Travels with Kelli

  First stop was National Military Park but its all about the Vicksburg battle. I will say its like a small scale Gettysburg. The best part of the park was that you had signs for Union and Confederate stands on the hill. There were a few areas that were closed, like  Grant’s Headquarters area and where Thayer’s Approach area.  I took tons of pictures of the monuments but will not post them all.  Now on to the history - the battle of Vicksburg. The siege started on May 18, 1863 but it really started in October 1862 when Major General Ulysses S Grant was ordered to clear the Mississippi River of Confederate resistance. President Davis knew that  Vicksburg was “the nailhead that holds the South’s two halves together.”  Vicksburg was the South’s lifeline. Lt. General John C Pemberton with 50,000 widely scattered confederate solders was expected to keep the river open.    In December Grant begins maneuvers good for both land and water that should force...

  Just a heads up, my favorite website is roadside America . It has the craziest places to stop on the road to see. Some not worth the time, some very hard to find (even with directions), and some you just scratch your head.  Today’s stops were graves and statues. The Statue I had a hard time finding it but it is pretty cool looking. I found the town very quaint and I definitely want to go back and just walk around the town, exploring more. So King George II decreed 1732 this town and it was named Fredericksburg, but in 1758 it changed its name to Pine Tree Hill until Joseph Kershaw changed the it to Camden in honor of Charles Pratt, Lord Camden, and early advocate of the colonies in the Parliament. Joseph Kershaw established a branch office of a Charleston mercantile firm. Later he became its first mayor. Guess he was a big deal because they named the county after him.  By the Time the Revolutionary, Camden was booming both economically and culturally. After Cornwallis c...