Let’s Talk About….. Vicksburg, Part 1

On this trip down the Mississippi, I carried a small notebook and scribbled notes furiously. Visiting this national park, I was especially overcome by the enormity and importance of this battle. The notes are mine and the facts as I understood from our guide. 

For nearly 200 years, men have been attempting to “tame” the mighty Mississippi River but “Mother Mississippi” has slapped back most all attempts through the years. Throughout history, the Mississippi has been a vital commerce and travel “highway” draining most all the American Midwest. 

The river was of special importance during the Civil War. In 1837, Robert E. Lee was given the task of “taming” the Mississippi River. That meant he started clearing the floating trees and wrecked boats from the river. He was trying to clear a navigable channel, not clear the entire river. Lee pioneered the revetment for erosion control. This was putting “stuff” along the river bank to hold the bank. First was woven willow branches weighted with mud (today they use concrete slabs). Lee also introduced dredging.

All Mississippi River cities were originally ports for farmers to ship grain and other products. During the Civil War, the Mississippi River was all important………. For this reason it was the key to winning the Civil War.  The Union strategy was to completely surround the Confederacy (why there were two armies, the Army of Virginia and the Army in the West).  The plan for the Mississippi was to blockade all the posts and then go after the cities along the river, one by one.

Admiral David Farragut was sent upriver from New Orleans (which was Union held since April 1862) to bombard Vicksburg into submission but they would not surrender. Farragut was firing uphill and the town was firing downhill. The town did realize they would be attacked again so the troops and the townspeople began cutting trees and building up an eight-mile encircling defense for the east side, “sort of stacking Lincoln Logs,” thinking that would keep them safe. As would the bluff would keep them safe from river attacks. President Lincoln knew otherwise. 

Quoting from a National Park brochure, “Vicksburg posed the most significant remaining obstacle to complete Union control of the Mississippi.” Vicksburg had to be taken; Grant was the man for the job. New Orleans was first, April 1862; it fell in one day. Memphis was next in June 1862; again in one day. Ditto with Baton Rouge. Natchez was next and it capitulated……. Many Northerners had settled there to profit from their hundreds of plantations, so they had lots to lose during a battle. Next upriver was Vicksburg.

Vicksburg sat on the eastern side of the river atop a high bluff on a hairpin turn of the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers. It was easy for Confederate Gen. John C. Pemberton to fire down upon any Union river-attempt to take the city from the river (as he had repulsed Farragut). 

Memphis, east side of the river and north of  Vicksburg was a swampy delta, nearly impossible for an army to march across. So Grant couldn’t come from the North. The Confederates held Jackson (state capitol to the east of Vicksburg). Pemberton was told by President Jefferson Davis to “hold Vicksburg at all costs.” So he dug in and did his best but Vicksburg did fall in the end.

((TO BE CONTINUED))

Let’s Talk About…. Eagles On The Mississippi

According to Aaron, our education presenter on the cruise, the Mississippi River valley is a major fly path for many eagles (and other birds). While they can be seen in almost all states, they are predominately in Alaska, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Here is some Upper Mississippi River eagle trivia (compiled by me and I hope I jotted down the facts correctly):

  • An eagle’s head stays dark until age 5.
  • In the early 70s, DDT nearly decimated the eagle population. 
  • When only one nest could be found (by boat/survey between St. Paul and St. Louis) a loud alarm was raised and finally in 1973 DDT was banned.  
  • Unless you are Native American, it is illegal to own any part of an American Bald Eagle. 
  • Eagles mate for life; they lay 1-3 eggs per year with only a 50% survival rate. 
  • Eaglets fledge in 8-12 weeks. 
  • Nests can be as big and heavy as a VW bug!  And are used year after year.
  • Eagles only weigh 7-8 pounds and have a 6-8 foot wingspan. They can turn their heads 180o. 
  • Females are 1/3 larger than males.
  • The name “bald” comes from an Old English word meaning white.
  • Why is this our national bird? And not the turkey (as Benjamin Franklin lobbied for)? It was decided that an eagle symbol was more militant and a turkey was, well…. a turkey. 
  • They can live 18-20 years in the wild but twice that long in captivity. 
  • Their “eagle eyes” can spot a  hopping rabbit 3 miles away. 
  • The Upper Mississippi River is prime habitat for Bald Eagles…. lots of trees to the shore line, lots of islands. 
  • Eagles eat mostly fish; their talons are as big as a man’s hand. 

One does not need to be a card-carrying bird watcher to appreciate our American Bald Eagle. Out on the top deck of our ship, it was fun to look for and spot eagles with other passengers. We were all appreciative and in awe.

Let’s Talk About…Mudlarking On The Mississippi

Ever heard the term mudlarking? If you’ve talked very much with me, you know that mudlarking, or beach-walking-looking-for-treasures is one of my favorite activities. I’ve been a beachcomber all my life and just recently learned about mudlarking. Nicola White has a YouTube channel showing her walking along the Thames foreshore in London at low tide and finding wonderful and interesting things, some even dating back to Roman times. I’m hooked on her posts.

