Monday was a cloudy, rainy, eclipsy kinda day. We saw the eclipse for a moment but that was all. It was difficult to find meaningful photos because of the scale of what we were seeing; at Vicksburg and at Poverty Point.
As we were leaving the ship, we saw the side of a building that was painted to identify how high the river had risen at different point. The 1927 flood was the worst, but the 2011 flood was a close second.
We started out at the Vicksburg National Military Park. The Confederates controlled the Mississippi River from Cairo, Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico. Because the city had a bustling port and a railroad, it was of extreme importance to both sides. From points west of the Mississippi River, men, food, salt, and weapons, funneled through Mexico, made their way to Vicksburg and Confederate armies in the East
With the luck of the draw, our guide was the recently retired senior Park Service Ranger for the Vicksburg park. He spoke nonstop for 3 hours describing in enough detail to provide understanding and enough diversity of topics to keep it interesting.
Confederate engineers capably fortified strategic positions like Vicksburg. With its riverfront artillery batteries and a ring of forts with over 170 cannon, the Confederate leadership was confident that Vicksburg was safe from Union incursions. Even from the north and east, the natural topography with a maze of swamps and bayous offered a seemingly impregnable defense that kept General Grant's army at bay for much of the 18-month campaign. The siege of Vicksburg lasted 47 days before it fell to the Union troops.
The US Navy played a large role in the Civil War. The USS Cairo is on display and was really interesting to hear about. It was sunk a few miles north of Vicksburg after hitting some mines. The captain was able to beach the ship and evacuate all sailors with no loss of life. It laid buried until the early 1960s when it was discovered and restoration efforts began.
After a quick lunch and eclipse viewing, we headed to Poverty Point World Heritage Site in Lousisiana. I had done absolutely no research about the place and truly thought we were going to see how tough life was in the Civil War era. Poverty Point is totally different and only called such because of the plantation that used to be on the site.
Centuries ago, when Stonehenge was built and Queen Nefertiti ruled Egypt, American Indians were building earthen monuments in north Louisiana. Hand by hand and basketful by basketful, men and women shaped nearly 2 million cubic yards of soil into stunning landscapes. The result was a massive 72-foot-tall mound, enormous concentric half-circles and related earthworks that dwarfed every other earthen monument site for 2,200 years.
There are a few uses for mounds. Some are used for burials. Some are used as platforms to elevate special buildings or temples. Others, such as shell mounds in Florida, are ancient trash heaps. Yet Poverty Point stands apart. With no human remains or heaps of shells, archaeologists assume that these were symbols of power and wealth.
Domestic tools, human figurines and tons of stones from up to 800 miles away have led to speculation that Poverty Point was an ancient residential, trade and ceremonial center. But, as was constantly pointed out, the archaeologists are constantly changing their theories of Poverty Point as new discoveries are made.
More mysteries: Poverty Point was abandoned around 1100 B.C. A more recent native group added another mound in about A.D. 700, but occupied only a small fraction of the site, and only for a brief period. Aside from that, there was only intermittent human use of the site for 2,900 years, until Euroamericans settled in the area in the 1800s.
Arriving back at the ship shortly before 6PM, it was time to relax. The featured entertainer presented the songs of the Civil War. Many of the songs being sung had two sets of verses; one for the Union and one for the Confederacy. It was interesting to hear them both.
