, as an official, was in Jackson, Mississippi. As I reviewed my map, I discovered that the route from Houston (TX) to Jackson (MS) included Vicksburg (MS). I had a high school classmate, who was an engineer with the Army Corps of Engineers in Vicksburg, and decided to take the route through Vicksburg and visit him. I also remembered a lesson from my high school history class about an event that occurred at Vicksburg during the Civil War. I discovered that there was a park in Vicksburg that memorialized the event that occurred during the war. I decided to visit the park the Sunday after the game as part of my return trip to Houston.

When I arrived at the park, I obtained a map prepared for tourist and began my memorable adventure. At each location I stopped and photographed everything I saw until I depleted all of my film. As I drove through the park I fell in love with the place. When I completed the tour I stopped at the Visitor Center and purchased pamphlets and books about the park and the Vicksburg Campaign. The more I read the more I wanted to know what happened, not only at Vicksburg, but at other places connected with the campaign. Since my first visit to the park, I have tried to return at least once a year. Now that I have retired, I try to return to the park at least twice a year. I have continued to photograph not only the park but also other areas/sites that surround Vicksburg, especially those that are related to the campaign.

When surfing the internet in 2012, I found a 1930s topographic map of the park. The map identified a list of the monuments and markers in the park at that time and their locations as well. As I studied the map, I realized that there was so much of the park that I had not seen and did not know existed. This map allowed me to visit sites that are currently inside the park, in addition to those that are outside the present-day park. Many of the sites that I had not seen inside the park were located in the mowed or wooded areas between the Union and Confederate lines. The park maintains mowed areas allowing one to walk to these sites; they are not accessible by car. For example, you can park at a tour stop or a pull over parking spot so that one can walk to the mowed areas.

This was the motivating factor to write this book. I wanted to make it possible for other Vicksburg Campaign enthusiasts to be able to visit and enjoy this history that is not currently illustrated in pamphlets, books, or tour guides.

A Brief History of the Park

¹

The Civil War was the paramount event in United States history. One of the major centers of the conflict centered on and around the town of Vicksburg, Mississippi. In May of 1863, after several months of trying to capture the city of Vicksburg, Major General Ulysses Grant and the Union Army of the Tennessee arrived at the outskirts of the city. After two failed assaults on May 19 and 22, 1863, Grant began siege operations which culminated in the surrender of the city on July 4, 1863. In August, 1863, the Union Army was put to work to leveling the forts and battery positions and filling in trenches and approaches.

After the war the area between the siege and defense lines was returned to farming and grazing lands by the local inhabitants. Most of the earthworks and entrenchments that still exist were worn-down by farming and natural erosion. However, the natural topography changed very little which aided in the restoration and placement of markers and guns in the park. The battlefield around Vicksburg remained largely under private ownership that lacked preservation and protection for over three decades. During this period, excluding farming and grazing, trees and foliage started to reappear; this evolution in nature changed and created a new backdrop for the area of conflict.

A reunion of Union and Confederate veterans known as the Blue and Gray Reunion was held in May, 1890. The veterans were appalled when they toured the battlefield. The terrain, where they fought and the grounds where their comrades died, had been forgotten.

Following the war, the Vicksburg veterans and other Civil War veterans decided that something had to be done not only to preserve this historical event, but also to inform future generations of what they did and the locations where major events in the war occurred . The Union veterans who fought together at Gettysburg organized to place monuments on the battlefield. At first it was only Union troops that placed monuments and markers on the field, but eventually Confederate monuments and markers would also be placed on the field. The land at Gettysburg would be the first to be preserved, however, Chickamauga and Chattanooga would become the first National Military Park (NMP), followed by Antietam National Battlefield, Shiloh (NMP), and Gettysburg NMP.

