Tour Stop #7 - Navy Monument

The Navy Monument commemorates the US navy's participation in the Vicksburg campaign.

NPS

Quick Facts

Location:

Vicksburg, Mississippi

Amenities

2 listed

Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Parking - Auto

The 202-foot obelisk is a tribute to the achievements of the Union Navy in the campaign to reopen the Mississippi River. Statues of four fleet commanders (Admirals Farragut and Porter and Flag Officers Davis and Foote) surround the base. Between the road and the memorial, note the large bronze plaque recounting the achievements of the inland navy.

*THIS TOUR STOP IS CURRENTLY PART OF A ROAD CLOSURE AND CAN BE SEEN FROM THE PARKING LOT AT THE USS CAIRO.

• Tour Stop #7 - The Navy Monument

  
  

  This track discusses the Union navy's participation in the campaign and siege of Vicksburg.

  Date created:

  12/31/2021

  Audio Transcript

  Manned entirely by Union sailors, this battery is unique among all the Union artillery positions on the siege lines.

  The battery commander was Thomas O. Selfridge, the former commander of the USS Cairo, which sunk on December 12, 1862, when it struck a torpedoes in the Yazoo River, just a few miles north of here.

  During the siege, this crew was so unusual that Union soldiers regularly gathered here to witness a spectacle unseen by most infantrymen.

  Recreating ship life ashore, the sailors that crewed the naval guns of Battery Selfridge maintained the routine of life aboard ship as best they could. Much to the entertainment of their land based brothers; the sailors slept in hammocks, polished the gun platforms, and manned the guns according to Navy regulations.

  The 202-foot tall obelisk is the Navy Monument similar to the Washington Monument, in Washington DC. Around the base are prominent naval commanders who participated in the campaign for Vicksburg.

  Abraham Lincoln jokingly referred to the navy “Uncle Sam’s webbed feet” when speaking of that branch’s contributions to the final Union victory.