Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Roger and Becky, you were right. You need a lot more than one day at the Vicksburg Battlefield - so we went back today.

Historians call it the site of the Surrender Interview. So genteel sounding after so much carnage. General Grant sat down with General Pemberton to decide on the terms of surrender and that was that. Vicksburg now belonged to the Union.

The fighting in and around Vicksburg took place in the spring of 1863 but in December of 1862 the USS Cairo - one of America's first ironclad warships - was steaming up the Yazoo River. Part of its mission was to destroy Confederate batteries. Suddenly, two explosions tore holes into the warship and it sank within minutes.

No crewmember was injured!

The Cairo was salvaged in the 1960's and Denny and I were able to WALK through her today.

Silt, sand and mud preserved the Cairo and much of its contents - including many personal items belonging to the crew. All are on display at the USS Cairo Museum.

10 South Rooftop Bar and Grill sits on top of the First National Bank and Trust Company in downtown Vicksburg. Great lunch with our MLB expert Nick. Loved the back of his T-Shirt. It told us to Put Some South In Your Mouth.

So we did.

Drove to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Watching Virginia Tech playing Duke.

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