Mississippi River Journey Part 3--More Vicksburg U.S.S. Cairo

One of the stops on the Vicksburg National Military Park Battlefield tour deserves a special mention. The U.S.S. Cairo was an ironclad Union gunboat that was sunk by a Confederate underwater mine in 1862. Its location in the Mississippi's mud was slowly forgotten until a National Park Service Historian re-discovered its resting place in 1956. Raised in 1964 and ultimately restored and put on display next to a fine museum containing hundreds of excavated artifacts, the ship is now a fascinating naval and military history schoolroom. You won't want to miss it.