re: 154 years ago today....

quote:

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The surrender opened the Mississippi River and split the Confederacy in two.

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LINK

Au contraire, my friend. The Battle of Port Hudson was the battle that opened the Mississipi. The Confederates held out at Port Hudson until July 9th and only gave up when they found out that Vickburg had surrendered. Allegedly, Grant had his soldiers through everything from Vicksburg in the river so the soldiers at Port Hudson would know it had fallen.

Port Hudson was a little town about 15 miles north of Baton Rouge in a bend of the Mississipi that was home to an artillery battery on the east bluff and was called "The Citidel" for some reason.

Gen Grant went on to bigger and better things and nobody from the battle at PH did much to speak of and thus after many years the legend of Grant at Vicksburg grew and the Siege of Port Hudson dwindled.

Why do I know this? Much of the battle site is now owned by Georgia-Pacific Corp which has paper mill on this site. I used to work there for many years. The history is well known locally but not nationally anymore.