Battlefield Battery Benton, Vicksburg Mississippi

Championhilz

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BatteryBentonVicksburg.jpg



I took this picture of Battery Benton at Vicksburg about four years ago.
 
BatteryBentonVicksburg.jpg



I took this picture of Battery Benton at Vicksburg about four years ago.
I rode over that old bridge so many times as a kid going from home in Jackson to the farm in Louisiana and back. As an aside, it's pretty hairy when a train is running right next to the two lane deck which itself is so narrow that semi's would have to pull in their side mirrors to keep from those on another truck going the opposite way. Still remember the toll tickets Dad would tear out of the book to get on the bridge.

Anyway, for years I thought that was Whistlin' Dick on one of the CS batteries but later learned it was a US Battery aimed at South Fort, just up the street. I've also wondered why the US did not make a more concerted effort on the south end of the Confederate defense. Was it the terrain, lack of roads or what?
 
Anyway, for years I thought that was Whistlin' Dick on one of the CS batteries but later learned it was a US Battery aimed at South Fort, just up the street. I've also wondered why the US did not make a more concerted effort on the south end of the Confederate defense. Was it the terrain, lack of roads or what?

I think there were three principal reasons. First, it's been theorized that Grant initially did not exert himself to contain the Confederate forces in Vicksburg, leaving the possibility that they would actually escape; this would have solved two of his problems (A, taking the town, and B, getting them out in the open and away from their fortifications). Second, the road they were coming down from Champion Hill and the Big Black crossing came into Vicksburg from north of east, so the southern portion was farthest from the line of march. And third, the southern sector was initially overseen by McClernand, who had a remarkable ability not to see things he wasn't looking for (to put it charitably).

They eventually sealed the gap with troops drawn from Memphis and elsewhere in the department.
 
My understanding about it is pretty much what Mark said. I know the southern approaches were not completely sealed off for quite a while after the siege began, although I don't remember for how long. Had he wanted to, Pemberton might have been able to escape with some of his army, or maybe most of it, early in the siege by slipping out on the south side of town. It would have been risky, but he might have had a shot at it. Of course, the idea was to hold the town until help arrived in the form of Joe Johnston. Which turned out to be a bad plan.
 
I was going to say the same thing. Seige gun maybe?
It is one of two 42 pounder rifled guns that were operated by Battery E, 1st Missouri Light Artillery under Lieut. Joseph B. Atwater and a detail of men of the 34th Iowa Infantry, all under Acting Master J. Frank Reed of the gunboat "Benton".
 
It is one of two 42 pounder rifled guns that were operated by Battery E, 1st Missouri Light Artillery under Lieut. Joseph B. Atwater and a detail of men of the 34th Iowa Infantry, all under Acting Master J. Frank Reed of the gunboat "Benton".
"Light Artillery?" When do guns make the jump from light to heavy artillery?
 
"Light Artillery?" When do guns make the jump from light to heavy artillery?

It may be one of the guns landed from the Benton; I know they landed a few on the south side (and some more were landed on the north side at Battery Selfridge, taken from the often-sunken ironclad Cincinnati) to beef up Grant's artillery, since he had almost entirely field guns with him.

If it's one of those 42-pounders, it's one of the ones that was rifled (and was then classed as a 70-pounder rifle) and referred to as a James gun. They gained a (deserved) reputation for bursting, and sometimes when replacements arrived, the crews simply rolled them into the river. There are a couple of them on the Cairo; those could probably be compared to the one at Battery Benton as a cross-check.
 
I rode over that old bridge so many times as a kid going from home in Jackson to the farm in Louisiana and back. As an aside, it's pretty hairy when a train is running right next to the two lane deck which itself is so narrow that semi's would have to pull in their side mirrors to keep from those on another truck going the opposite way. Still remember the toll tickets Dad would tear out of the book to get on the bridge.

Anyway, for years I thought that was Whistlin' Dick on one of the CS batteries but later learned it was a US Battery aimed at South Fort, just up the street. I've also wondered why the US did not make a more concerted effort on the south end of the Confederate defense. Was it the terrain, lack of roads or what?
HAha.Me too.Not many times,but once.My family was hauling a 22ft travel trailer out to California,one summer.I was maybe 16 at the time.My sister was in the trailer(illegal,I know),teying to make dinner,and we had to pull over after the bridge,she was so shaken,hehe.She never rode in that thing again while it was moving.The semis that passed going the other way were about a foot away!
We were in a hurry so unfortunately out the window at the various monuments and cannon were the first and only look I have ever gotten of Vicksburg.A place I need to make it back to.
Thanks for the picture and the fun memory.
 
Excuse my ignorance but would the 42-pdr. rifled guns used by Battery Benton have been on siege carriages or on wooden barbette carriages? Because I remember reading that the same kind of gun, 42-pdrs. rifled to the James pattern, which were used in the bombardment of Fort Pulaski were on wooden barbette carriages. Is it possible that the NPS just put these at Battery Benton on siege carriages for the "wow" factor, to look more impressive, and that the real Battery Benton's guns were on barbettes? Or did they really have them on siege carriages? Because I'm trying to imagine how many horses it would take to pull something that heavy on the road.
 
Now that I think about it though, these guns were offloaded from USS Benton, correct? So they were Navy guns to start with. So which would an army be more likely to have with it? Spare siege carriages or a few spare barbette carriages? I'm thinking it would be much more likely that they would have had a couple of extra siege carriages to put them on rather than somehow finding two extra wooden barbette carriages.
 
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