Before the Civil War, Vicksburg was a wealthy port on the Mississippi. Lincoln saw it as the key to a Union victory.  At Vicksburg  General Grant failed to defeat the Confederates and so laid siege for 47 days, starving the Confederates into surrender. Horrid.

Today the city is a tourist destination trying to bask in very faded glory. We enjoyed historic walks and imaginative restaurants.

The Ironclad battleship ship, Cairo,   one of 7 the Union had built to secure the Mississippi, was sunk by torpedoes.  It was rescued from the river and restored 102 years later.

As we were reliving  the desperate days of the Civil war, the news was reporting that the U.S. president was wondering aloud why the Civil War hadn’t been “worked out.”  Stunned us.

Natchez’s Mississippi River Museum made us aware of how the river “works”.  One barge carries more than 60 semi-trucks or 15 rail cars.   The Army Corps of Engineers manage it, complicated – especially right now as it’s flooding.   In Memphis today the river is at 29′ above normal and they’re expecting it to be 36′ this weekend.  Sobering to imagine how many are being impacted.

Riverboat cruising on the Mississippi from Natchez to New Orleans is iconic and big business – though apparently there isn’t much to see between the various historic city port of calls.

Our own opportunity at being out on the Mississippi in a riverboat was a blast, especially when the tour was narrated by a knowledgeable and amusing historian. Turned out to be the last day trip, as the river is so high no day cruises are being offered anywhere.

Loved Memphis – perfect spot for a Food Tasting Tour sampling bar-b-que, various restaurants.

Memphis’ real claim to fame is music – blues, jazz, rock. The best place to hear the music is on the notorious Beale Street – Memphis’s Bourbon Street.

Graceland tells a sanitized version of the Elvis story.  “Pilgrims” return again and again. First timers like us mostly see bad taste, loyalty to family and gouging the fans.

The Peabody Hotel is famous for elevating ducks to high drama…Five wild ducks, who live in the penthouse, come down by elevator each morning at 11am and waddle to their duck pond in the lobby across a red carpet.  Crowds gather 30 minutes ahead to see the duck parade…and the drill’s repeated in reverse at 5pm when they return to the penthouse.  Seriously silly but captivating.

The National Civil Rights Museum is located at the Lorraine Hotel where King was assassinated. Besides seeing the entire history of the struggle from the beginnings of slavery to King’s death you get to see King’s room at the Hotel preserved exactly as it was the day he died. Then you cross the street to enter the room where James Earl Ray fired the fatal shot.

Of the various Civil Rights museums and memorials we have seen this is the most extensive and most overwhelming.  So pervasive…so much has happened, so much to to.