Vicksburg, Mississippi

Vicksburg is a city located in Warren County, Mississippi. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 26,407. It is the county seat of Warren County.

History

During the Civil War, Vicksburg was the site of the Battle of Vicksburg, an important battle in which the Union defeated the Confederacy and gained control of the entire Mississippi River. The battle, also known as the Siege of Vicksburg, consisted of a long siege brought about by the fact that the city is located on a high bluff overlooking the Mississippi River and thus was largely impregnable to invaders. Because the city fell on July 4, 1863, the people of the city did not celebrate Independence Day until the time of the second world war.

Related Topics:
Civil War - Battle of Vicksburg - Union - Confederacy - Mississippi River - July 4 - 1863 - Independence Day

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Because of the city's location on the Mississippi River, its reputation in the nineteenth century often rested on the river's prodigious steamboat traffic. Between 1881 and 1896, the Anchor Line, a prominent steamboat company operating on the Mississippi River from 1859 to 1898, operated a steamboat called the City of Vicksburg, named for the city. In 1876 a Mississippi River flood cut off the large meander flowing past Vicksburg leaving access to the new channel limited. The Corps of Engineers diverted the Yazoo River in 1903 into the old, shallowing channel to rejuvenate the waterfront. Railroad access to the west was by transfer steamers and ferry barges until a combination railroad and highway bridge was built in 1936. This is the only River rail crossing between Baton Rouge and Memphis and the only highway crossing between Natchez and Greenville. Interstate Hwy 20 bridged the River in 1969 and freight rail traffic still crosses by the old bridge. North-South transportation links are by the Mississippi River and US Hwy 61.

Related Topics:
1881 - 1896 - Anchor Line - Steamboat - 1859 - 1898

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On 12 March 1894, the popular soft drink Coca-Cola was bottled for the first time in Vicksburg by Joseph Biedenharn, a local druggist. Today, surviving nineteenth- century Biedenharn soda bottles are prized by collectors of Coca-Cola memorabilia.

Related Topics:
12 March - 1894 - Coca-Cola - Nineteenth- century - Soda - Bottle

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Willie Dixon was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 1, 1915.

Related Topics:
Willie Dixon - 1915

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Vicksburg served as the primary refugee gathering point and temporary housing during the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 which submerged an area of the Mississippi Delta nearly the size of New England. That Flood was the impetus towards establishment of the United States Army Corps of Engineers "Waterways Experiment Station" as the primary hydraulics laboratory to develop protection from the River. That establishment, now known as the "Engineering Research and Development Center," works in the areas of military engineering, information technology, environmental engineering, hydraulic engineering, and geotechnical engineering.

Related Topics:
Great Mississippi Flood - Mississippi Delta - United States Army Corps of Engineers

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