Vicksburg, MS 1864

[civilwarincolor]

The quality of the B&W print is not that good, but I have had several requests from one of my patrons that lives in Vicksburg to do this image.

 

[Karen Lips]

Thanks for sharing this. Some of my ancestors lived near Vicksburg at the time of the Civil War.

 

[civilwarincolor]

Thanks for sharing this. Some of my ancestors lived near Vicksburg at the time of the Civil War.

Glad you enjoyed it!

 

[Nathanb1]

Excellent! If you want to understand why it was so difficult for Grant to get past Vicksburg, this photo explains it beautifully. I think you just made my 8th grade lesson on Vicksburg much more interesting.

 

[civilwarincolor]

Excellent! If you want to understand why it was so difficult for Grant to get past Vicksburg, this photo explains it beautifully. I think you just made my 8th grade lesson on Vicksburg much more interesting.

Glad to help!

The person that requested it did so because his house is visible (one of the small houses near the hill) in the image. At the time it was right on the water (the Mississippi has since changed course and is now a short distance from the river). At the start of the war the Confederates brought artillery on to his property and used it as a defensive position. They used ships to unload the cannon and setup the yard as a defensive position, even building a "bomb proof" (which I believe he said the ruins are still there).

He has owned the house for ~40 years and said that they had lived there for years before they knew all of the history. They did some remodeling and discovered a patched hole in one room. When the followed the hole the found another patch on the opposite wall that continued through the house having impacted a several rooms when an artillery shell struck the house during the war.

He just ordered a few other images and left me a note asking me to again (he first showed me the image last month) consider colorizing this for him. As he has been an excellent customer for several years I decided to complete the image and include it in his order as a surprise. Hope he likes it.

 

[mt155]

I love these old photos. Vicksburg is one of my favorite places. What street is your friends house on today?

 

[civilwarincolor]

I love these old photos. Vicksburg is one of my favorite places. What street is your friends house on today?

Sorry, but for the sake of his privacy, I would rather not say on this forum. I did look it up in Google Earth in both satellite and street view. You can tell via the border area with Louisiana that the river once had a very different path in this area and that portions of Louisiana are now on the side you would think was Mississippi and portions of Mississippi are on the Louisiana side of the river.

He had told me that until the 1910-1920's that the main entrance to the house faced the river. With the advent of cars that was changed and now the house faces away from the river. I used street view to have a look at the outside (I have not been there personally) and the current front of the house is now barely visible, but if you go around to the river side you can clearly see a large mound of earth (that I believe is the remains of the bomb proof).

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

As usual, great work.

I believe this image was from a series of photographs taken from the cupola of the courthouse

The view is north of "downtown" Vicksburg.

 

[civilwarincolor]

As usual, great work.

I believe this image was from a series of photographs taken from the cupola of the courthouse

The view is north of "downtown" Vicksburg.

Thank you so much for you comment on my work. Yes, I believe you are right, this was taken from the courthouse from what I was told by the person requesting the image. It is too bad that the negative does not exist.

This is the original image that I had to work with, as you can see, I extended the sky in my version so that it fit a modern 8" x 10" format for the final print.

 

[Forrest]

I just discovered this thread and thought I'd mention that if I'm reading your description correctly and your friend's house is one of the ones at the base of the hills at the top right, the Harper's woodcut below could very well be of a battery located on the near left side of that hill, so it might have been on your friend's property.

Your photo is taken from the Old Courthouse looking north but just slightly to the right down Cherry and Monroe street, and Walnut to the left of those two. If I'm correct, the wood cut view of the Old Courthouse is looking south, but the angle is slightly more severe (to be looking directly back at the photographer in the Courthouse tower, the woodcut artist would have to be 30-50 yards to his right. You can also use the road in the woodcut that leads up the hill to the left of St. Paul's Church - it would have to be Walnut street. There are also a couple of houses in front of the Courthouse that seem to match up: the tallest one (dark with two windows and three chimneys on this side) could be the tall one to the lower right of the Courthouse in the woodcut. The one on the lower far-right of your pic could be the one directly in front of the Courthouse in the woodcut.

All of the batteries in that hill area were manned by the 1st Tennessee, but I'm not sure how many there were - some Civil War-era maps show quite a few emplacements in those hills.

 

[civilwarincolor]

I just discovered this thread and thought I'd mention that if I'm reading your description correctly and your friend's house is one of the ones at the base of the hills at the top right, the Harper's woodcut below could very well be of a battery located on the near left side of that hill, so it might have been on your friend's property.

Your photo is taken from the Old Courthouse looking north but just slightly to the right down Cherry and Monroe street, and Walnut to the left of those two. If I'm correct, the wood cut view of the Old Courthouse is looking south, but the angle is slightly more severe (to be looking directly back at the photographer in the Courthouse tower, the woodcut artist would have to be 30-50 yards to his right. You can also use the road in the woodcut that leads up the hill to the left of St. Paul's Church - it would have to be Walnut street. There are also a couple of houses in front of the Courthouse that seem to match up: the tallest one (dark with two porticos and three chimneys on this side) could be the tall one to the lower right of the Courthouse in the woodcut. The one on the lower far-right of your pic could be the one directly in front of the Courthouse in the woodcut.

View attachment 82626 All of the batteries in that hill area were manned by the 1st Tennessee, but I'm not sure how many there were - some Civil War-era maps show quite a few emplacements in those hills.

Thanks so much for sharing this. It has been a year now since I talked to him about this, but I think the size of the gun shown is a bit large from what I remember, but it does look like it could possibly have been from that, or near that location.

 

[Forrest]

I haven't researched the 1st Tennessee's batteries, so I don't know what all was along that hillside. Notice that the Columbiad has 'Tennessee' written on the breech. The sketcher probably added this to indicate that he was sketching a Tennessee battery, possibly even at their request, but that's an assumption on my part.

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

IMO artistic liberty played a role in that engraving.

However, I am very much enjoying the detective work going on in this and the other thread:

http://civilwartalk.com/threads/the-whig-office-battery.118215/

I knew Tennessee had a heavy artillery unit within Fort Hill, but I wasn't aware they had some units functioning as river batteries.

Interesting.

 

[Forrest]

IMO artistic liberty played a role in that engraving.

However, I am very much enjoying the detective work going on in this and the other thread:

http://civilwartalk.com/threads/the-whig-office-battery.118215/

I knew Tennessee had a heavy artillery unit within Fort Hill, but I wasn't aware that they had some units functioning as river batteries.

Interesting.

The 'upper' batteries of the 1st Tennessee received most of the accolades during river engagements.

 

[TinCan]

The information I have is that Tobin's Tennessee Battery was attached to Smith's Division, Baldwin's Brigade, and the river batteries were made up of the 1st Louisiana Heavy Artillery, the 8th Louisiana Heavy Artillery, and a detachment of the 22nd Louisiana, along with Company L, 1st Mississippi Light Artillery. The Tennessee components were, the 1st Tennessee Heavy Artillery, with Caruther's, Johnston's, and Lynch's Tennessee Batteries, attached to the 1st Tennessee Heavy.