Touring Vicksburg National Military Park

The Wisconsin teachers group had a full day at the Vicksburg National Military Park: the orientation video at 8:00 a.m.; demonstration of musketry and artillery fire (black powder but no live fire); tour of the Union and Confederate defenses, and many photo opportunities at the various Wisconsin regimental monuments. In some ways, the highlight of the day was an evening stroll through the park where a small group of teachers met some Vicksburgers on their walk. The dialogue went something like this:

V-burgers: "Good evening."
W-teachers: "Good evening."
V-burgers: "You're not from around here. Where are you from?"
W-teachers: "Wisconsin."
V-burgers: "Why did you come to Vicksburg."
W-teachers: "We're teachers, learning Civil War & Reconstruction history."
V-burgers: "Teachers? Wisconsin? Were you involved in that collective bargaining thing?"
W-teachers: "Yes."
V-burgers: "We're on your side. We're praying for you."
W-teachers: "Thank you."

Arrival in Vicksburg

Partly Cloudy

97°/74°

The Wisconsin teachers group arrived in Memphis on time, indeed, ahead of time, ate breakfast at the "Arcade Restaurant" across from the Amtrak station, got our bus for Mississippi, and after a stop at the Smith-Robertson Museum of African-American history & culture in Jackson, we motored onto Vicksburg. The *Vicksburg Daily News* says the temperature is 97 degrees F, which I do believe. Time for a quick dip in the motel pool, and then off to a catfish & hush-puppies dinner catered by "Rowdy's Family Restaurant" and an evening lecture at the Vicksburg National Military Park by one of the National Park Service historians. Stay cool and stay hydrated !

--OLGS, guest blogger

Peter Lorre, Hungarian Actor

Want a somewhat obscure movie that is actually pretty good? Try Rope of Sand, made in 1949, starring Burt Lancaster, Paul Henried, Claude Rains and Peter Lorre. Lorre, born Laszlo Lowenstein in a part of Slovakia that was in Hungary when he was born, specialized in playing sleazy or villianous characters whose moral weaknesses usually put a spanner in the works for the hero. However in Rope of Sand, his role is more that of a narrator or chorus, but still with his trademark Hungarian-German accent.

Guest Blogging a trip to the "Gibraltar of the West"

Hello, readers of Domestic Tranquility. With the permission of DomTran herself, I am guest-blogging this week as I accompany a group of elementary, middle, and high school teachers from Wisconsin to Vicksburg, Mississippi. I'm writing this afternoon from Union Station, Chicago, where the group and I await the departure of Amtrak's overnight "City of New Orleans." Our plan is to arrive in Memphis tomorrow morning, find our chartered motor coach and head for Jackson, then Vicksburg. During the Civil War, the Confederate fortress at Vicksburg denied control of the Mississippi to the US. It was nicknamed the "Gibraltar of the West" in 1862-63, in part reflecting its strategic importance and in part reflecting its forbidding heights. The accompanying photo (taken in 1905) is of a place in the Vicksburg defenses called "Stockade Redan" where on May 22, 1863, the 8th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry was ordered to charge and take the Confederate strongpoint. Too bad for the Union that it couldn't be taken. General Sherman's army corps, of which the 8th Wisconsin was a part, suffered 3,200 killed and wounded trying to take Stockade Redan. After the failure of the final charge of the 8th and its brother regiments, Sherman called a halt to further attacks, saying that trying to take the position was "murder." Instead, his superior, General Grant, settled in for a siege of the Confederate army and the city it guarded. In his disappointment and rage, Sherman called for the US Navy gunboats to "rain down shells by the thousand on the city." Twenty-two thousand shells later, on July 4th, the Confederates surrendered. And tomorrow, the teachers of Wisconsin visit the site.
--OLGS, guest blogger