How to kill four hours in Vicksburg, MS on a Sunday...

Instead of Doing Dishes spent two days touring the Vicksburg National Military Park and checking out the Living History exhibit going on there.  The second day didn't last quite as long as the first, so we went home.

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Just Kidding! Come on people...you know us well enough by now to know that we did NOT go home...we got lost instead.  I will go ahead and preface this with the fact that we ended up somewhere in Louisiana before we DID decide to return to Hamburg. :)

First stop, the Anshe Chesed Jewish Cemetery just outside the gates of the Vicksburg National Military Park.

                                                  

On the map given by the NPS, the cemetery is listed as a private cemetery, but the Vicksburg Tour brochure states that the cemetery is open to the public everyday except Saturday.  Seeing as it was Sunday that we were roaming about, we decided to drop by for a visit.

Some very beautiful monuments!

We then headed downtown.  We were going to check out the Old Capitol Building Museum, but got stopped at a memorial to the Vicksburg Soldiers who lost their lives in World War I.

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After this beautiful moment in the middle of a downtown street (literally, that is where the monument and attached garden is) we finally made our way to the "Closed until 1:30 on Sunday" Old Court House Museum. Heather got some great shots and we decided we would return when it was open to tour. *Spoiler Alert - We got lost and never made it back, but one day we will get our tour!

Following signs, we found our way to the Cedar Hill Cemetery.




We did not even cover half of this massive cemetery! It compares in size and magnificent stonework to the Natchez City Cemetery. I do have to give some props to Vicksburg.  The cemetery was very easy to navigate.  The cemetery is divided into small sections that can easily be driven through. There is even a Confederate Soldier section to the cemetery. Here, hundreds of Confederate soldiers from several states are laid to rest. I believe I read that this is the largest interment of Confederate soldiers in the country.

We decided to leave the cemetery in search of sustenance...which seems to be the reason we leave a lot of places. Once again I did not know where exactly we were.  You know, you follow signs to get to places of importance...but there are no signs going backwards... Anyway! I managed to get us back to downtown Vicksburg, but not the downtown Vicksburg I was accustomed to.  I usually ride around down by the river and around the museums and brick-paved streets.  We found ourselves on the far northern side of downtown Vicksburg where there were lots of historical buildings we did not know were there!

                                           

This Old Main Street District of Vicksburg was full of character and charm.

We grabbed a bite to eat and decided to wrap up our trip to Vicksburg by finding the Grant's Canal monument on the Louisiana side of the Mississippi River.  Now, you know we don't usually use maps, but the Vicksburg National Military Park map showed the location of the monument and some directions. If you go looking for Grant's Canal Monument, just a hint from an experienced traveler, follow the directions.  I was trying to recall them from memory...needless to say we ended up going in the wrong direction.  The road we took put us on a levee and eventually under the Interstate 20 Mississippi River Bridge.  Since we were driving through swampy...and I will say sketchy, areas, Heather used the sun roof of my car and captured some really great shots of the view we had. At one point she thought she saw an alligator, thus the continued use of the sunroof.

The road became extremely rutted and muddy, so we turned around and went back to where we started.  When we got back to the interstate, I went in the opposite direction.  No joke, this is what we saw five seconds later...

I would, at this time and much to Heather's disliking, like to point out the top sign of the trio we encountered.  Look familiar? Yes folks, that right there is a "Grant's March" sign! Do you recognize it? Here, let me remind you of the two days we spent starving, wandering drunkenly, meandering somewhat aimlessly about Southwest Mississippi following these signs.  I plan on tricking convincing Heather that we should go back to what turned out to be Delta, Louisiana and follow the first part of "Grant's March."

The signs are super easy to follow(once you find them) and will lead you back under the I-20 bridge to Old Hwy 20 and a lovely monument in honor of those who worked on completing Grant's Canal.

Connecticut Monument

The original canal is still visible

       

For you non-history buffs, this was where Ulysses S. Grant originally tried to attack Vicksburg.  Vicksburg was the last hold out along the Mississippi River for the Union to have control of the Mighty Mississippi.  The bluffs at Vicksburg were the perfect high ground to stop any Union boats from making it past. Grant's first idea was to dig a canal from the Louisiana side of the river and sneak into Vicksburg.  This attempt failed and he was forced to make his way south to Bruinsburg (close to Port Gibson, Mississippi), where he crossed and began his march towards, albeit not directly, Vicksburg.

We were on Hwy 80 and close to the town of Delta, we decided to check it out.  It was a small town with a playground, city hall, fire department, and a medical clinic.  We wondered how they survived when the Mighty Mississippi decided to flood her banks every couple of years...

Delta took all of 5 minutes to navigate around, so we decided, what the heck, let's trek on down HWY 80 west a few miles to the next little stop...Mound, Louisiana.  Heather was the one using good old Google this time, and found some information on an Indian Mound in the area, but we did not find it on this trip (hint hint).

While on the road between Delta and Mound, we realized some of the road signs off to the right were named "Plantation."  We took one off through a corn field...think massive corn field...I thought I saw children...But all we found was a house under construction, nothing remotely old about it.

We found a few older houses, but then we got to this road.

This is another road through a corn field with a house on one side and a lot of over grown trees and shrubs on the other. We made it to the end of the road...again...lots of corn, turned around and were on our way out discussing why all of the "Plantation" roads no longer held plantation homes. Then Heather spotted this off in the bushes!

Off in the overgrown brush, barely visible, sitting in and behind years of overgrowth and neglect was a beautiful plantation home. We did some digging and could find nothing but a census from the early 1900's stating that Nil Desperandum Plantation owned a mule. The name is Latin and roughly translates as  "Never Despair."

After all that we found in Louisiana that day, we will definitely be returning to do what we do best...getting lost and taking pictures!

We hope everyone has a wonderful Summer and we will see you on the roads!

-Rosemary