Natchez, Mississippi

Our next stop on the Great River Road was Natchez, Mississippi, but there are no nice campgrounds in Natchez so we chose to stay at Riverview RV Park in Vidalia, Louisiana, just a bridge crossing from Natchez. Wow, what a nice campground. The staff was friendly and helpful as we checked in and then we set up in a long pull-thru site facing the Mississippi River. It is a full hook-up campground with a store, pool, laundry and other niceties, but the view of the river, the bridge, Natchez,  and barge traffic makes this campground a winner. There is also a paved walking trail that goes to the city park. We knew we were in good hands when our first visitor was Vidalia Assistant Police Chief Frank Webb. He welcomed us to his community and entertained us with his joke of the day, then yesterday’s joke and finally got to last month’s jokes. Before leaving he gave us his work telephone number, his cell number and his home number, and told us to call if we had any concerns or questions.

Our first sightseeing trip took us south down the river to Rosemont, the childhood home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. From there we took a driving tour of historic St. Francisville and crossed the Mississippi River by ferry ($1 fee) to Louisiana, and back up the river to our campground in Vidalia. The old river has changed its course along the border between those two states and now it runs where the Corp of Engineers says it will, between levies. Still to be seen are the old river and lakes that are dammed for flood control and electric generating plants. It is amazing what our government has done to Old Man River.

Natchez is one of the oldest and most historic cities in the deep south. During the Civil War it was vital to both sides, north and south, so none of the structures were burned or destroyed. It has more antebellum (pre-Civil War) homes than any other city and many of the homes are open for tours. There are more than 350 pre-Civil War structures in Natchez. We began our city tour at the new and impressive Visitor Center overlooking the Mississippi River, then we walked into town and were confronted with a heavy rain so we ran into Fat Mama’s Tacos to keep from drowning.

The next day the skies were clear so we took a narrated carriage ride tour of Natchez to get an overview of the city and learn its history. We ate lunch at the Pig Out Inn, a local BBQ restaurant, and then we began our city tour by visiting two churches. The First Presbyterian Cathedral was built in 1828-29 and has had several upgrades since then. Families rented their pews and if they failed to make their annual pew donation the entire congregation would know it. When a family donated (paid) more their pew would be closer to the front so everyone knew who was donating to the church, how much they donated and Lord Forbid, if they stopped donating they would be sent to the cheap seats in the rear. The church’s upper rooms contain beautiful paintings and photographs of Natchez giving the history of the city. Next we visited St. Mary Basilica, a Catholic Cathedral, that was constructed in 1842-43. It has a beautiful interior with marble, statutes, paintings, stained glass windows and a pipe-organ.

There are about a dozen antebellum houses open for tours in Natchez and we selected three to tour, but during our carriage ride and drives around town we viewed all of them from the exterior. Auburn was completed in 1812 and was designated the most magnificent building in the territory. The stately 12-room mansion was built of solid brick that was fired by local kilns and accented with Ionic columns, double galleries, intricate moldings and a graceful freestanding spiral staircase that rises unsupported to the second story. Gloria was invited to play the parlor’s piano to entertain our tour group.

Stanton Hall, a magnificent Greek Revival mansion, was built in 1857. No expense was spared, from immense Corinthian columns topped with iron capitals to silver door knobs and hinges, extravagant Italian marble mantles, massive gold-leaf mirrors, and grand chandeliers. The five levels of the house include a nearly 17-foot tall first floor hallway, three parlors and six bedrooms. Pictures are not allowed inside the house.

Longwood, the largest octagonal house in America, is a superb example of the mid-nineteenth century Oriental Villa style. The mansion was started in 1860 with Philadelphia craftsmen and progressed rapidly. A octagonal rotunda is open to the entire six stories and crowning the whole is a Byzantine-Moorish dome with a 24 foot finial. When the Civil War started in 1861 the craftsmen fled north leaving their tools and paint brushes where they can still been seen today. Local workers completed the basement level as living quarters for the family. Longwood is maintained in its unfinished state as it was during the Civil War.

The above are only a few of the antebellum houses in Natchez open for tours and this was our second visit of that historic city (first time was before we started fulltiming). It is a place worthy of a third visit. Leaving Natchez we traveled the Natchez Trace Parkway to just south of Vicksburg. We have traveled the Trace two times in a motorhome and once in a car and it was a joy to drive part of it again with beautiful scenery, a speed limit of 50-mph and no commercial traffic. The Trace runs 444 miles from Natchez to Nashville, Tennessee, but our summer’s mission is the Great River Road so we exited the Trace.
 

