Vicksburg History Beyond the Battlefield

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In 1811, Newitt Vick, a Methodist minister from Virginia, purchased a large

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tract of land in the Mississippi area.

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thriving

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Vick saw the potential for a thriving river port and began to plan a town.

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He envisioned a bustling community that would serve as a vital link

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between the Mississippi River and the fertile interior of the state.

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didn't Tragically, Newadvick didn't live to see his dream realized.

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He fell victim to yellow fever in 1819, just as his plans

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were beginning to take shape.

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However, his family, particularly his son in law, John Lane, carried on his vision.

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The town was officially established in 1825 and named

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Vicksburg in honor of its founder.

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Its location on a high bluff overlooking the Mississippi River proved to be ideal.

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The natural defenses provided by the terrain combined with the easy access

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to river trade quickly made Vicksburg an important commercial center.

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the As steamboats began to ply the waters of the Mississippi with increasing

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frequency, Vicksburg grew rapidly.

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Cotton planters from the surrounding region recognized the town's value as

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a shipping point, and soon Vicksburg was handling a significant portion

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of Mississippi's cotton exports.

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The founding of Vicksburg is a testament to the foresight of Newitt Vick and the

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determination of those who followed him.

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From its humble beginnings, the city would go on to play a crucial role

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in American history, particularly during the Civil War, cementing its

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place in the nation's narrative.

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Welcome to Talk with History.

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I'm your host, Scott, here with my wife and historian,

Jenn: 00:01:45

Hello.

Jenn: 00:01:45

Hello.

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On this podcast, we give you insights to our history inspired

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world travels, YouTube channel journey, and examine history

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through deeper conversations with the curious, the explorers, and

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the history lovers out there.

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So I was checking things out and on Spotify, our Spotify listeners have

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actually been dropping us some stars.

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So I want to give a little shout out to our Spotify listeners out there.

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So thank you for leaving us.

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I think it's either three or five stars on Spotify.

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And if you're an Apple podcast listener please drop us a review.

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It really does help kind of the show grow and Alpo some sort of algorithm, I think.

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But most importantly, tell your friends about this podcast, especially if they

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plan on visiting places like Vicksburg.

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Yeah.

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So if you're like me and you're driving somewhere and you're like,

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Oh, is there a podcast about that?

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So I can know what to see before I get there.

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I would have loved one about Vicksburg because we stumbled upon

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some really awesome things and it would have been nice to know those

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were there even before we had set

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Yeah, I was very impressed.

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surprised at the different spots that Vicksburg outside

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of the battlefield, right?

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Because we kind of spent two days there.

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I was surprised at how much history there was just in the city itself,

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regardless of the actual battlefield, which everybody knows it for.

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But there was a lot of history that happened there.

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Absolutely.

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And we will do a battlefield podcast.

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So if you're looking for specific Vicksburg battlefield information,

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that's going to be on a separate podcast, but we are going to cover that.

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But if you want to listen to this, if you're visiting the.

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city.

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And you're like, I have more time than just going to the battlefield.

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This is what this is for you.

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So we get to Vicksburg and Scott is super, super smart.

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I have to say he looks up like a downtown area because we get there

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kind of late and we have the kids and we want to let them out and play.

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So he looks up a playground.

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And when we get to downtown Vicksburg, it is Amazing.

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They have these murals painted along the river of the history of Vicksburg,

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and they have these great play areas that look like old steamboats, where the

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kids could play and have a great time.

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It was blasting like jazz music.

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really cool.

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And like the sun was setting, it was beautiful.

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And if you watch our video on this, like I flew my drone real quick to

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kind of get some cool drone shots.

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we got down there and we were just kind of trying to get out of the car because

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we didn't want to go to the Airbnb yet.

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And so I looked up a playground and kind of thought a lot of times cities will

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have playgrounds near their commercial centers or near a touristy area.

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And this was right on the waterfront.

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Yeah.

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It was so cool.

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Amazing.

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They downtown Vicksburg, it's, they say it's, it's vibrant

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and charming and walkable.

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It's all of those things, but it was very like uniquely Southern and it was

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just a really beautiful place to be.

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And I recommend going down there in the evening, in the morning when

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it's a little cooler, especially in the summer months, like with us.

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Now, what you're going to see the waterfront there is the Yazoo River.

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In the time of the Civil War, that was the Mississippi River.

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The Mississippi River has changed course, and now it just has an

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inlet now to the Mississippi there.

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But that used to be the course of the Mississippi River.

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So if you want to go out and stand on that riverfront, that

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is what the steamboats went down.

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That's what the ironclads went down, the timberclads.

