Roadrunner Backfill: Murals of Vicksburg, MS

I've become a fan of murals and get excited when we happen to find them across walls and buildings or where ever.  We discovered another well- done series of murals in downtown Vicksburg.  They are all on a couple of flood walls along the Mississippi River waterfront - aka the 'Riverfront'.

The project began in 2002 with its first mural painted by artist Robert Dafford.  The idea began after a visit by some townspeople to the flood wall murals in Paducah, KY. (Another town to put on our 'Visit List'.)  I liked the way it is laid out with the mural, then a plaque in front of the painting explaining its significance.  We learned a lot just by strolling along the walk way and reading about the city's history and heritage.

Here's a couple of things I didn't know:
The origin of the 'Teddy Bear' -

And the first one to put Coca Cola in a bottle -

Some history:

After our time down on the Riverfront, we went by the old store owned by Joseph Biedenharn that first bottled Coca Cola.

That's if for this edition of the Roadrunner Chronicles - thanks for joining us!

Roadrunner Backfill: Vicksburg National Military Park

Not exactly sure how to handle "posts I intended to do but now we have left the area." There are plenty of blogs I have wanted to write, but didn't for one reason or another.  After we leave the area, I am hesitant to write about it because it may be confusing to our readers.  So I am going to call them, "Roadrunner Backfills".  Sort of what I used to tell the boss, "After the meeting/event, I will backfill you in what I found out."  We are now in Austin, TX and here is my first "Backfill" post.

After our time at Red Bay, AL we drove to Vicksburg, MS.  I knew that Vicksburg was one of the major battles of the Civil War, but beyond that, I really didn't know much about it until we went there.
I found this short synopsis and photograph:

We drove through town and saw some historical markers and went down along the river where we also found a 'Wall of Murals'.  I always find those interesting so we will leave that to another post.

We found the Vicksburg National Park on the edge of town and went by.  We took in the usual video in the Visitor's Center and the adjacent displays to get and a feel for the major story lines of the area.

Outside there were some re-enactors camped out.

Vicksburg reminded me a little bit of Gettysburg National Park because of all the monuments and the driving tour.  But this area is much more hilly.  When trying to image what it was like a 150 years ago, I realize  the landscape is so different than it was.  Some of the older pictures of that time show a mountain side ravaged by bombardment.  The heavy forests were obliterated by weeks and weeks during the siege of 1863.  The beautiful drive and meadows and buildings are far different than the horrors combatants experienced then.

Vicksburg was the last major battle of the Civil War concluding one day after the Battle of Gettysburg. Union Major General (two-star) Ulysses S. Grant's forces faced those of Confederate Lieutenant General (three-star) John C. Pemberton.

Grant had 35,000 men while Pemberton had a little more than half - 18,500.  After a number of failed attempts on the city, Union forces bombarded the Vicksburg from the River and surrounded the city, finally settling in for a siege.  They dug in the hill sides which lasted for weeks.

Finally after 47 days, Pemberton and Grant met and agreed on terms of surrender on July 4, 1863.

We took a driving tour of the Vicksburg National Military Park.  

The large number of monuments, plaques, markers and tablets make Vicksburg one of the most 'monumented' parks in the world.  It was a nice day to take a leisurely tour through it to learn more of America's history.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Until next time...