Our next stop was Vicksburg.
The cemetery here is the 2nd largest military cemetery in the country after Arlington, Virginia. My 3rd great grandfather is buried here. We stopped at the Visitor Center to learn some more about the Battle of Vicksburg and watched a movie so that Elizabeth could understand. Nathan already knew. Then, the lady at the front desk gave me a map to my Grandfather's grave. I knew the grave number so she was able to look up the location.
A stately arch that was the entrance to the park
It is incredibly peaceful here which is so ironic.
There are monuments all over the park.
These markers indicate battle lines and what dates each side was on during which date.
We tried to find the Iowa 9th monument which was the one Grandpa Spragg was a member. When we saw big monuments that said Iowa, Elizabeth would go look. We never did find it. There were so many and not all were large and well labeled. We should have asked at the visitor center. We eventually found the state of Iowa monument, but not his regiment monument.
Wisteria growing in the trees.
Quiet in the hills.
Overlooking the Yazoo River.
The USS Cairo ironclad.
On our way to find Grandpa Spragg. Elizabeth had the map and led the way.
Here's the photo of Grandpa Spragg. He was a farmer from Hazleton, Iowa and died in Vicksburg in the hospital at the age of 28. His date of death was June 1, 1863. He left behind a wife and 3 small children.
We found the grave. The visitor center girl warned us it would not be well cared for. Due to covid, they hadn't been out to clean the graves in at least 2 years and likely much longer. The weekend after we were there, they were set to do a big clean up! I wonder how clean it is now?
There are 17,000 graves at Vicksburg. Only 25% are marked graves and 75% are unknown. Grandpa's grave is marked because he died in the hospital and not on the battlefield.
Wisteria in the background. We might not have brought flowers, but there were some there!
Elizabeth found some pretty leaves and sticks to decorate the grave. Jeremy and I do not have gift giving at the top of our love languages so are not good at things like remembering flowers or giving gifts. We should have brought some flowers, so Elizabeth got creative.
We stopped to see the USS Cairo. The USS Cairo was an ironclad ship. It was sunk by the confederate army. It sunk in 12 minutes but there were no deaths. All the union soldiers managed to escape to safety since it was sunk in a river.
The skeleton of the ship.
We continued to drive around looking at all the monuments for the different states.
The view from Iowa's monument.
Iowa's monument. This is the state monument.
Our hotel had cannons out front.
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