This is STOP 5, the 7th, 8th and 9th days of our ten week cross country fall adventure in 2021! Here is a link to our previous stop in New Albany, MS.
The Drive from New Albany, MS to Vicksburg, MS
We know a 7+ mile stretch of the Natchez Trace Parkway is closed around Tupelo, so we head south on MS-15 to MS-278 and pick up the NTP there. This puts us at mile post 257 and we meander down to just past mile post 60. We take a country back road named Fisher Ferry for 19 miles into Vicksburg. Along the route we stop at the Chickasaw Village site (an former Indian village), the Bynum Mounds (Indian mounds), scenic overlooks and places where you can still see the original “sunken” trace trail.
The Duff Green Mansion
We have check-in instructions to get our keys from a lockbox under the front porch stairs, then proceed into the door under those stairs and head through a hallway to the patio area at the back of the house to our room, “The Cave”. We meet a family in that hallway and the woman greets us and shows us to our room. We learn she is just another guest there, but has stayed here 4 times recently while her daughter competes in the Little Miss Magnolia State Pageant. This is how we learn that the finals are this very weekend so we anticipate higher than usual crowds at restaurants! The south has a rich history with beauty pageants and I look this one up. It turns out this competition has multiple age groups including Baby (under 2), Teeny (2-3), Tiny (4-5), Little Miss (6-7), Young Miss(8-9), Pre-Teen Miss (10-11), Baby Tiny Mr. (0-5) and Little Mr. (6-11). There are various pageants about every 2-3 weeks – some for practice, some have pre-qualification requirements.
The Cave is a small four room suite, with a king bed, living room, kitchenette and bath. It is located under parking above and is right outside the patio pool area.
Our First Evening in Downtown Vicksburg
We head to the waterfront area to Rusty’s Riverfront Grill, hoping to get ahead of the dinner crowd. There are so many historical homes and most of the streets are “paved” with old brick. Mask required to enter and Harrison left his back at the B&B. No worries – they have spares at the hostess desk. There’s only one open bar stool, but luckily, a woman is about to leave with her carry-out order. I strike up a quick conversation with her to get food recommendations – which we end up ordering item for item. It starts with Fried Green Tomatoes topped with lump crab and a hollandaise sauce. WOW. We notice the place is really starting to fill up, in fact, there’s now a waiting list. A guy named Jay takes a bar stool that has opened next to us and we begin engaging conversation that lasts for several more hours. He is from the general area and gives us some insight into places to sight see and to eat. For our meal, we split the blackened redfish, over rice with a creole sauce and a side of seasoned green beans. This is not how it is listed on the menu, but how our food recommendation person had told us to order it. SPOT ON! Neither of us has had redfish before (to our knowle0dge) – it is amazing. The portion is huge, so we’re glad we split it. The crowds are still rolling in. Bartenders Heather & Tiffany and working like crazy to get drink orders for customers that are waiting for tables. That’s when we observe – pretty much no one is wearing masks, despite the sign on the door. We don’t usually get dessert, but since she told us the cheesecake was “the bomb”, we order a slice to go and head back to the cave.
The Duff Green Mansion Morning Tour
We’re going to take it a little easy today. After a robust breakfast of chicken and waffles, we get a free 1.5h tour of the Duff Green Mansion. Our tour guide, Tracy, is dressed in a period Victorian hoop dress. We first learn that Duff Green was 26 when he came to Vicksburg, brought to the city by his brother who was a cotton merchant. Duff is an astute businessman who makes considerable money in the cotton business and builds this home for he and his bride Mary. The home has 15 foot ceilings and the walls are 3 bricks thick to provide both insulation and to help make it less susceptible to fire. He and Mary are quite the socialites and throw numerous parties, sometimes lasting 2-3 days. Many people had to travel miles to attend, so they stay overnight. The parties of that time period were filled with lots of libations, lots of hors d’oeuvres, many course meals and ballroom dancing (sometimes into the early morning hours). We learn about Petticoat Tables that were typically at the entrance to the home so woman could quickly check to make sure neither their petticoat nor their ankles were showing (hence, they would be branded as loose and banished from the high society social scene).
We also learn how the Civil War impacted the family. The house became a make-shift hospital for both Union and Confederate soldiers – after all, with Union soldiers in the home, the Union would not shell the house. Many people in the town dug and hid in caves. Mary actually gave birth to their second child inside one of the caves as the cave itself was being bombed.
