Latest news with #SiegeofVicksburg
Miami Herald
03-07-2025
- General
- Miami Herald
Mysterious Civil War artifact rumored to be from alligator attack, park says
War artifacts are typically weapons and uniforms, but occasionally something so strange shows up, that even historians are at a loss. One such oddity — a ragged chunk of leather — is part of the Civil War collection at the Vicksburg National Military Park in western Mississippi. 'This alligator hide was one of the first natural history specimens to be cataloged,' the park wrote in a June 30 Facebook post. 'Previous staff members held on to its old label which provides a clue on how this alligator hide was obtained. The label reads, 'Hide of alligator which bit a soldier during the war and caused loss of a leg.' We will never know whether this tale is true.' The label suggests 'an alligator bit a soldier during the campaign and siege' at Vicksburg, which began in 1862 and ended with the Confederates losing control of the Mississippi River on July 4, 1863. Park visitors are unlikely to see an alligator today, officials said. However, the battlefield is within the known range for alligators, which can exceed 10 feet in Mississippi, the state reports. Union and Confederate troops fought 18 months at Vicksburg, resulting in 48,000 casualties, the National Park Service says. Alligators may have claimed some of the lives, based on first-person accounts documented by the American Battlefield Trust. Among the reports is a journal entry by Capt. Charles B. Haydon of the 2nd Michigan Infantry, who was at Vicksburg in 1863 when he wrote: 'The alligators eat some soldiers [!] but if the soldiers would keep out of the river they would not be eaten.' Lieutenant John G. Earnest of the 79th Tennessee Infantry was at Vicksburg around the same time and reported being awakened one morning by the 'roar' of a hungry alligator. 'I found the mosquitoes had pulled me to the edge of the bayou, and an old alligator jubilant at the prospect of getting me for his breakfast,' Earnest wrote. 'I vowed never to allow myself to sleep on that bayou's bank again.' Vicksburg National Military Park covers 1,815 acres, and is about a 45-mile drive west from Jackson. The park 'commemorates one of the most decisive campaigns of the Civil War, the 1863 Siege of Vicksburg,' the National Park Service says
Chicago Tribune
18-05-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Today in History: First report published about disease later identified as AIDS
Today is Sunday, May 18, the 138th day of 2025. There are 227 days left in the year. Today in history: On May 18, 1981, the New York Native, a gay newspaper, carried a story concerning rumors of 'an exotic new disease' among c+ people; it was the first published report about what came to be known as AIDS. Also on this date: In 1863, the Siege of Vicksburg began during the Civil War, ending July 4 with a Union victory. In 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Plessy v. Ferguson, endorsed 'separate but equal' racial segregation. (The decision was reversed 58 years later by Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.) In 1927, in America's deadliest school attack, part of a schoolhouse in Bath Township, Michigan, was blown up with explosives planted by local farmer Andrew Kehoe, who then set off a bomb in his truck; the attacks killed 38 children and six adults, including Kehoe, who'd earlier killed his wife. (Authorities said Kehoe, who suffered financial difficulties, was seeking revenge for losing a township clerk election.) In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a measure creating the Tennessee Valley Authority, the largest public utility in America. In 1973, Harvard law professor Archibald Cox was appointed Watergate special prosecutor by U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson. In 1980, the Mount St. Helens volcano in Washington state erupted, leaving an estimated 57 people dead or missing. In 1998, the U.S. government filed an antitrust case against Microsoft, saying the powerful software company had a 'choke hold' on competitors that was denying consumers important choices about how they bought and used computers. (The Justice Department and Microsoft reached a settlement in 2001.) In 2018, a 17-year-old armed with a shotgun and a pistol opened fire at a Houston-area high school, killing eight students and two teachers. Today's Birthdays: Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson is 79. Musician Rick Wakeman (Yes) is 76. Musician-composer Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo) is 75. Country musician George Strait is 73. Actor Chow Yun-Fat is 70. Hockey Hall of Famer Jari Kurri is 65. Tennis Hall of Famer Yannick Noah is 65. Comedian-writer Tina Fey is 55. Rock singer Jack Johnson is 50. Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter is 22.
