Customer Service

VICKSBURG

Vicksburg National Military Park commemorates one of the most decisive battles of the American Civil War - the campaign, siege and defense of Vicksburg, Mississippi. The campaign took place from March 29 to July 4, 1863. It included battles in west central Mississippi at Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, Champion Hill, Big Black River and 47 days of a Union siege against Confederate forces defending the city of Vicksburg. Located high on some bluffs, Vicksburg was a fortress guarding the Mississippi River. It was called the "The Gibraltar of the Confederacy." Its surrender on July 4, 1863, coupled with the fall of Port Hudson, Louisiana and New Orleans, divided the South and gave the North undisputed control of the Mississippi River. Today, the battlefield at Vicksburg is an excellent preservation of the site and includes 1,325 historic monuments and markers, 20 miles of reconstructed trenches and earthworks, a 16-mile tour road, antebellum home, 144 emplaced cannon, the restored Union gunboat, USS Cairo, and Vicksburg National Cemetary.