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But when we got down there to downtown Vicksburg, it walks you through the

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history of Vicksburg with these murals and it tells you just some really

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unique, fun history about Vicksburg.

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Things that I didn't know Teddy Roosevelt and he had come down to Vicksburg He

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was like 25 miles north of Vicksburg for a four day bear hunt and a hunter had

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went out before him and Scouted a bear.

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It was an older bear who was kind of injured and he had tied it to a tree

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Waiting for the president to come so the president could easily kill it and when

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Roosevelt arrived he couldn't shoot this defenseless injured bear and political

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cartoonists drew Roosevelt getting to this poor defenseless bear and he called

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it drawing the line in Mississippi toy manufacturers started producing teddy

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bears in response to this, like in honor of Roosevelt for not killing the bear.

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And so that is something that's such a part of Americana, the teddy

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bear, you see teddy bears everywhere and people have owned some sort

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of teddy bear in their lifetime,

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and I have a feeling too, because I'm pretty sure we've watched what is

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it, Antiques Roadshow, and, there was teddy bear figures made before 1902.

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I think some of the famous ones we always see on Antiques

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Roadshow is the stife ones, right?

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So they're probably in the late 1800s, but I think this is where the nickname,

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the moniker of Quote unquote teddy bear kind of really had its roots and I

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thought that was so neat because these murals did such a good job And so this

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again if you go watch the video we'll kind of show you the locations and we'll

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show you these murals, but it's teddy roosevelt sitting on a horse with his

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whole entourage that's how the press heard about it because he's the president he's

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traveling with an entourage And there's this bear just kind of looking up and

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teddy roosevelt's kind of looking out at you from the mural and then learning

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about Why this was there because it happened right there outside of Vicksburg.

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Yeah, and what's really neat about each of these murals is they

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have kind of like a historic marker right in front of them that is in

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bronze that kind of tells you the whole history of the mural as you look at it.

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One another one that I thought was neat, they have about

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eight or nine historic markers.

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Like actually at that downtown commemorating different ships, different

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times in history, some to the Civil War, the first shots fired, the

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first ship that was sank during the Civil War, iron clads, timber clads.

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But one of the ones I thought that was very interesting was the Sultana.

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this was an interesting story, and you told it in a good way on the video.

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Yeah.

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So what's interesting about the Sultana is it actually sinks in Memphis.

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And we know it here in Memphis has a little museum to it, but it's the biggest

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maritime disaster in American history.

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was like a kind of classic steam paddleboat type ship,

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Yes.

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Just a side wheel steamboat.

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And it sank on the Mississippi river, April 27th, 1865,

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killing more than 1500 people.

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What's significant about Vicksburg is Vicksburg is where it was loaded up.

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The captain was approached by a quartermaster at

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Vicksburg with a proposal.

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Thousands of recently released Union prisoners of war who were held in

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these confederate prison camps had been brought to Vicksburg and they were

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awaiting release to the Northern States.

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And he was going to pay like a big sum of money, I think like

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3 per enlisted, 8 per officer.

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to take him up north.

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Now this ship is only supposed to hold about 300 people and he ends up

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loading on again like 2, 000 people.

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So if you imagine a steamboat, it's very top heavy anyway, and when you get

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all that weight on it rocks, so if It made it from Vicksburg up to Memphis.

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And then at Memphis is where it really starts rocking.

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And these boilers get super hot with the rock.

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And when it leans to the other side, they explode.

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And so these 1500 men go into the water and they die because

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they're weak and they haven't been, they're just prisoners of war.

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And so it's this big, It's a huge maritime disaster.

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All these men are killed, but no one knows about it because another really

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famous man was killed the day before.

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And that was John Wilkes Booth.

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And that filled the headlines of newspapers.

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So no one knows about the Sultana, but they had a marker there in

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Vicksburg to that loading of those men.

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And then we'll do another story about what happened in Memphis and we'll

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actually take you to a grave site where most of those men are buried.

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Yeah, and there's a whole mural there.

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I actually read when I was prepping for the podcast that there are more

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men who died in the Sultana accident than who died on the Titanic.

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Yeah, that's, the biggest maritime disaster in history.

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It's like

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it's, it's one of those ones you hear about it, you're like, wait, what?

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How?

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How is this not something that I knew about?

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More people died in that accident than died on, on the Titanic.

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And it was buried, essentially, because it was the same day that John

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Wilkes Booth was hunted down and shot.

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So it was really fascinating.

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If you get to Vicksburg, I highly recommend going down to the waterfront

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and seeing these murals if you're going to do one or two things.

