t
on sanitation or fire prevention. Nor, indeed, would it achieve
completeness, even on the artistic side, were it not for its crowning
feature. Far off, over the roofs and above them, making an apex to the
composition, and giving to the whole picture a background of beauty and
of ancient dignity, rises the graceful white-columned cupola of
Vicksburg's old stone courthouse, partially obscured by a feathery
green tree top, hinting of space and foliage upon the summit of the
hill.

* * * * *

Pamphlets on Vicksburg, issued by railroad companies for the enticement
of tourists, give most of their space to the story of the campaign
leading to Grant's siege of Vicksburg and to descriptions of the various
operations in the siege--the battlefield, now a national military park,
being considered the city's chief object of interest.

Though I am not constitutionally enthusiastic about seeing battlefields,
I must admit that I found the field of Vicksburg engrossing. The siege
of a small city presents a comparatively simple and compact military
problem which is, therefore, comprehensible to the civilian mind, and in
addition to this the Vicksburg battlefield is splendidly preserved and
marked, so that the visitor may easily reconstruct the conflict.

The park, which covers the fighting area, forms a loose crescent-shaped
strip over the hills which surround the city, its points abutting on the
river above and below. The chief drives of the park parallel each other,
the inner one, Confederate Avenue, following, as nearly as the hills
permit, the city's line of defense, while the other, Union Avenue, forms
an outer semicircle and follows, in a similar manner, the trenches of
the attacking forces.

That the battlefield is so well preserved is due in part to man and in
part to Nature. Many of the hills of Warren County, in which Vicksburg
is situated, are composed of a curious soft limy clay, called marl,
which, normally, has not the solidity of soft chalk. Marse Harris
Dickson, who knows more about Vicksburg--and also about negroes, common
law, floods, funny stories, geology, and rivers--than any other man in
Mississippi, tells me that this marl was deposited by the river, in the
form of silt, centuries ago, and that it was later thrown up into hills
by volcanic action. He did not live in Vicksburg when this took place,
but deduces his facts from the discovery of the remains of shellfish in
the soil