Deflection

Today was a frustrating day. I first go to the Vicksburg Visitors Center, and I find that it is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. I am finding that the videos in visitor center really sent the mood for the tour in these parks and they are educational giving everyone something to look for in the park. As I was going through the park, it seems like thirty percent of the roads were closed, but as I looked for the reason they were closed, it seems like they all had fore slope slides, and that would be a good reason to close the road. So, after I was done reviewing the park around 1:00, I drove downtown Vicksburg for lunch, since I thought that I would take in a little southern culture, but all of the restaurants are closed on Mondays. So, McDonald’s had to do. I was able to visit the Jesse Brent Lower Mississippi River Museum by the US Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg District, so this district of the Mississippi is between the Rock Island District and river below Vicksburg. I was able to get on the Motor Vessel Mississippi IV, tugboat, just to the side of the Mississippi River inservice from the 1960s to the 1960s. It always had a vibration as it when through the water, and that may have lead to its short life in the water. I finished my tour this afternoon by visiting the Depot Museum that had a miniature display of sections of the battlefield. With the over growth of tresses since the 47 day battle, it is hard to determine how this battle was fought. With the frustrations that I had up until 2:00, things went well at the museums.

Like most people, until I stated studying the Civil War on the Mississippi River, the only battle of Ironclads that I had heard was the battle between the Monitor and the Merrimack. But, went it comes to the Mississippi River, the river was full of Ironclad steam boats. Both the North and the South had these boats, with the south trying to keep the Mississippi River close and the North trying to keeping it open, since an open Mississippi River, along with the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coastal, would prohibit the south from getting supplies from the other countries. As a daring move, Grant had his Ironclads rush down the Mississippi River through Vicksburg battery firing on them, but he had is army cross the Mississippi River south of Vicksburg to ultimately lay siege on Vicksburg.

The USS Cairo was found north of Vicksburg in 1956 in the Yazoo River, with most of it being preserved in the in the river Channel, and then it was removed from the river and placed in the Vicksburg museum. I spent some time reviewing the boat and even go on it. Where to start? They were built out of Oak. Two inches of clad was bolted on the front and on the side at a vertical angle, like 45 degrees. So, that went a cannon ball into the boat, the impact would be deflected up. On the corners, the took small railroad rails and got them hot and shaped them around the corners. There are a lot of details to go into as an engineer, but the wheel house was also ironclad, and it had a large paddle wheel in the back center of the boat. The steam engine was well preserved, and it did not look like on expect, but the fire box was not there. The unexcited part of the boat was that it burnt one ton of coal per hour. The biggest question is how did they come up with the wood and steel to fabricate these boats so fast, since there is a huge amount of materials used on these boats. I bought a book on these ironclads, so I hope that they will answer my questions.

Once again, the killing was unbelievable, like 17,000 killed and, of the 17,000, 13,000 are bury in unknown graves. Once again, what does a life mean? William T. Sherman stated, “This is murder; bring those troops back! This about states the affairs on the field. This is definitely a bigger topic than I have time for tonight, so I will work more in this topic in my future journal entries.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the weather for today, but it was up to 79 degrees. Short sleeve weather, but it was raining this evening.

Roger