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We're going to talk about a couple more, but there's so many, you can

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just kind of spend like probably a good hour easily just kind of walking

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and reading and looking at the murals.

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It's quite fascinating.

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one of the things I didn't realize was how much Jefferson

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Davis was from Vicksburg.

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He's from the area.

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Yeah, I had no idea.

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And, There's a mural to him and I was reading it and I'm like, oh, oh my gosh

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So Jefferson Davis, not only is he, he he's the confederate president During

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the Civil War, but he had his plantation right outside of Vicksburg Just a few

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miles outside of Vicksburg and when he receives the news that he's been

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elected president of the Confederacy.

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Mississippi is one of the first states to secede from the Union.

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And so he leaves there to go get sworn in as president.

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But I had no idea.

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I was like, I'm looking at this mural and it shows him at his plantation

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getting the news and he's there with his wife, Rina and his children.

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Now we've covered Jefferson Davis before because we did

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his home in Richmond, Virginia,

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Yeah, we actually got a great comment on that white

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house of the Confederacy video, right from, from Richmond.

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Someone watched that video.

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Cause we go inside and we actually take you in there and we show you.

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It's when we started getting better at our videos.

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I started getting a little bit better with.

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b roll shooting and stuff like that and so we go inside and it was

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really cool and we got a really nice comment someone said it was one of

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their favorite videos on that topic

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yeah, it's a very interesting place.

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The White House of the Confederacy.

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This is where Jefferson Davis will live.

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during his time as president of the Confederacy is in Richmond, Virginia.

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He learns of his selection there at Vicksburg.

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And there's a mural to that.

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But like I said, you can walk along these murals.

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They're just fantastic.

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They tell you there's so much more history, I'm not going to tell you.

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touch here, something about the the most played melodrama in history.

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It's from Vicksburg.

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There's there's a lot of musicians, especially blues musicians from Vicksburg.

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There's just a lot of great history along those murals.

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But speaking of Jefferson Davis.

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We went to this house, and it's right down the road from the original marker

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of Vicksburg, and it's called Achuca.

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And it's an antebellum home built in the late 1820s.

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And it's where Jefferson Davis will go after he's pardoned

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in 1868 by President Johnson.

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that was like christmas day like he issued he issued his

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pardon on christmas day to basically all of the men who participated

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in the rebellion in the civil war

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exactly.

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it was kind of a forgiveness.

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giving and reconciliation moment for President Johnson.

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He's the president after Lincoln, and he's trying to have

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some healing for the nation.

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So he pardons everybody involved in the rebellion.

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And Jefferson Davis is held in prison.

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We've been there.

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If you want to see what Jefferson Davis's cell was.

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Monroe in Virginia.

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And so we have a whole video on that.

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But He comes back to Vicksburg, and he comes back to the home of his brother,

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Joseph, who is right along that main road into this Greek style home called Anchuca,

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which means a happy place in the Chickasaw language, which is the Native Americans

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of the area and he goes up onto the balcony and they say that's where he gives

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his last public address to the people.

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It's from that balcony.

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So I stand in front of it.

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I show you now the people of Achuca.

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It's, it's open for business.

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And they saw that video on Instagram and they would just love to have

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more people come out and see it.

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It is a very neat place.

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It's open for dining.

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I think we probably would have done that had we known, you could go

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eat dinner there or something like that.

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Yeah, they have dinner and they have brunch.

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So it's just a great place.

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It's, full service and you can really have a good Southern meal in the

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same place that Jefferson Davis ate,

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And so there's another kind of famous home in Vicksburg, the McRaven house.

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they claim it's the most haunted house in Mississippi.

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the whole state.

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In the whole state, which it's an old state and it's, I

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would say there's a lot of traumas that have happened in that state.

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So for this house to claim to be the most haunted, to hold onto that

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emotional trauma, it's very interesting.

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They have had.

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Ghost hunters, they're famous ghost hunters.

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If you're a ghost hunter enthusiast and to watch some of those shows

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They have had some people from those shows go to that house.

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So the McRaven house was built in 1797 So it's very old and it was

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built by an Andrew Glass At the time the house was called Walnut

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Hills and He was a highwayman.

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So we talk about the Natchez Trace, which was a famous trail for people

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to travel from Natchez, Mississippi up to Nashville and basically will

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take you all the way up north into the more populated areas of America at the

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time But highwaymen were people who would rob people along those trails

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You hear about them in London and in France, and we had

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them in America as well.

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so he would rob people then come back to his house and

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kind of look at his treasures.

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Eventually, he's killed by his wife and they say he haunts McRaven house.

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Now it's had other things happen there as well.

