This One's for Steve!

When I went to Shiloh this spring, I neglected to take a picture of the "formal" Illinois State Monument there. When I came back to Elburn, Steve Gliddon said, "You mean you went all the way to Shiloh, Tennessee, and didn't take a picture of the Illinois Memorial? What's up with that?"

So this time at Vicksburg National Battlefield, I took plenty of shots of the Illinois Memorial. I'm a quick learner, and I didn't want to give my friend Steve a chance to chew me out again.

The Illinois Monument at Vicksburg is the largest monument on the field. It's pretty hard to miss, Steve! It is dedicated to the 36,325 soldiers from Illinois who served in the Federal campaign to seize control the Mississippi River for the Union and split the Confederacy in two.

Inside the memorial, we found an engraved plaque with all of the names of "pony soldiers" who served in the Kane County Independent Cavalry at Vicksburg.

I'll put that picture up soon on the blog. But, for now, this one's for Steve!