There are still blood stains on the floor at the Duff Green from its time as a Civil War Hospital.
Natchez, Football & Finishing the Natchez Trace Parkway
Next we drive 1.5 hours down the main road, Route 61, to Natchez and will drive the Natchez Trace Parkway back to Vicksburg after lunch. We arrive in Natchez, a place we will actually stay on our way back home in mid-November (days 60 & 61) – so we use this opportunity to do a little reconnaissance of the town and to check out our lodging location. We first visit an old historic home, Melrose. Then we park in downtown and walk around looking at many beautiful homes. Natchez already has the town square Christmas Tree up and decorated and we find other holiday decorations in the process of being put up in town. After just a brief look, we head to find a place to watch the first full day of NFL football and grab some food. We head down to the waterfront, down a steep hill (already dreading that we’ll have to walk back up that hill) to a small row of historic taverns. All of them seem crowded, but Jay (from the night before) had recommended Magnolia Grill – and so we listen to his advice. We manage to land 2 of the 5 bar stools! While we don’t have folks next to us to chat with, we do get to converse with 3 bartenders mixing drinks for the entire place. Bartenders are always a great source of advice for the area. Having seen many menu items being delivered to patrons – huge portions – we decide to split a bacon cheeseburger. The kind piled so high, you almost can’t get your mouth around it.
Melrose
As we entered Natchez we decided to visit the Melrose Plantation home that the National Park Services maintains. We walk around it but could not get into it as it was closed the day we visited.
Downtown Natchez
After watching the first set of games, we start heading back. We have 60 miles to travel north on the Parkway to meet the same exit we took the day before. As with the other sections of the NTP, it is a beautiful easy drive, however, this section doesn’t have quite as many interesting stops along the way. We do manage to stop at Emerald Mounds, Mount Locust Historic House and Rock Springs town site.
Natchez Trace back to Vicksburg
Our Second Evening in Downtown Vicksburg
There is some rain in the forecast tonight so we decide to drive directly to our dinner destination for tonight, which is just under one mile from the B&B, to potentially avoid a miserable wet walk back. 10 South Rooftop Bar & Grill is located above the 8th floor of a historic building with spectacular views of downtown, the Mississippi River, the Yazoo Diversion Canal and Centennial Lake. It is a casual open bar with a covered roof and lots of TVs – which for us means more football with a baseball game on the side. We get free pretzels and a honey mustard dipping sauce. We love people watching and sit across from a group of 20 somethings and “spoiler alert” – our bartender the next night is one of them. We order an appetizer called Dirty Rice Fritters with Comeback Sauce and we get 6 huge pieces which fill us up. As customary, we make friends with our bartenders Mark & Deb and have a lovely evening of conversation and great food.
Breakfast, Room Shuffle & The Vicksburg Old Courthouse Museum
This morning’s breakfast is ham quiche with cheese grits. We meet Larry & Sandy from Harrisburg, PA – which is almost like meeting someone from home. We have a lot of travel history in common and swap story after story. We had a minor issue with our room overnight – it did indeed rain and let’s just say the gracious staff moved us to a new room for our final night and leave it at that. The staff bent over backwards to apologize and make sure we were happy. We will now be in the Camellia room and I have to say, it’s really cool to experience two very different rooms in one historic mansion.
The Old Courthouse Museum is just a few blocks from the &B and based on numerous recommendations, we check this out next. This iconic structure was built in 1858 high on a hill and is seen in numerous historical photographs of the town. It survived not only the 47 day shelling siege, it survived a direct hit from a tornado in 1953. It has 30 foot columns, an iron front door, iron shutters and an iron staircase. Now a museum, it houses many antebellum and Civil War artifacts including a tie once worn by Jefferson Davis at his inauguration as president of the Confederacy, numerous Civil War flags, bullets, weapons, clothing, toys, dishes, furniture, and the list goes on. The courtroom showcases stories of some famous cases that were tried there.