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In 1838 there was a sheriff that owned McRaven house and he had a young bride

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who dies in childbirth in the house and other people have owned the house.

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They have also died in the house.

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And it was used as a confederate hospital during the siege of Vicksburg.

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So there were men not only in the house, but out among the yard in

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makeshift tents who were dying.

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So you get you kind of do you sense the theme here?

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There's been a lot of death around this house And so you can kind of guess as to

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why people would say this is one of the most haunted houses in all of Mississippi

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Yeah.

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And those ghost hunters, they claim to have contacted the ghost of Andrew Glass,

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who is the aggressive ghost of the house.

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But McRaven house is also open for you to dine and to tour.

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And so it's another place if you're looking for something

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fun to do in Vicksburg and you're into that sort of thing.

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It used to be on McRaven road and that's why it has the name McRaven

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house, but that's no longer the road.

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It's now 1503 Harrison street, but you can tell it's the original area of Vicksburg.

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Now one of the things that I liked and I don't know if this

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is what you were gonna move on to next was more of the downtown with

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some, some modern day ties, right?

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And this was the Coca Cola memorabilia museum.

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I had not even thought to think of something like that.

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And you said, Oh, there's a Coca Cola museum.

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I was like, why is there a Coca Cola museum here?

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And it was because the very first bottle of Coke was bottled there in Vicksburg.

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Yeah.

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How interesting is

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It's crazy.

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So Coca Cola is invented in, as we all know, in Georgia.

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And it is invented by a confederate.

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think that's where the big museum is.

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It's what the big museum is.

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And in 1894, the owner of the downtown Vicksburg candy shop Benningham

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Bite and harn.

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He decides to bottle this for his rural customers.

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So Vicksburg is not only like a rural area, but they're on the Mississippi.

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So you can imagine they can get to people easily.

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That's the main.

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It's a good transportation hub.

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And so he feels like if I could bottle this fountain drink for my customers,

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it would be really great for business because Coca Cola time is thought of

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as more than just a refreshing drink.

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They use it for medicine and to calm the stomach and things like that.

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So Coca Cola gives them the okay, gives them the recipe and they're

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the very first people to bottle it.

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Now, this is downtown Vicksburg.

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This is not along the waterfront where the murals are.

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This is like the main street.

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So it's 1107 Washington Street.

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And you can tell there's cool kind of ghost writing on big buildings

Jenn: 00:18:30

there from the times when this was probably happening in the 1800s.

Scott: 00:18:35

Yeah.

Scott: 00:18:36

And I'll put a link in the show notes.

Scott: 00:18:37

So I, when we go to these locations, I try to be good about kind of marking

Scott: 00:18:41

each spot and kind of collecting it as like a Google map kind of folder.

Scott: 00:18:46

So I'll actually, I'll put a link and if you click on this Google

Scott: 00:18:49

maps link, it'll show you all of the spots that I saved, whether it's the

Scott: 00:18:53

waterfront murals, the Coca Cola museum.

Scott: 00:18:55

The different houses and you can click on it.

Scott: 00:18:58

It'll open up your Google maps app, and then it'll show you

Scott: 00:19:01

all these places to be visited.

Scott: 00:19:02

So if you are going down there and you're listening to this on the way

Scott: 00:19:05

down, look in the show notes of this podcast episode, click on that Google

Scott: 00:19:09

maps link, and then automatically you have all these spots just ready to go

Jenn: 00:19:14

Absolutely.

Jenn: 00:19:14

And two places we really didn't get to see, but I want to touch on them is rape.

Jenn: 00:19:18

Well, three actually right beside the Coca Cola museum is a awesome little park and

Jenn: 00:19:25

it says Vicksburg and it has 200 and has a great place where you can put your phone

Jenn: 00:19:30

and you can stand by the sign and click.

Jenn: 00:19:32

There's also a great maritime museum and it's made from an old steamboat

Jenn: 00:19:38

that they've dry docked and they've retrofitted and you can go visit this

Jenn: 00:19:42

museum to the history of the Mississippi and the different boats and the people

Jenn: 00:19:47

who have worked along that river.

Jenn: 00:19:50

And then there's also a little Civil War museum along that

Jenn: 00:19:53

street that I hear has some really great relics and things in there.

Jenn: 00:19:57

it's not well known, but it's really cool from what I hear.

Jenn: 00:20:01

So that's another place we didn't get to visit, but it's

Jenn: 00:20:03

all along that main street.

Scott: 00:20:05

and that main street where the Coca Cola Museum is, where the Vicksburg Park

Scott: 00:20:09

is and the museums, it's literally like two blocks from the riverfront murals.

