11/14 Vicksburg, MS

It has literally been freezing here the past two days, and especially the past three nights, with temps dropping down to 27. The problem with cold temperatures is that I cannot use a water hose to hookup to city water because it would freeze at night.  I can use the water in my tanks, but I am currently having a problem with my water pump not working well, so I am not getting a very good shower.

I left this morning to head to Hattiesburg, MS, on my journey to the Florida panhandle beaches.  It is supposed to be warmer there, so here I come!

Before I left this morning, I had to take a couple of photos of the Mississippi:
 

Then I drove through the Civil War battlefield. Vicksburg was a hard city to defeat because it was perched on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi and could easily shoot canons down on passing ships, which pretty much shut down important shipping.  It was important for the Union to take this city.  The solders  circled around approached from the south and east, but they still had to contend with the hills on which the confederate soldiers were emplaced.

This is the entrance to the one-way battlefield drive.  The next few photos show the union line and all the memorials there.

One of the best areas of the national park was the USS Cairo, an ironclad ship that was sunk in the Mississippi and later retrieved and restored to resemble what it had once looked like.  Very impressive.

Can you see the large hole slightly to the right?  This was one of the holes in the hull that led to it sinking.

The boilers that powered the paddlewheels in the rear.

View of the paddlewheel and one of the large pistons that operated them.

These are some of the personal items belonging to the sailors.

And lots of bottles.

Cooking equipment from the mess.