The veterans of the Vicksburg Campaign saw what had taken place at other battlefields and decided that the same must be done for those who participated in the Vicksburg Campaign. The Vicksburg area lagged behind other areas in the country for establishing a park; the reasons were many and varied widely. For example, one reason could have been that the location of Vicksburg was in the South, and the South lost the war; the Southern citizens did not want to be reminded of this. Another reason could have been the lack of funds from local and state governments; both economies (North and South) suffered heavily from the war.

Thomas Lewis, a native of Vicksburg, began to speak out in the early 1890s for the establishment of a park; his words carried little weight. Momentum for the establishment of a park began in earnest in 1894 when Union veterans from Iowa visited the battlefield. Former captain John F. Merry of the 21st Iowa led the group of Iowa veterans. His visit generated plans for the creation of an association for the establishment of a park. This association would be known as the Vicksburg National Military Park Association with former Confederate lieutenant general Stephen D. Lee as its first president. Lee was the first former Confederate elected to head this type of association. The Association went to work immediately and received a charter of incorporation from the state of Mississippi in November of 1895. The Association then began to draft a bill to establish the park; the principal author was former captain William T. Rigby of the 24th Iowa. The executive board approved the bill in January 1896. Following the approval of the bill by the executive committee, the Association focused on the United States Congress to pass the bill. The committee lobbied Congress for three frustrating years. Congress finally passed the bill, and the bill was approved in 1899.

With the passage of the bill the park was assigned to the War Department and under the administration of the secretary of war who would have control of all matters that related to the park. The secretary of war then appointed three commissioners to oversee the park. The commissioners were William T. Rigby of Iowa, former captain James G. Everest of Illinois, and Stephen D. Lee of Mississippi as Chairman. The commission now had a daunting task: (1) to acquire land, (2) to laying out roads, and (3) to place monuments, tablets, and other types of markers in the park. In 1904 the commission reported the completion of Confederate and Union Avenues. Secondary roads were built as time permitted. By 1908 the park had about thirty-one (31) miles of roads and sixteen (16) bridges of various types. A bi-product of road building was the discovery of various artifacts which included numerous cannon balls, bullets, and two skeletons of Union soldiers in 1901.

The enabling legislation that established Vicksburg National Military Park on February 21, 1899, directed the secretary of war to mark the lines of battle. It also gave sole authority to the states which were involved in the campaign, siege, and defense of Vicksburg, the ability to erect monuments and markers in memory of their soldiers. Therefore, as with other parks, many states that had troops at Vicksburg began to organize ‘monument commissions’ to place permanent markers in their parks. These markers identified their troop’s positions and movements during the siege. Many of the veterans were still alive; they came to Vicksburg, told what had happened, and identified the location (s) of conflict.

In 1903 the commission sought bids for ‘the casting of iron tablets’ to be placed around the park. The commission wanted both bronze and iron tablets. The use of bronze tablets was rejected by the secretary of war; they were too costly. The commission then went to work to get contracts to make the tablets. The first contractor could not produce the 151 cast iron tablets during the designated timetable. The commission then contracted two additional companies to produce 455 cast iron tablets and fifty-eight guide board tablets. By July 1906, the park had received all but four tablets. By the end of 1907, all tablets that had been initially ordered were in place; by the end of 1908, 979 markers were in place. The government paid for 874 markers at a cost of $15,418.56.

As work continued to improve the park, the park commission decided to build observations towers that would provide a better view of the park. In July 1907, work began on an observation tower at Logan Circle. Logan Circle was located on the Old Jackson Road east of the Shirley House. The observation tower was near the location where Grant viewed the assaults on May 22, 1863. A second tower was started in the summer of 1908, and it was located on the south side of Confederate Avenue between Fort Hill and Tennessee Circle. A third tower was built in the southern part of the park on the west side of Confederate Avenue (190 yards south of the All Saints School). All three towers were completed by 1910.

