Civil War Campaigns in Raymond and Port Gibson, MS - Wednesday, September 24

On Wednesday we traveled a bit outside of Vicksburg to a couple of Civil War sites nearby.  But first we started with another great southern breakfast at the B&B that featured Quiche Lorraine.  It was delicious, and of course was accompanied by grits again! Not one meal yet without grits of some kind here. Ha!
First we traveled to the small town of Raymond, Mississippi.  The write up in our book, Civil War Sites, The Official Guide to the Civil War Discovery Trail, was a bit misleading.  First we could not find the entry to the Confederate Cemetery there.  We found it, but after circling it three times, there was no gate.  I'm not kidding.  Perhaps you were supposed to just pull off in the grass on the busy road there, but we weren't very comfortable with that, so we just looked as we passed by and made do with that.  Supposedly these are the soldiers who died at the Battle of Raymond, with 109 identified, and many others were unknown.

 We did find the Raymond Battlefield, but it wasn't very well marked either.  We just happened to stumble on it because another car had pulled over there.  They have some signage in the park, with a place mowed and we think they probably use it for reenactments, because there were some benches there in a semi-circle.

There was a big battle at this river crossing - Grant vs the Confederate soldiers.  Grant encountered such fierce resistance here that he withdrew and decided to divide his force and make a end run about the southern forces to take Vicksburg.  There's a nice circular walk about the field there, and a line of cannons.
We then drove on to Port Gibson to see the Grand Gulf Military Monument Park, maintained as a State park.  They have a little museum at the entry, and then a drive through the entire park to view various battle sites and a small cemetery.

 I think there's something wrong with that rifle at the top. Just a hunch.

 The young girl at the end is named Mary Russell.  That sounds familiar to me, somehow. ???

 No we're not!

 This still has seen better days

 They moved the town jail to this site to serve as the armory  during the siege, then it got blown up.  That hole is what is left.

This reminds me of some movies I've seen...very familiar.

 The cemetery was sad, most of the graves have slid off the hillside, and many of the graves were very young people, most in their 20s.

Some great examples of Spanish moss.

It's a nice park, with an area for tenting, camping and campers, and an area right on the Mississippi river.  John climbed all the way to the observation tower that they have there, too, but whew...too many stairs for me.

From there we drove on to the Windsor Ruins, a southern plantation home that was built in 1863.  It survived the civil war, but was burned to the ground in 1890 by a careless cigarette.  Geeezzz! 

On the drive back we saw miles and miles of kudzu plants that have just taken over the entire countryside.  It is just eerie.

Back in Vicksburg, we rested a bit and then had dinner at Walnut Hills, which was the best meal that we had during the trip so far.  They are known for their fried chicken, which we both tried, and recommend highly.  John tried a couple of good beers, the Southern Pecan was brewed locally.  We had a very nice dinner.

 Fried pickles!

 Pecan pie to end the night!

John at the front entry at Walnut Hill

Thursday we're off to Louisiana.