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Battlefield Restoration Project
The project is near completion on the South Loop. Contractors will be moving to the Phase III area at Graveyard Rd and Union Ave after Memorial Day. Please watch for truck traffic moving through the USS Cairo parking lot and on the tour road in this area. More »
Illinois Memorial
Illinois Memorial
NPS Image
The Illinois State Memorial is located on Union Avenue at milepost 1.8, tour stop #2. Dedicated on October 26, 1906, the monument was transferred to the United States by Governor C.S. Deneen and accepted by J. S. Schofield of the United States War Department. It was erected by the firm of Culver Construction Company with William B. Mundie contracting the designers and sculptors. The design was by W. L. B. Jenney and sculptor was Charles J. Mulligan. Stone Mountain (GA) granite forms the base and stairway. Above the base is Georgia white marble. There are forty-seven steps in the long stairway, one for each day of the Siege of Vicksburg. Modeled after the Roman Pantheon, the monument has sixty unique bronze tablets lining its interior walls, naming all 36,325 Illinois soldiers who participated in the Vicksburg Campaign. The monument stands sixty-two feet in height, and originally cost $194,423.92, paid by the state of Illinois. |
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Did You Know?
President Abraham Lincoln, in speaking of Vicksburg's importance, is reputed to have stated early during the Civil War, "See what a lot of land these fellows hold, of which Vicksburg is the key, the war can never be brought to a close until that key is in our pocket."