Woodall Mountain, Mississippi |
 My final port-of-call in Mississippi was on Monday afternoon, 5 May 2014, when I visited Vicksburg – the site of one of the crucial battles of the US civil war. The Confederate forces held the town and its strategic vantage point on the Mississippi river, and – as President Abraham Lincoln reasoned – “Vicksburg is the key. The war can never be brought to a close until that key is on our pocket.” As a result, General Ulysses S. Grant led Union forces in a 47-day siege of the city. The rebels surrendered on 4 July 1863, a day after the Union victory at Gettysburg. The tide of the war had turned. |