part of a series
On Wednesday, we started off our Facebook LIVE events at Bruinsburg, the site where Ulysses S. Grant landed his army on the east bank of the Mississippi April 30-May 1, 1863, to kick off his overland campaign to take Vicksburg. It was “Grant’s D-Day,” but with no Germans waiting for him, Kris White said. Historian Parker Hills brought us (with permission) onto private property so we could get to the actual site itself.
As I did yesterday, I wanted to share a few images from the day’s adventures (even as we’re out making new ones today!). Our thanks to our partners at the American Battlefield Trust for inviting us to co-host this series!
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The landing area today is a wide flood plain, but in 1863, the riverbank ran right along the edge of the brown grass in the foreground.
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This road trace is the path Grant’s men took from their disembarkation point along the river onto the eastern shore of the Mississippi.
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High water necessitated that Grant’s men march along a dike to get away from the riverbank. The spit of grass in the center of the picture shows the remains of that dike, which has slowly been obliterated by agriculture in the 155 years since. The river would have been behind the camera.
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The dike as it runs through the forest before the road begins its climb away from the river—note how the ground slopes away on either side of the dike, which is the green strip right down the middle of the image. The river would have been to the left of the camera.
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Parker Hills, Brig. gen. (ret.), co-hosted today’s segments. Parker, the former chair of Mississippi’s Sesquicentennial Commission, runs “Battle Focus” tours–and man, does he really know his stuff!
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A witness tree stands at the intersection where the historic Bruinsburg road meets the modern road that runs back into Port Gibson.