Vicksburg, Mississippi

We set up camp at River Town Campground, just south of Vicksburg, but it is not close to the river. It was a nice campground with a friendly staff and long pull-thru sites with full hook-ups and free WiFi. Before touring the city we drove to Jackson to visit the Mississippi State Capitol. The capitol was built in 1901-03 at a cost of just over a million dollars, with money from back taxes from the Illinois Central Railroad. In 1978-82 it was renovated at a cost of $19 million. I must say it is a beautiful building and so ornate it reminds of a circus carousal. The rotunda walls are Italian white marble, the base is New York jet black marble and columns of art marble grace the sides with scenes relating to the state. The whole is lighted by 750 lights, and speaking of lights, there are 4,750 original light fixtures in the capitol. We climbed the Grand Staircase and entered the Legislative room where the elected officials were in session. We sat a while and watched and listened, but there seemed to be confusion on the floor so we gracefully sneaked out.

Back in Vicksburg we ate dinner at Rusty’s Riverfront Grill and the food was very good, a little pricy, and there is one thing we will always remember about that busy restaurant. It was located in an old building and the small dining room floor was eighteen inches lower in the front than in the back. Everything in the restaurant was on a slant and the servers said they had learned to not fall down.

In 1894, a young candy merchant named Joseph A. Biedenham of Vicksburg took a popular fountain beverage known as Coca-Cola and put it in a bottle. He established a network and sold the bottled beverage around Vicksburg starting the bottled beverage industry. The Biedenham Candy Company buildings have been restored and contain a Coca-Cola museum.

North of town we found Martha’s Grocery with tower’s of pink, white and yellow masonry surrounding the original store building. The structure is the work of the Rev. H.D. Dennis, Margaret’s husband, who promised her years ago, “if you marry me I’ll turn your store into a palace.” It sure didn’t look like a palace to me, but it is impressive as it stretches more than 100 feet along the highway.

Vicksburg has turned their riverfront into a beautiful park with murals along the flood wall of Levee Street. The murals were painted by Robert Dafford and depict the history of the city. They are so lifelike we thought we were looking at live scenes and not paintings. Before leaving downtown Vicksburg we drove miles looking at old houses, churches and government buildings.

Vicksburg National Military Park

We saved the best for last and spent an entire day at Vicksburg National Military Park, a Civil War site that rivals Gettysburg Battlefield in Pennsylvania. How appropriate we visited the park on Memorial Day. Did you know General John A. Logan proclaimed Decoration Day would be celebrated on May 30 every year to decorate the graves of Union soldiers who lost their lives in the Civil War? Later it was changed to Memorial Day and later to honor all soldiers who have given their lives for our country.

Abraham Lincoln once said whoever controlled Vicksburg would win the war since the Mississippi River was the supply line for both the Union and Confederates. Sitting atop a bluff overlooking a bend in the river, Vicksburg was protected by artillery batteries along the riverfront, by a maze of swamps and bayous to the north and south, and by a ring of forts mounting 172 guns that guarded all land approaches to the city. General John C. Pemberton was in charge of the Confederate forces with about 50,000 widely scattered troops.

General Ulysses S. Grant decided to capture Vicksburg with his army of 45,000 soldiers. He marched his troops down the Louisiana side of the river and after crossing south of Vicksburg he defeated Confederates at Port Gibson, Raymond and Jackson, then he turned towards Vicksburg. Both sides dug in, about 95,000 soldiers total, often setting up lines just yards from each other, but neither side could win an advantage. Grant, reluctant to storm the Confederates and lose more lives, decided to begin a siege of Vicksburg. His troops hammered the southern soldiers with cannon fire while Union gunboats pounded the city from the river. After 46 days the soldiers and their city had run out of food and ammunition and they surrendered.

Today the Vicksburg National Military Park contains an excellent Visitor Center, a 16 mile road trip, walking trails, a restored Union gunboat, 1,330 monuments and markers and a National Cemetery.

We began at the Visitor Center with exhibits and displays and a movie. During the long slow drive through the park we stopped often, probably 20 times, to walk, look at monuments and study signs showing where the troops were dug in. We ate a picnic lunch on the immaculately manicured grounds.



The U.S.S. Cairo, a union ironclad was named for Cairo, Illinois and commissioned on January 16, 1862. On December 12, 1862, in the Yazoo River north of Vicksburg, Cairo struck two underwater torpedoes (today called mines) sinking in less than 12 minutes with no loss of life. It became the first ship in history to be sunk by an electrically detonated torpedo. Preserved by mud and silt, Cairo sat on the bottom of the Yazoo River for 102 years. It was raised in 1964, and later restored and the ironclad is now on display in Vicksburg National Military Park.

The Vicksburg National Cemetery was established in 1866 as a place of rest for Union soldiers killed in the Civil War. It has the distinction of having the largest number of Civil War interments of any national cemetery in the United States. Of the approximate 17,000 Union veterans, only 5,000 are known. The national cemetery also has veterans from the Mexican and Spanish-American Wars, World War I and II, and the Korean Conflict. The cemetery is closed and no longer accepts burials. The last reservation was made in 1963.

I highly recommend visiting the Vicksburg National Military Park and spending at least one full day studying the role this city and those who gave their lives, had on what this country is about today.

Check back later as we continue our travel up the Mississippi River.