Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Scouts visit battlefield

Scouts from Troop 41 in Vienna recently traveled to Vicksburg, Mississippi to tour the site of the American Civil War Battle of Vicksburg at the Vicksburg National Military Park.

The park includes 1,325 historic monuments and markers, 20 miles of historic trenches and earthworks, a 16-mile tour road, a 12.5-mile walking trail, two antebellum homes, 144 emplaced cannons, the restored gunboat USS Cairo (sunk on December 12, 1862, on the Yazoo River), and the Grant’s Canal site, where the Union Army attempted to build a canal to let their ships bypass Confederate artillery fire.

The Cairo, also known as the “Hardluck Ironclad,” was the first U.S. ship in history to be sunk by a torpedo/mine. It was recovered from the Yazoo in 1964.

Pictured are some of the Vienna scouts in front of the USS Cairo.

Photo provided by Scott Wright