Booknotes: Vicksburg National Cemetery

New Arrival:

• Vicksburg National Cemetery by Elizabeth Hoxie Joyner (Arcadia Pub, 2024).

After the Civil War ended, the U.S. government moved to provide more proper burials to the fallen. To meet that end, twenty-one national cemeteries were established in 1866. Under consideration here is Vicksburg National Cemetery, located just north of the city and near the Cairo museum. It is Stop 8 on the Vicksburg National Military Park tour road. According to the NPS, there are over 17,000 burials there making it the "largest Union cemetery in the nation." Sadly, the names of nearly 13,000 of the persons interred there are unknown.

Retired NPS employee and museum curator Elizabeth Hoxie Joyner honors these men and more in her book Vicksburg National Cemetery, a new volume in Arcadia's Images of America series. The book "explores the history of Vicksburg National Cemetery, reveals recent discoveries, and notes how the addition of various elements through the years helped to beautify this sacred ground. It examines the lives of a small fraction [I would say something over 100] of the cemetery's approximately 18,000 interments."

The introduction provides a brief history of the cemetery's development over the first 75 years or so of its existence. According to Joyner, it is believed that as many as 40% of the 17,077 Civil War burials are USCT troops. There are even a few Confederates (at least four by current count) mistakenly buried there. More from the description: "Military service is the common thread that all of them share," and among them are "cemetery superintendents, a Civil War nurse, a female veteran, a member of a popular local band (the Red Tops), a former Vicksburg alderman, a Tuskegee airman, and a Vick family descendant (Vicksburg's namesake)."

As the series name reveals, the image-focused book primarily consists of captioned B&W photographs (period and modern), artwork, illustrations, artifacts, and historical documents. These captions "illustrate who these people were, what they did, and the sacrifices they made to protect this great nation." CDV-style photos and close-up shots of cemetery grave stones are the subject of a great many of the book's images, with the accompanying caption offering important service-related details.

Chapters are devoted to veterans of the Mexican and Civil wars; the Spanish-American, Indian, Korean, and both World wars; and Vietnam. The final chapter focuses on the aforementioned cemetery superintendents, enlisted men or noncoms honorably discharged and often disabled through their service. Along with general oversight and management duties, primary superintendent tasks included site security and engagement with visitors. Four of those men are interred in the cemetery. Finally, a burial index is provided for those featured in the volume. It "documents the section and number of each interment to aid in grave location."