A Holiday Celebration In Vicksburg, MS!

Yesterday, I drove to the Vicksburg National Cemetery in the Vicksburg National Military Park to take some pictures of the headstones with flags for Memorial Day weekend.  The holiday weekend began with a call for volunteers on Friday to place flags on the tombstones.  The celebration includes a festival, re-enactors, a monument rededication, concert and parade in my hometown.

Before I went through the Vicksburg National Cemetery, I stopped by the USS Cairo and Museum and took a couple of pictures. 

USS Cairo was launched in 1861 and commissioned on January 25, 1862.  It was sunk by a mine on December 12, 1862 and raised in 1964 as a museum ship.  A must see if you come to my hometown of Vicksburg, MS.

More than 17,000 American flags were placed in the Vicksburg National Cemetery Friday to honor the fallen soldiers for Memorial Day. More than ninety volunteers worked throughout the cemetery to place flags ahead of Monday's holiday.

THE MUFFLED DRUMS SAD ROLL HAS BEAT

THE SOLDIER'S LAST TATTOO,

NO MORE ON LIFE'S PARADE SHALL MEET

THAT BRAVE FALLEN FEW

THE NEIGHING TROOP, THE FLASHING BLADE,

THE BUGLE'S STIRRING BLAST,

THE CHARGE, THE DREADFUL CANNONADE,

THE DIN AND SHOUT ARE PAST.

US Union Trench C R Woods' Brigade

A beautiful magnolia blossom I took in the cemetery.

Tombstones and flags up-close!

Leaving the Vicksburg National Cemetery in the Vicksburg National Military Park.

Taken from Fort Hill looking west towards the Yazoo Diversion Canal, Lake Centennial and the Port of Vicksburg. 

Looking northwest where flooding is taking place from the rise in the Mighty Mississippi River.  MS River Level: 48.17 feet - Change: -0.15 foot - Flood Stage: 43 feet