 So of course on my cruise I looked for opportunities to walk along the Mississippi and see what I might find. The river is at a 40-year low which means lots of beach was exposed that hasn’t been in 40 years. When our ship was moored just below the St. Louis Arch I couldn’t wait to get off and go mudlarking! I did pick up some interesting glass and other stuff and did create a window-art piece with it…. here are my finds in the raw (laid out on a daily bulletin on the ship): 

 It was here that I found my biggest find!  The bottom of a ceramic or clay beer bottle dating to the 1850s from a brewery in Wisconsin! I didn’t keep it but gave it to Aaron, our history presenter on the ship, and he documented it for me. But it was such fun to find something that old and hold it in my hand.

What else do beachcombers and mudlarkers find? Anything that’s been tossed into the river or ocean or lost into the same. One can find coins, toys, jewelry, nails, tools, broken glass, pieces of dishes, etc. The best thing about Nicola’s presentations (on YouTube, remember) is that if there is an inscription on her find, she does the history of that piece and perhaps how it came to be in the Thames mud. 

Have you time in your life for a new hobby? Come mudlark with me!

Let’s Talk About…Pecan Pralines! Best Candy Ever!

Of course I snagged a Pecan Praline at most every opportunity! They are quintessentially The South and they are beyond description delicious. Several of my fellow passengers and I went looking for The Best Praline recipe and we agreed: this looks like it! But all did agree on this: you must have a candy thermometer for best results. 

******BEST Louisiana Pralines Recipe

These Louisiana pralines are the best sweet tooth treat because they’re sweet, filling and so addicting. A mix of cream, vanilla, and pecans combine perfectly to make this easy bite-sized candy. Prep Time5 minutes Cook Time15 minutes Total Time20 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cup chopped pecans
  • 7 tbsp salted butter
  • 1 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup half & half

Instructions

  • Combine the butter, sugars, and half in half into a large saucepan, then turn the heat up to medium.
  • Bring the candy mixture to 240 F, and let the candy mixture cook for about 5 minutes without stirring.
  • After the five minutes, add in the vanilla extract, and stir.
  • Remove from the heat.
  • Toss in the pecans, and fold in.
  • Grab a wooden spoon, and stir the hot candy mixture until it thickens.
  • Spoon out the candy mixture onto parchment paper.
  • Let the candy cool completely.
  • Enjoy!

Let’s Talk About…Southern Cemeteries: Charming & Sobering

On this particular trip, I didn’t see very many cemeteries but always and of course, those I did see made an impact on me.

Top Top:  A typical rural cemetery near New Orleans. Away from New Orleans, in-ground burials work fine, apparently. Top Bottom:  Take from a book on New Orleans, a typical city cemetery….all above-ground crypts.

Top Bottom:  The final resting place of more than 17,000 Union dead at Vicksburg National Memorial Park. Look closely and you’ll see some upright stones and some flat stones. The flat ones were when the identification of the soldier was unknown. Scanning the whole scene, it was so sad to see how many flat ones there were. 

The park signboard on the right also shares this:  “At hundreds of Civil War battle sites the remains of fallen soldiers lay nearly forgotten, scattered in woods, fields and roadside ditches.”  Now did they gather those up to bury here???

Burials in cemeteries in New Orleans are tightly packed together and above ground. Why? The water table is too high for in-ground burial. The deceased are not put into coffins (in many cases) but are just laid on a shelf in an above-ground mausoleum…… and such crypts have been, in some cases, used by the family for 150 years. 


Trivia: There are 8000 cemeteries in Louisiana.   

Let’s Talk About…Gateway Arch In St. Louis

I’ve been to St. Louis and took the tiny tram to the top of the Gateway Arch several times but it’s always a thrill.  From the viewing window at the top, look how teeny the cruise ship looks! (Ship nearest the bridge.)


Arch Trivia:

  • The cost to build the Arch in 1967 was the same as the Louisiana Purchase, $15,000,000. 
  • The Arch sits on the smallest national park in the U.S., only 98 acres.
  • President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the park in 1935.
  • Construction on the Arch was begun in 1965 and was finished in only two years. 
  • The Arch is 630-feet high and there is 630-feet between the ends of the Arch legs.
  • The purpose of the Arch was to commemorate Thomas Jefferson, the Louisiana Purchase and all the pioneers settling the United States. 
  • To go to the top, only 5 people can squeeze into the little tram cars for the 5-minute ride to the top. 
  • You get 10-minutes up there and then it’s back down. 
  • Then they sell you a $20 photo!!

Next trip to the Midwest, you MUST visit the Gateway Arch …. with or without the official photo.

Let’s Talk About…Rock Island Arsenal


When our cruise ship was near Davenport, Iowa, I learned about the Rock Island Arsenal. I had heard about the Black Hawk War but had no idea that disputes over ownership of this place sparked that conflict. 

Located on an island in the Mississippi, it was established as a government site in 1816 first as a defensive fort and then, in the 1880s, a government-owned weapons manufacturing arsenal in the U.S. Still in use, and even as being designated as a National Historic Landmark, the arsenal still produces ordinance (bullets), artillery, gun mounts, small arms, aircraft weapons sub-systems, grenade launchers and a host of associated components. Some 250 military personnel work there along with 6000 civilian workers. 

