Kane County Cavalry at Vicksburg

My son Andrew spotted this marker quite by accident as we recently drove around the Vicksburg National Battlefield together. At first, he wasn't sure enough to say anything. But then, he checked for a citation in the Union "Line of Battle, and sure enough, a Kane County Independent Cavalry did serve at the siege. So, we went back out on the battlefield, and eventually found the monument again.

Over 30,000 soldiers from Illinois served in the battle and siege for Vicksburg, and Illinois markers were on prominent display as we toured the national park site.

The battle of Gettysburg lasted for three days, and the battle of Shiloh lasted only two. But, the siege of Vicksburg was a 47-day battle of exceptional strategy, tactics and wills. Near the end of the siege, the Confederate defenders were running out of ammunition and down to only a handful of peas per soldier per day for rations. General Grant and his Union troops never did break through the elaborate ring of obstacles constructed by the Confederates around Vicksburg. And, it is the remnants of those trenches, forts, redoubts, redans and lunettes that Civil War "buffs" like Andrew and I enjoy going to see.

Vicksburg is a very special place and worth making the effort to visit.