Artillery at Battery De Golyer, Vicksburg National Military Park

VICKSBURG BATTLEFIELD TOUR STOP 1: BATTERY DE GOLYER

I’ve been on some battlefield tour roads that aren’t much longer than the drive to Tour Stop 1 at Vicksburg National Military Park, and once you get there you’ll have an idea of how long 16 miles of tour road will take to cover. On the way you will pass a few notable monuments, including the Memorial Arch, the entrance gate to the tour road. Dedicated in 1920, the arch commemorates a 1917 veterans’ reunion at Vicksburg. Having $35,000 left over from the Reunion Fund, this is how the extra money was spent. The arch originally spanned Clay Street but was moved to its present location in 1967 when it became a burden on modern traffic flow. On the back of the arch is the inscription, “Memorial to the National Reunion of Union and Confederate Veterans of the Civil War, October 16-19, 1917.”

Memorial Arch, the entrance Vicksburg National Military Park

Right from the start you will see small monuments to troops and individual soldiers. Most people slow down to look at them, even stop their cars at the first pullout to get a better look. Forgetaboutit. Unless you are looking for a particular monument, just drive right past these minor memorials because they line the entire park road. There are over 1,300 monuments within Vicksburg National Military Park, so you’d be here for weeks if you stopped to see every one. You will also see cannons. Again, forgetaboutit. You’ll see plenty at the tour stops. Most people figure this out really quickly and just drive to the tour stops or pull over to get a photo of the major monuments. The only monument worth stopping at on the way to Battery De Golyer is the Minnesota Memorial.

Small monuments dot the side of the battlefield tour road at Vicksburg National Military Park

Minnesota Memorial, Vicksburg National Military Park

After a ten- to fifteen-minute drive you will finally reach Battery De Golyer, a Union battery set up on May 25th directly across from the Confederate’s Great Redoubt (Tour Stop 11). A redoubt is a rectangular fort that protects troops and artillery from all sides. The Great Redoubt guarded Jackson Road, one route into Vicksburg. As you tour the battlefield, you will often be able to visit both the Union batteries and the Confederate forts that faced off against each other. The terrain in between is rutted with deep ravines, many created by the poor farming techniques of the time combined with the fact that the soil was loose to begin with. Known as “loess,” this sandy soil was deposited during the last Ice Age after having been blown in from the mid-west (the word is pronounced “LOW-ess”). Today these hills are covered in grass, but during the Civil War they were often dirt.

Deep ravines lie between Union and Confederate forces on the Vicksburg battlefield

Battery De Golyer had as many as 22 artillery pieces and was the largest Union battery at Vicksburg (a battery is a grouping of six artillery pieces). During the fighting, batteries were used in two distinct, strategic ways. Before the siege, Grant twice tried to take Vicksburg by force: a concentrated attack on Stockade Redan on May 19th and a general attack on all Confederate fortifications along a three-mile front on the 22nd. Before sending in troops, artillery would bombard the Confederate forts and strongholds in hope of damaging the structures and killing off as many Confederates as possible so Union soldiers would have an easier time with a direct assault. However, in both cases the assaults failed.

Artillery at Battery De Golyer, Vicksburg National Military Park

After taking heavy casualties in the two attacks, Grant decided to lay siege to the city, hoping the Confederates would run out of both food and ammunition and have to surrender. No telling how long that would take, so in the meantime offensive strategies were put into place that might end things sooner. To provide cover fire for Union troops who were digging approach trenches towards the Confederate forts, batteries such as De Golyer were set up to constantly bombard the forts (if they were getting shelled, the Confederates couldn’t shoot at the soldiers digging the trenches). Once the trench got close enough, a mine would be dug under the fort, packed with gunpowder, and detonated. With a hole in the fortress walls, Union troops could pour in and overrun the Confederates. This only happened on one occasion, though the Confederates were able to keep control of the fort (Third Louisiana Redan, Tour Stop 3). The Confederates surrendered before most trench projects were completed.

The Great Redoubt is today marked with the Louisiana Memorial, which is 650 yards away and directly in the line of fire of the cannons on display at Battery De Golyer. These cannons could hit targets three times as far away, so pounding the Great Redoubt with accuracy was no problem. A stop at the battery gives you a clear idea of the terrain and distance between the Union and Confederate troops. By the way, if you ever see artillery exhibits pointing at trees, these trees did not exist in 1863, for they would have been cut down to clear the land for farming. The views would have been as clear as they are here at Battery De Golyer.

Union cannons at Battery De Goyler face the Confederate’s Great Redoubt, 650 yards away

In addition to the cannon exhibited at the Tour Stop, an information panel discusses Battery De Golyer’s role in the siege. The beautiful Michigan Memorial also graces the stop. Men from the 8th Battery Michigan Light Artillery were just some of the soldiers who manned the battery.

Michigan State Memorial at Vicksburg National Military Park

Battery De Golyer is named after Samuel De Golyer, the commander of the battery (it had no name during the fighting; the name came afterwards when the park was created). De Goyler was shot on the second day of the siege, and while he did not die right then and there, he did die that August from his wound.

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