On our way to the Alabama coast for our vacation this past summer. We spent two nights in Vicksburg, Mississippi touring the Vicksburg National Military Park there. One of the most sobering sights is the Park’s cemetery. It holds about 19,000 graves including 17,000 from the Siege.
During the siege the fatalities were buried all over the place. After the war, the bodies were disinterred and brought to the cemetery. The short headstones are of unidentified bodies. The taller headstones are identified. There are 17,000 Union graves in the cemetery. Including about 10,000 casualties of the Siege of Vicksburg. The rest were re-interred from elsewhere in Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana., 13,000 are unidentified. Until 1961 when they ran out of room veterans from America’s other wars were also buried there. As the cemetery was for Federal soldiers only, the Confederate veterans were buried in other cemeteries in Vicksburg.
(Sorry about the blurry photograph. The darker markers look kind of ghostly to me.)
There are only two Confederate veterans buried there, and that was by mistake.
In this very peaceful setting it is hard to imagine the violence and misery of the Battle of Vicksburg.
Terrific post for the day! It is indeed hard to imagine the horror, violence and misery of the Civil War and particularly the Battle of Vicksburg when looking at these captures and I know it would be even harder actually being there. Such a lovely and peaceful place it is now! Another wonderful look at your part of our world! Have a great day!
Sylvia
How can I say anything funny on this post? That’s so sad. =(
The cemetery looks very peaceful and simple.
Greetings,
Filip
Have you read “The Widow of the South”? It’s fiction based on a true story and is a very good read, in my opinion.
@Oklahoma Granny – No I hadn’t read it yet. I’ll keep it in mind.
A visit to such a place is sobering. So many lives lost!
Nature has remade the battlefield into shades of green. A good history lesson, Yogi.
Looks like a peaceful place.
Sydney – City and Suburbs
… and the rest were buried where?
@Birdman – When I was researching the post I spent some time working through the numbers.
Their are a little over 19,000 graves at the cemetery.
10,000 of them are Union soldiers from the Vicksburg siege.
7000 graves are Union Soldiers from other battles that were dug up from temporary graveyards in Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana and brought to Vicksburg for Burial.
About 2000+ graves are those Veterans of other wars. They closed the cemetery to new burials in 1961.
Only two confederate soldiers are buried there.
The rest of the confederate soldiers were buried in city cemeteries in Vicksburg and elsewhere.
These battles of previous centuries yielded so many, many losses. It seems unimaginable for us today.
Lives lost in any war are such an atrocity. That’s a lot of graves.
Our bloodiest war. A tragic waste of human life.
That’s a very sad place in our world !
A sad place in spite of the lovely scenery.
Good to see that it is still well tended and cared for.
Quote: “The short headstones are of identified bodies. The taller headstones are identified.”
That confused me, did you mean the short headstones are ‘unidentified.’