Vicksburg - Red Carpet City of the South

After a good night's sleep in Vicksburg, we got up early and hit up the National Military Park.  Who knew (we didn't!) that Vicksburg was the "Gibralter of the Confederacy" because it was a seven week, horrible, bloody battle during the Civil War (like 20,000 men died, mostly on the Union side, even though the Union soldiers "won").  The Union forces and President Lincoln needed Vicksburg because it was the "nail head that [held] the South's two halves together...Vicksburg [was] the key."  By taking over Vicksburg, the north could divide the south and finalize control of the entire mighty Mississippi.  KR and I learned a whole bunch about the Civil War as we drove around the 16-mile military park loop and saw lots of original cannons, trenches, and even the USS Cairo ironclad paddlewheel battleship, which was sunk during the war, but has been cleaned up and put on display at the park.  Here are some pics:

After the military park, we headed to historic, downtown Vicksburg (which was so cute and quaint) and checked out the Biedenharn Coca-Cola museum.  While Coca-Cola wasn't created in Vicksburg, it WAS put into bottles and distributed for the first time there.  Joseph Biedenharn was a local confectioner who used to bottle his own sodas.  At the time, you could only get Coke via a soda fountain at a soda shop.  Realizing that there was a market for bottled Coke, Biedenharn bottled some up, sent it to his Coke syrup rep asking permission to bottle the Coke and distribute it that way, received permission and BAM, bottled coke was created.  After touring the cute little museum, where we learned some history, saw some fun old Coke ads/stuff, and learned about how soda fountains work, we enjoyed a Coke Float.  Yum!

Our next stop was an old Antebellum house, called Anchuca.  It was, hands down, the most beautiful home I've seen to date.  And boy did it have some history associated with it.  It was owned by Joseph Davis, brother of Jefferson Davis who was the "President" of the Confederacy.  After the Confederacy surrendered, Jefferson Davis actually gave his final speech as President from the balcony of Anchuca!  It is CRAZY how all this history that we learn about out in California is so real, ever-present and tangible out here in the South (and also the East...aka, the 13 original colonies and all the old states!).  It's been really interesting to Katie and I to be in buildings/at locations that are hundreds of years old and just seem to hold these stories within them, good or bad.  Very fascinating!  Needless to say, the house was beautifully preserved and has a ton of old antique stuff in it!

There is also a SUPER yummy cafe associated with Anchuca, which would be very appropriate for an afternoon tea or for ladies who lunch.  Katie and I settled for some yummy sweet tea, asparagus bisque and cornbread.  yuuum.  We were also on the hunt for that mint julep, but we struck out at Anchuca since they were out of mint.  wa-wa.

From Vicksburg, it was time to head down to New Orleans via Jackson (yes, we did play Johnny Cash/June Carter's "Jackson" while driving around Jackson, many times).  Turns out there wasn't too too much to see in Jackson, but we did swing by the capital building (so pretty), where we made friends with a security guard, and drove around a bit to see all the old buildings.

We decided not to waste much more time because our next stop was NEW ORLEANS, and we were SO excited to get down there to par-tay!  Read about our NOLA (which I figured out stands for New Orleans Louisiana) debauchery in the next post!

-ENCM (full name, for formality's sake-you're welcome Sarah)