Vicksburg National Military Park

Did You Know?

• The Vicksburg National Cemetery has 18,244 interments, of which 12,954 are unidentified.
• The cemetery contains one Commonwealth war grave, an airman of the Royal Australian Air Force from World War II.
• The USS Cairo is also known as the 'Hardluck Ironclad'.

Battlefield

The park contains 1,325 historic monuments and markers, 20 miles of trenches and earthworks, a 16-mile tour road, and a 12.5-mile walking trail. It includes two antebellum homes, 144 emplaced cannons, and the restored gunboat USS Cairo, which was sunk on December 12, 1862, on the Yazoo River.

The Cairo was the first U.S. ship sunk by a torpedo and was recovered in 1964. The Illinois Memorial has 47 steps, one for each day of the siege. The park also encompasses several battle sites, including the Battle of Champion Hill and the Battle of Big Black River Bridge.

Grant's Canal

Remnants of Grant's Canal lie across from Vicksburg near Delta, Louisiana. In January 1863, Major General Ulysses S. Grant restarted the canal, assigning it to Brigadier General William T. Sherman, though neither had faith in its success. The canal aimed to alter the Mississippi River to bypass Confederate guns at Vicksburg, but failed for technical reasons. Grant used the project to keep troops occupied during maneuvering.

Administrative history

The park was established on February 21, 1899, and transferred from the War Department to the National Park Service on August 10, 1933. In the late 1950s, a portion was transferred to the city in exchange for closing local roads and allowing construction of Interstate 20; NPS still maintains the monuments on that land. The park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. In 2000, the Mississippi House of Representatives approved funding for a monument recognizing African-American soldiers in the Civil War.