Like their great great great grandfather did 150 years before, my sons charged the hills of Vicksburg. This time it was to play. On a hot June day, Lt. J.C. Eckles was on a much deadlier mission. He was a Union solider in a strange land (to him) during a violent time (to everyone). My sons crested a giant ridge in the Vicksburg National Battlefield park and all three of them posed for a picture. Like their long-dead relative, they love Mississippi. J.C. stuck around after the war as a Methodist Circuit Rider in Northeast Mississippi. He co-founded the former Wood College in Mathiston. The man had seen a lot of Hell. So he decided to bring Heaven back to the land.
I told my sons their relative’s story and many others as we climbed over and around the earthworks. I told them about the heat, the wool uniforms, the sacrifices and the waste. I explained the effects of the siege on the citizens of Vicksburg. I explained the tactics and the causes of the Civil War. I told them that brothers just like them fought each other and died. War isn’t glamorous. They need to know that.
We went into the Illinois Monument and my youngest experienced a ritual discovered by every small child who enters it: He discovered it’s a wonderful echo chamber. After a few hoots and hollers, we walked out on the monument’s porch and marveled at the cobalt blue sky kissing the brown fields below. The Park Service has removed many of the trees in the park, making the fields looks more like they did back in 1863. Now you get a better feel for the tactical layout of the battlefield. My sons understood that men were firing nearly on top of each other. War is Hell but this one was particularly hellish.
My youngest son walked through the Beast (what we call the U.S.S. Cairo.) tentatively. One of my wife’s co-worker’s husband helped reassemble it back in the day, so that made for a great story, too. I kept thinking how frightening an ironclad must have been as it belched smoke and gunfire up and down the river. Today, the barges on the Mississippi have a much more peaceful mission. We then drove through the cemetery and then went up to the top of the hill. The view of the Yazoo and Mississippi Rivers was spectacular. You could practically see to Canada.
We proceeded on into downtown Vicksburg and went to Lorelei Books. There each boy picked out a new book. It was my promise to them. A reward for being good kids. They are good kids. I hope I’m an equally good father.
I strapped my youngest into this booster seat and we drove to the Mississippi Welcome Center watch the sunset beyond the two Mississippi River bridges. We had had a fun day, father and sons making their own history. I asked the boys what their favorite part of the day was. The hills and the trenched won first place. But my middle son said, “I like going on a trip with you dad. Your tours are fun.”
I’ve discovered a long time ago that the best way to teach history is to visit it. And on that clear January day, we experienced it together. I almost felt my great great grandfather’s spirit smile as we drove back to Jackson.
It was a great pleasure to read your account of leading your sons through the Park. It brought back the oldest memory I have of my father & I walking together. He had just returned from Korea and we spent most of the day rambling over the Parks hills and looking out over the vistas just as y’all did. . . and as a 4 year old, I got the chance to climb on several cannons. Great day!! Great memory!!
That walk did instill a love of history that I still nourish with an overflowing pile of history books within easy reach 61 years later. I walk through the Vicksburg Park (and Kennesaw Mtn Park) every chance I can and ponder those who came before me.
My great grandfather was at Vicksburg as a Confederate soldier. He was captured there wihile fighting. He was put into prison where he got tuberculosis. He made it home after the war but died as a young man becasue he never recovered from his illness.
So, your husband’s great great grandfather, JC and your great grandfather fought against each other. Should make for an interesting dinner conversation!