We started the day with a walking tour of Vicksburg, “Historic Vicksburg Comes to Life”. Vicksburg is a very hilly city, so they took us up to our first stop by bus and we walked the rest of the tour. That first stop was Anchuca, an antebellum house which is now a tour home, restaurant, and B&B. It’s loaded with Confederate memorabilia, including a flag which was flown over the house by its original owner soon after the Confederacy was originally declared, probably in 1861.
The ladies’ parlour is the only room I could get a decent photo of, so here it is.
We left Anchuca and walked around the neighborhood, stopping outside the Duff Green Mansion, another antebellum house which is now a B&B. It had been used as a hospital during the Siege of Vicksburg, with both Union and Confederate patients, and came through the shelling almost unscathed.
We walked down the block to look at Christ Episcopal Church, which was also used as a hospital during the siege (as well as holding services every day during the siege).
Our next stop was outside the house of Vicksburg’s first rabbi, Rabbi Herman Bien. He was an inventor and poet as well as a rabbi.
We continued walking until we reached the Old Court House Museum, which had exhibits about various facets of Vicksburg’s history. There was a lot about the Civil War and the siege, of course, but they also gave a good amount of space to the struggle for voting rights.
Vicksburg’s Jewish population has dwindled to a very few elderly people, no longer enough to support or maintain their synagogue, Anshe Chesed (Men of Loving Kindness), and they donated many items to the museum so they wouldn’t be lost.
The men’s room featured a sink which had been taken from Saddam Hussein’s palace by Mississippi soldiers serving in Iraq!
The court room was upstairs and reminded me of a place of worship. There was a picture of Jefferson Davis on the front left side, and a room dedicated to him and his wife, but I didn’t have the time to go in.
Vicksburg was the first place that Coca-Cola was bottled for home consumption (instead of only being available at soda fountains), so our final stop was the Biedenharn Coca-Cola Museum. It was loaded with Coke memorabilia, ads, merchandise, old bottles, special bottles, and more.
They even had a Coke Bear that looked exactly like the one our son had gotten as a gift nearly 30 years ago (at the top of the page).
We enjoyed a complimentary Coke before leaving to return to the ship for lunch.
Too Funny! We were there Feb 24, although the only thing we had in common, was having a Coke at the Coca-Cola Museum…which we had visited in 2013, but only got refreshments at this time.
We didn’t go back to the Old Courthouse this time, either, having visited it in 2013, where the thing we STILL remember most, was the display talking about how happy many slaves were to fight FOR the Confederacy.
I didn’t see the display about the slaves being happy to fight for the Confederacy. I hope it’s been removed, but it’s also quite possible I just missed it.