Dietz Summer Road Trip

Less than 24 hours is all we spent in Mississippi with only two main destinations we tried to make the most of it!

We got up early and went to Vicksburg National Military Park. One of, if not the most deceive southern battle of the Civil War. Located on the Mississippi River it was under siege for 47 days. I’ll spare you the history lesson for now but here is a good quote to illustrate it’s importance “Vicksburg is the nail head that holds the South’s two halves together…Vicksburg is the key”.

We started in the visitor center with a video and a small little exhibit room there.

Then you basically take a driving tour of the battlefield. You start on Union lines and there are endless amounts of markers, monuments, and cannons marking importance regiments or events.

The most impressive was the Illinois monument that you could walk up into.

Next door to the monument was a private house (still original) that stood there as safe house for soldiers.

About half way though the park is the U.S.S. Cairo Museum. It had the recovered remains of this old battleship that sunk in the river. It also had a little museum full of ton of stuff that was recovered from the river.

Close to the U.S.S. Cairo was also the cemetery that we were able to drive through.

At the turn you then entered the Confederate lines also with more monuments and markers. There was plenty of places to pull off and take some great pictures.

After our leisurely tour of the battlefield we headed east to Jackson, MS. We stopped at a super cool place called Iron Horse Grill for lunch. The menu had a ton of Mississippi original and inspired dishes. There tortilla chips had an amazing seasoning on them. I got a drink called the “Etta James” that was super refreshing.

While still only lunch we ordered some serious dishes. Danielle got the crab stuff fried catfish and John got the Navajo Chicken. They grill using charcoal and had amazing sides with all of their dishes.

This place would be awesome on the weekend/evenings with live music, but since we where there for lunch on a week day we still enjoyed the decorations and music that they played over the speakers.

On our way out, our server invited us upstairs to check out the Mississippi Music Experience and wax museum upstairs. This was quite a treat to read about all of the class rock and blues singers, as well as present day talent that call Mississippi home. Plus the whole thing was free so that was even better!

The last stop we made in Jackson was to the home of Medgar Evers’ home. We called for a tour but they had already left for the day so we were able to tour from the outside. The neighbors were out and very friendly as we read the markers and plaques that described the tragic death of the young NAACP field secretary when he was shot and killed in the driveway of his own home.

This would be the first stop in the next few days of a Civil Rights tour we will take across Alabama. We left Jackson with Birmingham, AL as our next stop! Warning: The next blog post will be FULL of civil rights museums, sites, and places that changed our history forever. Stay tuned…