Vicksburg National Military Park
It’s time for the main attraction in Vicksburg, the National Park that describes the 9 month campaign in 1862-1863 to capture Vicksburg. The park is situated on the battlegrounds and is peppered with statues and signage identifying key battle information. The Visitor Center has a wonderful informational video that details all the minor battles that took place over those nine months. We also learn about the 47-day siege that began on May 18th. Vicksburg was basically surrounded by the Union Army and for six weeks, the soldiers and civilians of Vicksburg had no food supplies and were bombarded constantly by cannons from river ships and strategic land locations. Ultimately, Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton’s army surrendered to Major General Ulysses S. Grant on July 4 (one day after the Confederate defeat at Gettysburg). Five days later, another port further south (Port Hudson) surrendered to Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks. The Mississippi River was once again open for northern commerce to reach the Gulf of Mexico and as a supply line for the Union Army. Grant’s Vicksburg campaign is studied as a masterpiece of military operations and a major turning point of the war. So much more information we don’t have time to detail.
It is very humid today – we talk that it feels like it is in the mid-90’s but a check of the thermometer tells us it is only 78. One amazing artifact on display in the park is the U.S.S. Cairo, one of the first American ironclad warships. It begins pouring as we reach the exhibit – thankfully it is covered by a giant series of canvas tarps. Cairo was the first ship ever to be sunk by a mine remotely detonated by hand. It sank in 12 minutes and there were no casualties. Over the years, it became buried in silt and sand which in turn preserved this historical artifact against corrosion and biological degradation. It was a time capsule of weapons, ammunition, naval stores, and personal gear of the sailors who served on board. The sunken ship was located in 1956 and it took years to salvage and restore the boat – finally having it ready for public display in the park in 1980.
Our Third and Final Evening in Downtown Vicksburg
Here is it our 3rd night and we realize we haven’t really walked and explored the majority of the downtown area – and so we walk and walk, taking pictures and reading historical placards. There are several marked walking tours with a decorative key painted on the sidewalk. We later learn that Lincoln had referred to Vicksburg as the “Key to Victory”.
We skipped lunch, so we head into the Cottonwood Public House for dinner just as it opens at 4pm. First things first – meet your bartender, get a beer and chit chat. This place only serves craft beers from Key City Brewing. We taste 4 different beers and like them all. I order a Cantwell’s Court (Irish Dry Stout) and Harrison gets a Mr. Sippi (Pilsner). We learn our bartender’s name is Keeley and this is her first solo day on the job. She asks where we’ve been and what we’ve done in Vicksburg and discover she was part of the group of 20 somethings that sat across from us the previous night. Some of the friends with her are coming here tonight to help her celebrate her first solo working night. We order a pepperoni pizza and it arrives just as we see a commercial on the overhead TV telling us it is National Pepperoni Pizza Day. We devour that and end up ordering some wings too.
Keeley
Breakfast and the Lower Mississippi River Museum
This morning’s breakfast is scrambled eggs, bacon and cheese grits and once again, we share it with Larry & Sandy. We swap more travel stories and discuss what we seen and experienced in the Vicksburg area. We have one more museum to visit before we head out of town. The Lower Mississippi River Museum is just a few blocks away, down by the river. The museum has a small visitor center that explains efforts to keep the Mississippi River navigable and efforts to keep it from flooding its river towns. More notably, it houses a fully restored, dry docked riverboat, the Motor Vessel (MV) Mississippi IV. This is a 4 level vessel, diesel-powered all steel structure.
Breakfast with Larry and Sandy
Our Verdict
The longer we were in Vicksburg, the more the city grew on us. There’s definitely a revitalization effort in progress and we’d like to return in say 5-10 years to see what they’ve done. We didn’t get to any mansion tours other than the house we stayed in and there’s a great infrastructure of fun restaurants. We’ll be back.
Next Up
We are off to Jefferson, TX for 3 nights.
This is STOP 5, the 7th, 8th and 9th days of our ten week cross country fall adventure in 2021! Here is a link to our previous stop in New Albany, MS.
[…] This is STOP 6, the 10th, 11th and 12th days of our ten week cross country fall adventure in 2021! Here is a link to our previous stop 5 in Vicksburg, MS. […]
Cool. NE Louisiana is neat also. Lake Providence was where Gen Grant tried to create a channel from the Mississippi through there to bypass the Confederate cannons at Vicksburg. Indian mounds that area also. I had several ancestral lines from that area on both sides of the river but most moved to Texas after the Civil War. One GGG-GF died near end of War of 1812. His wife was a niece of Andrew Jackson’s wife. She and the two kids moved to Hermitage and became his wards. The son, my GG-GF, ended up back in Lake Providence LA area as landowner, sheriff, state legislator… Lots of history there.
Such fun! You both look incredibly relaxed and happy. Looking forward to more stories to come