The commission also worked to place artillery in the park. At first, the commission wanted to replace all artillery pieces that were in action in 1863, but this was not feasible. Eventually, toward the end of 1909, the commission did purchase sixty-six Union gun carriages and sixty-two Confederate gun carriages at a cost of $11,278.62. The tubes were provided by the Quartermaster Department. The veterans, who fought in the Vicksburg Campaign, occupied many of the states’ legislative seats and wanted to enshrine and memorialize all soldiers who fought in the Vicksburg Campaign. The commonwealth of Massachusetts was first to dedicate a monument in the Vicksburg NMP on November 14, 1903; other states soon followed. By 1908, the commission reported that 422 memorials, monuments, and markers were placed by other states, and 260 additional pieces were expected in the near future. Of the 422 markers only twenty-four were Confederates. By the end of 1908 the majority of the construction work in the park was completed; including roads and bridges. Many of the states dedicated their own memorials, and others were near completion. Also, during 1908, the commission lost one of its founding fathers, Stephen D. Lee.

With the initial phase of the park ending in 1908 the maintenance phase began in 1909. This is not to say that nothing new was added to the park after 1908, only that the major construction of the park was completed. Several major monuments were erected between 1909-1917 including the Navy Memorial, Missouri Memorial, Wisconsin Memorial and others. Additional work continued to add features to the park; however, the momentum was not the same as in 1899 – 1908. The commission continued to add small parcels of land mostly between one to five acres where roads were needed or for the placement of monuments.

In 1913, major work was undertaken to stop serious erosion in the park at the head of deep gulches near Confederate Avenue. The type of soil in the Vicksburg area consisted of very fine wind-blown sediments called loess. The soil is very porous, but yet nearly impermeable. This type of soil, if not covered with vegetation, would erode very easily. This would become a problem for the park in the upcoming years.

On October 16 -19, 1917, veterans from both sides met in Vicksburg for a joint reunion. The reunion was called the National Memorial Celebration and Peace Jubilee, and nine thousand veterans made their way to the park.

By 1920, the commission reported that it owned 1,322.6 acres of land with 31.86 miles of roadway within the park. The commission also noted that nearly all of the ground contested during the siege and defense if Vicksburg was now within the park.

On May 10, 1929, William T. Rigby, the last of the founding fathers, passed away. Rigby was the most influential man in the park’s history and has been considered the Father of the Park (John Merry can also claim this title as well); he is buried in the Vicksburg National Cemetery.

The 1930s brought major changes to the park. The national military parks were transferred from the War Department (later the Department of Defense) to the National Park Service under the Department of Interior. The park received funds from President Franklin Roosevelt’s Depression programs which were later renamed the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Work began on construction, reconstruction, and improvements to roads, bridges, walk ways, and trails. Many of the roads were widen due to the popularity of the automobile. More visitors began to arrive; they drove through the park in their automobiles. By April 1936, there were 4.6 miles of concrete pavement in the park. The paving of the park continued at a snail’s pace, and by the end of the 1930s only seven miles of the park were paved.

Erosion in the park had always been a major problem for the park commission. Along with the installation of a more elaborate drainage system, the CCC began a major project to stop the erosion process. To address the problem of erosion, the CCC undertook a massive effort to upgrade the area; the work included the ditching and terracing of steep slopes and the planting of trees and turf grass to hold the soil in place². The planting of trees helped to curtail the problem with erosion; however, the trees dramatically and adversely altered the appearance of the park. The park no longer retained its wartime appearance.

Work in the 1940s was rolled back because of World War II. In 1942 approximately 145 of the largest and heaviest cast iron tablets and markers were removed; they were used to contribute to the metal drive needed for World War II³. The plan was to replace all of the tablets and markers after the war; however, all of them have not been replaced as of this writing.

Following the war and for the next three decades, additional changes were made to the park. From 1950 to 1970 the changes to the park included land transfer and changes to the roads. In the early 1950s, it became clear to the park commission that urban sprawl had encroached on park property and would continue to escalate with time. By 1953, nine housing developments were under construction along the park’s boundary. A point of contention was public access to park roadway. Two of the new developments had been granted access to park roadway to their deeds when the government had secured the land that bordered the subdivision. As the city of Vicksburg continued