Touring at Vicksburg

[coastaltrash]

All,
Not sure if anyone is interested in this, but the Thursday before the event myself, Shannon Tilley, Bill Backus, Kiev Thomason, Herb Coats, CJ Davis and possibly Jeremy Hurst will be touring the park and other places of interests throughout the town. Not sure if anyone had planned on coming in early but if you would like to tag along with us by all means send me a PM or email. We will be staying at the Battlefield Inn Thursday evening and heading to the event site at 7 am the following morning to set up and dig in (not literally)

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Re: Touring at Vicksburg

Dang, but on Thursday, Luscombe and I will be visiting places like Stones River, Shiloh, Brice's Crossroads, and Tupelo. Vicksburg touring is on the schedule for Friday late morning and Sunday afternoon for us. Not to mention getting intimately familiar iwth the southern part of the park on Saturday and Sunday. :)

[Ken Cornett]

Re: Touring at Vicksburg

Pat, Mess No.1 is interested if we can get our buts down in time. That would be about ten or more of us. We have a few more to register. So that will make for a tight squeeze in the MessMobile. I've got your cell#, so we'll holler if we get there with your tour group.

[boreguard]

Re: Touring at Vicksburg

Pat I'm planning on coming and will most likely have Little Tecumseh in ranks as well. I never miss opportunities like this, reminds me of when I was young (er) and on vacation. You can't have that much fun with the wife and her saying "why do you have to read everything, come on let's go " or "I'm tired", or "Um huh", or etc, etc.

I'm there, I assume we will do so in uniform. I know a good place to eat lunch.

Looking forward to it.

[coastaltrash]

Re: Touring at Vicksburg

I plan on touring around in regular clothes since it's Thursday and just enjoy the park before the weekend ahead. The group that does tour won't be staying on the park Thursday evening but is more than welcome to head over at 7 am with me in Friday.

Kevin,
Just remember when you're on the Natchez Trace and it says "Speed Limit 55" that means not one single mile per hour OVER 55.

Ken,
Try and make it down, even if it's for Thursday night. I'm waiting a little longer and I'll be making reservations for a tour of downtown Vicksburg that is about $6.

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Re: Touring at Vicksburg

Just remember when you're on the Natchez Trace and it says "Speed Limit 55" that means not one single mile per hour OVER 55.

Pat,

Good advise, I'm sure, but remember I'm traveling in an Ontario-licensed and -made vehicle, where the main digits on the speedometer are in kilometers per hour. Thus, "55" on a roadside sign means Brian may be traveling at 55 x 0.6 = 33 mph. :p

Either that, or he'll go 55 / 0.6 = 92 mph. If we don't arrive by 2:00 p.m. Friday, send a AAA tow truck up the road for us.

[Pritchett Ball]

Re: Touring at Vicksburg

Great point on the touring opportunity...

On Sunday after the event some of us may head east and look up the Big Black River Bridge area, then head over to the "Crossroads" area of the Champion Hill Battle site, and then maybe on to the Raymond Battle site and Confederate Cemetery there in Raymond.
(Time permitting!)

Kevin Dally

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Re: Touring at Vicksburg

I've heard there's some property preserved at Champion's Hill, but that there's few if any interp markers, and possibly no permission to access the site. Anyone know if that's true?

[Cpt Boone]

Re: Touring at Vicksburg

Kevin,

I believe that everything is still privately owned. You can go up to the Tilghman monument and walk around the Coker House. There is also a marker by a dirt road out there some where that goes up behind the hill. Been about 25 years or more since I was at the marker. Still you can drive around on the roads and see the landscape.

[Pritchett Ball]

Re: Touring at Vicksburg

True, the CWPT did purchase some land out there in the Champion Hill area, I "think" it was 65 acres.

The battleground is still mostly in private hands; so driving around is about all you can do to see some of it. The cross roads is important to me because Cumming's Georgia Brigade fought there, (and north of there) on Champion Hill, along side S.D. Lee's Alabama Brigade. A lot of action took place there, and even if that is all you see of the area, (Cross Roads)it was a prominent section of the battle.

You can also drive around and see the lower/upper crossing areas of Bakers Creek, along with the heartbreak of seeing the Coker house.

Kevin Dally

[lthull3rdla]

Re: Touring at Vicksburg

I was there 3 years ago. There IS a trail you walk up that goes a short distance but it doesn't really lead to any significant markers or anything like that. Most of the land is STILL in private hands and due to relic hunters over the years, the landowners are VICIOUS. DO NOT CROSS FENCES. The night judge in Vicksburg is not a nice person and the oatmeal in the warren county jail sucks.

LOL

Ronnie

[Mark Susnis]

Re: Touring at Vicksburg

Here's the link to the Battle of Champion Hill website
http://battleofchampionhill.org and a note from Rebecca Drake of the Champion Hill Heritage Foundation regarding touring the Champion Hill site:

I believe the Raynor accounts were in the Vicksburg Military Park's holdings. I'm not sure where they are now. Margie Bearss gave them to me when she returned south in 2004.

You will have trouble seeing the Champion Hill battlefield since most of the land is private property. There are three roads running parallel that comprise the battlefield: Champion Hill Road (once the Old Jackson Road) that runs at the bottom of the hill along the railroad track (that is the road that Logan and Grant marched in on during the early morning hours of May 16th. You can still see perfect sections of the old road if you look to the left - that's the Bolton stretch - exit at Bolton and turn left on Champion Hill road; the Billy Fields Road (middle road) and the Raymond-Edwards Road (upper road that led to crossing over Baker's Creek). That's where Thilghman was killed and the site of two field hospitals, the Coker house (ruined) and Hiawatha (moved to Raymond).

Sid Champion V (owner of the Hill of Death portion of Champion Hill) might give you a tour and walk you to the Hill of Death but you would have to contact him ahead of time. I believe he charges about 25.00 a head but no less than $100.00 for any tours. Other land at Champion Hill is owned by the Civil War Preservation Trust, the Mississippi Dept.of Archives and History and several other property owners.

Sid Champion lives in Clinton, Ms.

Regards,
Mark Susnis

[fortdonelsonrelics]

Re: Touring at Vicksburg

For those interested in touring Champions Hill, my best friend John Spicer does guided tours on the battlefield and has access to alot of the privately held land. He actually owns a portion of the crossroads, opposite of the state held property.

His website is: http://www.championhillrelics.com/

Im not sure if he can accomodate this trip, but maybe for future excersions. However, feel free to contact him.

Unfortunately the land where the CWPT purchased isnt super significant to the actual battle, so going there to have access really wont give you a sense of what happened there.

John Walsh
FDR

[fortdonelsonrelics]

Re: Touring at Vicksburg

Duplicate
John Walsh

[Wounded_Zouave]

Re: Touring at Vicksburg

To orient yourself before going, check out the virtual tour of Champion Hill at CivilWarAlbum.com. Lots of good photographs of the battlefield today with plenty of map links:

http://www.civilwaralbum.com/vicksburg/ch_dawn.htm

Vicksburg NMP also has an excellent Champion Hill web site:

http://www.nps.gov/archive/vick/vcweb/vcmpgn/chmpnhl.htm