Jenn: 00:20:13

Yeah, you could walk up there.

Jenn: 00:20:15

I mean, you can see the riverfront murals and there's an old courthouse there

Jenn: 00:20:18

that used to be the original courthouse.

Jenn: 00:20:20

That's where Grant is going to his famous picture.

Jenn: 00:20:23

He comes after they've sieged Vicksburg and they've won.

Jenn: 00:20:27

That courthouse is also now a museum.

Jenn: 00:20:29

So it's just a really great city.

Jenn: 00:20:32

It has so much history.

Jenn: 00:20:33

It was great for the kids.

Jenn: 00:20:35

they loved playing downtown.

Jenn: 00:20:37

It was beautiful.

Jenn: 00:20:38

I felt safe there.

Jenn: 00:20:39

great food, great Southern hospitality.

Jenn: 00:20:42

I would definitely recommend if you're going to visit, spend two days,

Jenn: 00:20:45

definitely one day for the battlefield.

Jenn: 00:20:46

Do you want to see that the civil war battlefield there?

Jenn: 00:20:49

That's the key to the South.

Jenn: 00:20:51

And then another day.

Jenn: 00:20:52

for the actual city.

Jenn: 00:20:53

Walk with History had a wonderful time.

Jenn: 00:20:55

We hope if you're driving there right now or if you're going that we've given

Jenn: 00:20:59

you some good ideas and places to see.

Jenn: 00:21:01

And please let us know what you thought about your visit to Vicksburg.

Scott: 00:21:04

Yeah, it was super fun and it very much made Vicksburg more

Scott: 00:21:09

to me than just the battlefield.

Scott: 00:21:10

Some of these cities and towns kind of become only the battlefield.

Scott: 00:21:14

For especially for American Civil War stuff, but to me, it's a little

Scott: 00:21:18

bit akin to Gettysburg because you can do the battlefield for an

Scott: 00:21:21

entire day, if not more, because there's a lot to do over there.

Scott: 00:21:24

And we'll talk about that on another episode coming up, but then there's

Scott: 00:21:28

plenty to do in the town and in the city.

Scott: 00:21:30

So it was really neat.

Scott: 00:21:36

As we wrap up our journey through Vicksburg history, it's worth noting

Scott: 00:21:39

that these fascinating tidbits that make this city truly unique.

Scott: 00:21:47

Before you listen to this podcast, you may not have known that Vicksburg was

Scott: 00:21:50

the site of the first bottling of Coca Cola in 1894, or that the beloved teddy

Scott: 00:21:54

bear got its name from an incident involving Theodore Roosevelt during

Scott: 00:21:58

a hunting trip near the area in 1902.

Scott: 00:22:04

These little known facts add an extra layer of intrigue to the city's

Scott: 00:22:07

already rich historical tapestry.

Scott: 00:22:11

When you chat with your fellow history fans, remember that Vicksburg

Scott: 00:22:14

history isn't all lighthearted.

Scott: 00:22:16

The city was the scene of the worst maritime disaster in U.

Scott: 00:22:19

S.

Scott: 00:22:19

history when the steamboat Sultana exploded not too far

Scott: 00:22:23

from its shores in 1865, claiming more lives than the Titanic.

Scott: 00:22:30

During the Civil War, Vicksburg earned the nickname Gibraltar of the Confederacy

Scott: 00:22:34

due to its strategic importance.

Scott: 00:22:36

Interestingly, the city didn't celebrate Independence Day for 81

Scott: 00:22:40

years after the Civil War, only resuming the tradition in 1945.

Scott: 00:22:47

These captivating historical nuggets showcase why Vicksburg

Scott: 00:22:49

continues to fascinate history buffs and casual learners alike.

Scott: 00:22:54

When you visit Vicksburg, make sure you take the time to get beyond the

Scott: 00:22:57

battlefield to these fascinating and important historical sites.

Scott: 00:23:05

This has been a Walk With History production.

Scott: 00:23:07

Talk With History is created and hosted by me, Scott Bennie.

Scott: 00:23:11

Episode researched by Jennifer Bennie.

Scott: 00:23:13

Check out the show notes for links and references mentioned in this episode.

Scott: 00:23:16

Talk With History is supported by our fans at thehistoryroadtrip.

Scott: 00:23:21

com.

Scott: 00:23:22

Our eternal thanks to those providing funding to help keep us going.

Scott: 00:23:25

to Doug McLiverty, Larry Myers, and Patrick Benny.

Scott: 00:23:29

Make sure you hit that follow button in your podcast player,

Scott: 00:23:32

and we'll talk to you next time.