Highway 61 runs for 1400 miles (2300 km) north from New Orleans to Wyoming, Minnesota mostly following the course of the Mississippi. We encountered the road briefly in Natchez and then picked it up again in Vicksburg.
The city of Vicksburg which at the turn of the 20th Century rivaled Natchez for wealth and prosperity similarly fell into a step decline when the boll weevil decimated the cotton industry and the invention of plastic decimated the timber industry, the city’s second largest industry. Vicksburg, like Natchez had a large Jewish community, but its main synagogue once the largest in the South was sold off to developers in 1980, demolished and the site became a gas/petrol station.
Vicksburg appears a lot less run down than Natchez. The city was much more badly impacted by the Civil War than Natchez. Vicksburg suffered a 47 day siege during which time much of the city was damaged by canon balls fired from Unionist ships on the Mississippi. Vicksburg surrendered on July 4th, 1863, ironically the same day as the Confederate defeat at Gettysburg (far away in Pennsylvania). Some of what is now described as the “historic district” missed some of the worst damage. Several antebellum mansions have been restored and are now still private residences, museums or B&B’s.
We’re introduced to Vicksburg by a gentleman who can perhaps be simply described as “Confederate royalty”: Bertram Hayes-Davis. Bertram is the great-great grandson of Jefferson Davis, who was the first and only president of the Confederate States of America from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives as a member of the Democratic Party before the American Civil War. He was the United States Secretary of War from 1853 to 1857. Just to balance things up a little, Bertram is also related via his mother’s family to Rutherford Hayes, who from 1877-1881 was the 19th president of the United States.
For the first stop on our morning wonder around Vicksburg, Bertram takes us to his home - the Wahl-Shaffer Cottages, actually three houses with three separate addresses which over many decades have been connected to one another to create a single home. Bertram is a retired petroleum engineer and one time Head of Oil and Gas Asset Management at J.P. Morgan Private Bank who has devoted many years to investigating and documenting his heritage. Bertram is now the go-to person for anybody interested in learning more about the life and times of his famous forbears, Jefferson Davis in particular.
To say that Bertram’s home is eclectic would be an understatement! It is stuffed full - tastefully it must be said - of memorabilia and valuable historic artifacts reflecting Bertram’s life and his fascination with his forbears. He takes us up the road to his local church, which survived the 47 day siege and bombardment and to the magnificent and beautifully restored antebellum, Duff Green Mansion, now inevitably a B&B!
Bertram’s knowledge of Vicksburg, past and present is encyclopaedic as we discover on the three hours or so we spend wondering around the city.
Vicksburg is home to three installations of the US Army Corps of Engineers and the US Army’s Geotechnical and Structural Laboratory whose function is to monitor and manage the Mississippi River, prevent repeats of past catastrophic floods and to keep the shipping channels open. So with a large population of highly educated engineers and tech specialists, Vicksburg is trying to reinvent itself as a tech hub as well as a tourist destination.