Gibraltar of the Confederacy

Gibraltar of the Confederacy. . Vital supplies of food, clothing, medicine, European-made rifles and soldiers arrived here from the south and west. They were then shipped by rail to the troops fighting in the east. By early 1863, Vicksburg and Port Hudson, Louisiana, were the last remaining Confederate strongholds on the Mississippi River., The high bluffs that you are on provided a first-rate perch for powerful Confederate cannon that kept Federal gunboats at bay. Union leaders knew they had to take this city. Control Vicksburg and they would control the Mississippi, splitting the Confederacy and crippling its supply line., Photo captions , Bottom left: Vicksburg is the nailhead that holds , the South's two halves together. , Jefferson Davis, Top right: Vicksburg Railroad Depot , The railroad that ended at the Mississippi River bank was the , last cross-country connection not under Union control in 1863., Overall marker photo: Mid-19th century Vicksburg was , a prosperous port on the nation's , greatest artery of commerce, the , Mississippi River.