Grant's March Map included

Winter Quarters

(Picture included)

Winter Quarters, the country home of Haller and Julia

Nutt, is the only plantation home along Lake St. Joseph

that survived the Vicksburg campaign. The Nutts were

Union sympathizers who offered hospitality to Union

soldiers at Winter Quarters. I return they recieved "letters

of protection" from Ulysses S. Grant, which spared their

home from the devastation levied by advancing Union

troops under the orders of General William T. Sherman.

Union army stragglers later destroyed many of the out-

buildings, leaving only the main structure standing.

Milliken's Bend

Following the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation in

January 1863, the United States Colored Troops were formed

(Picture included)

and hundreds of thousands of blacks served. Poorly trained

and poorly armed, the African Brigade was guarding the

Union supply depot at Milliken's Bend when it came under

Confederate attack. Reports of this skirmish indicate that

the black soldiers engaged the Confederates in hand-to-

hand combat with bayonet and clubbed muskets, success-

fully defending the outpost. Their service to the Union in

guarding supply bases allowed many white troops to carry

on with the siege of Vicksburg.

(Center text)

Vicksburg National Military Park

The Louisiana Monument stands on Confederate Avenue

in Vicksburg National Military Park. The monument

consists of an 81-foot high Doric column topped by a

brazier of granite with an eternal flame, and stands

on the highest point in the park. A list of organizations

involved in the Campaign and Siege of Vicksburg

appears on its base with "Louisiana" displayed on

the front. Construction begun on July 10, 1919, and

the memorial was dedicated on October 18, 1920.

Louisiana Governor John M. Parker later transferred

ownership of the memorial to the Federal government.

Grant's Canal

In June 1862, Union troops under Brigadier General

Thomas Williams began to dig a canal across the base of

De Soto Point, opposite Vicksburg, in hopes of bypassing

the city's Confederate batteries. Sickness and disease,

unrelenting heat, and an uncooperative river that seemed to

drop more rapidly than the soldiers could dig continually

plagued the efforts. In just a few short weeks, the weary

soldiers withdrew. However, in January 1863, work on the

canal was resumed by troops under the command of Major

General Ulysses S. Grant whose troops were ultimately

foiled by heavy rains and flood waters that broke through the

levee and inundated the area. With the death toll rising

daily, Grant eventually abandoned the canal and embarked

on new strategies to capture Vicksburg and gain control of

the Mississippi River. (Picture included)

(Right side text)

Life Under Occupation

"Making Do"

In an excerpt from Brokenburn, Kate

Stone (Picture included) wrote, "We have been on a strict war

footing for some time — cornbread, and home-raised meal,

milk and butter, tea once a day, and coffee never. A year ago

we would have considered it impossible to get on for a day

without the things that we have been doing without for

months... Clothes have become a secondary consideration...

just to be decently clad is all we expect. In proportion that

we have been waited-on people, we are ready to do away

with all the forms and work and wait on ourselves."

Crop Destruction

Governor Thomas Overton Moore called upon the citizens

of Louisiana to destroy cotton crops, also known as "white

gold,"(picture included) where Union occupation was a

danger. In order to keep this valuable commodity out of

the hands of the Union army the crops were set ablaze in

sacrificial bonfires. Burning cotton crops was considered

an act of loyalty to the Confederacy and since plantation

management during the war was often left to the women,

it was their oppertunity to actively participate in the

Confederate cause.

Marker is on Interstate 90 at milepost 184 when traveling west.

Courtesy hmdb.org

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