VICKSBURG’S ART PARK Sculptures, monuments are VNMP’s understated treasures

Every year, thousands of tourists visit the Vicksburg National Military Park to absorb its history. For locals, it’s a popular place to walk, run and bike.

For art aficionados, meanwhile, it is a hidden gem.

There are nearly 1,400 monuments, markers, memorials, statues and sculptures packed into the Park’s 1,800 acres. The pieces range from simple iron or stone tablets to massive state monuments

By Ernest Bowker | The Vicksburg Post

and bronze statues.

The art is more than decorative. Lifesize busts of commanding officers and the haunting gazes of common soldiers bring the men who fought and died during the Siege of Vicksburg in 1863 to life 160 years later.

“I do think it personifies it,” said Bess Averett, the executive director of Friends of the Vicksburg National Military Park and Campaign. “It’s easy to think about this as being something in the past that happened to other people a long time ago. I think that’s what’s so signifcant about our park. We have been called ‘the art park of the National Park Service’ because of the scale and the degree of the monumentation.”

The size and scope of the monumentation is certainly impressive. Monuments of all shapes and sizes are scattered along the length of the VNMP’s 16-mile long Tour Road.

Ohio, for example, has monuments for

BELOW: A monument honoring the 48th Ohio Infantry regiment sits in the Vicksburg National Military Park. It is one of more than 1,400 monuments in the park. RIGHT: A cannon at Battery de Golyer in the Vicksburg National Military Park.

Besides finding granite and bronze “easter eggs” off the beaten path, visitors who get out of their cars to get a emotion. Some of the scenes on Iowa and Missouri, the bronze reliefs, you see the faces of the soldiers as they’re stagnant.”

BELOW: A monument honoring Indiana units sits in the Vicksburg National Military Park. RIGHT: A bulletshaped monument honoring the 53rd Ohio Infantry Regiment is one of 39 in the VNMP that recognizes the service of that state’s soldiers.

Like the placement of each monument, the level of detail is no accident. The elements