Vicksburg National Military Park to Selma, Montgomery and Birmingham AL

 The visit to the Vicksburg Military Park, one of the most significant Civil War battlefields, was very interesting. As are other sites where the battles between the Union and Confederate forces occurred which I have visited on previous rides, this one is extremely well set up so for visitors to see where the forces, red signs for  the Confederate and blue for the Union, were aligned and what ground they were either defending of attacking. There are countless plaques, statues, monuments and artifacts along the more than 16 miles of winding tour route.

The 40 acre cemetery holds the remains of 17,000 union soldiers, more than at any other national cemetery. 

I arrived at my hotel, the St James Hotel on Water Street in Selma Alabama early enough to be able to walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the site of a violent confrontation between civil rights marchers   on Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965.

Today I rode to Montgomery and went to visit the First White House of the Confederacy, a house that in the Spring of 1681 was rented by the newly formed Confederate Government as an executive residence for President Jefferson Davies and his young family, the Alabama State Capital building, the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Church where MLK preached and where marches and other protest activities were planned, and the Museum of Alabama with its excellent gallery, Alabama Voices, that presents the history of the state from the dawn of the 1700s to the beginning of the 21st century and that deals with many topics including slavery, the Civil War, reconstruction, segregation, and the fight for civil rights for all.

After these visits I had to have lunch at Chris’ Hot Dog, a family-run business located a few blocks from the Capital that has been going since 1917. Nothing fancy here but a steady stream of customers being served by friendly and efficient wait staff.

I then rode to Birmingham in temperature as high as 39 degrees. Tomorrow I continue north to Knoxville Tennessee.