Back to the Black Hawk war.  In his autobiography, Black Hawk wrote: “When we arrived (to our tribal summer camp) we found that the troops had come to build a fort on Rock Island…We did not object, however, to their building their fort on the island, but were very sorry, as this was the best one on the Mississippi, and had long been the resort of our young people during the summer. It was our garden, like the white people have near their big villages, which supplied us with strawberries, blackberries, gooseberries, plums, apples and nuts of different kinds.” 

Did you know that Abraham Lincoln served in the Illinois Militia in 1832 in this conflict…..”he never saw action.”

Last but not least, Rock Island holds a Confederate cemetery; nearly 2000 prisoners, including Union Colored Troops who served as guards, are buried there. 

AND, last of all, the Rock Island Arsenal Museum was established on July 4, 1905. It is the second oldest US Army Museum after the West Point Museum. 

Think of all the Jeopardy trivia you just learned!  🙂 

Let’s Talk About…. Pirates On The Mississippi?

When you imagine a pirate, Johnny Depp might come to mind. The Mississippi River pirates were real but they weren’t as colorful as Johnny depicted.  Between about 1806 and 1844, there certainly were pirates prowling on the Mississippi River. Any of you remember this Walt Disney movie:

I had no idea there were pirates on the Mississippi and when the ship’s education guy told about these fellows, I was really surprised. I never learned about this before! River pirates have operated along rivers all over the world. Quoting from Wikipedia:


 “American river piracy in the late 18th and mid-19th century was primarily concentrated along the Ohio River and Mississippi River valleys. River pirates usually operated in isolated frontier settlements which were sparsely populated areas lacking the protection of civil authority and institutions. These pirates resorted to a variety of tactics depending on the number of pirates and the size of the boat crews involved, including deception, concealment, ambush and assaults in open combat near natural obstacles and curiosities, such as shelter caves, islands, river narrows, rapids, swamps and marshes. River travelers were robbed, captured and murdered, and their livestock, slaves, cargo and flatboats, keelboats and rafts were sunk or sold downriver.


Did your ancestor float down the Ohio or Mississippi Rivers and were they attacked by pirates?

What a story!

Let’s Talk About…John Deere & Spam

 No matter where in the world you live, and certainly in America, you’d recognize the “Nothing Runs Like A Deere” logo. 

John Deere was born in 1804 in Vermont and moved to Illinois in 1836 and began manufacturing tools. He made pitchforks, shovels and plows. In those days, a product was not made until ordered, which was a very slow business model. By 1857, the company was manufacturing a variety of farm equipment; that year their sales reached 1120 implements per month. John Deere as an American business icon was off and running.  

There are three main John Deere museums and a big selling item these days are the John Deere tractor toys.

SPAM is another iconic midwestern product. I always thought the letters stood for “Special Processed American Meat,” meat that was portable and sent to the troops in Europe during WWII.
SPAM is a brand of cooked pork introduced by Hormel in 1937. The origin of the name is not fully documented (so maybe I’m right?).  SPAM was a lifesaver to U.S. soldiers in Europe because of the difficulty in having fresh meat for the soldiers on the front lines. Some 150,000,000 pounds of SPAM was purchased by the military before war’s end. Nowadays SPAM can be found on grocery shelves in 41 countries.


When was the last time you had fried SPAM? SPAM and eggs? A SPAM sandwich??

Let’s Talk About….Teddy’s Bear

There is so much history swirling around the town of Vicksburg, Mississippi! Doubt one could have time to read all the books that have been published about this river town through the decades. One story concerns Teddy Roosevelt. 

TR (1858-1919), was a politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist and naturalist and was America’s 26th president. He was a cousin to Franklin D. Roosevelt. TR’s biggest love was anything outdoors and he especially loved the sport of hunting. Hoping to get some good publicity, Mississippi’s governor, Andrew H. Longino, invited Teddy on a bear hunting trip in 1902 near Onward, Mississippi.

The hunting party went off in great spirits, but after several days they had not yet even seen a bear. One of Roosevelt’s assistants, led by Holt Collier, a born slave and former Confederate cavalryman, corned and tied a black bear to a tree. They summoned Roosevelt and suggested he shoot it. Viewing this as extremely unsportsmanlike, Roosevelt refused to shoot the bear.

The story of “Teddy’s Bear” flashed quickly across the country and everyone loved the tale. A political cartoon of the day shows Roosevelt in his Rough Riders garb refusing to shoot a loveable-looking little bear. 

This image inspired a couple in Brooklyn, who were making stuffed toys, write to Roosevelt asking his permission to make “Teddy’s Bear.” Hearing a yes reply, the couple set to making stuffed little bears and nowadays teddy bears are everywhere. Fun to think the worldwide popularity of teddy bears can be traced back to Theodore’s fateful hunting trip in Mississippi in 1902.

And that’s the rest of the story…………….. this is an original Teddy’s Bear, now in the Smithsonian.