At the the Vicksburg visitor's center I consulted with a knowledgeable Park Service employee, and asked her about locating the sites of the two battlefields where General Grant fought the rebels forces, over-running them and forcing them to retreat into their defensive perimeter around the town of Vicksburg. The two sites of keen interest for us were the Battle of the Big Black River Bridge and Champion Hill. In Sue's genealogy research, Lt. Lewis Maris of the 3rd Missouri Cavalry (CSA) was captured either at one of these two battles, separated by less than 24 hours and about 12 miles. With a hand-drawn map on the back of a government publication showing bifurcating county roads and single-lane back country routes, we headed east to while history unfolded before our eyes.
If Great Great Grandfather Lt. Maris would have been killed in the fighting, there would be no Great Grandmother Rosa Sophia Maris Woodcock and then no Grandmother Lucile Woodcock Mott which would have precluded the existence of Dr. Helen Mott, her own mother. All of family history as we know it hinged upon the fate of Lewis Maris on May 17, 1863. Would the cavalry lieutenant be killed in action, would he retreat with his comrades to Vicksburg and be in harm's way during more fighting and then only to endure the Union shelling during the 34 day siege, possibly killed? Or would his fate be to be removed from the fighting and bloodshed to survive, preserving his memory and his seed far into a distant and unforeseeable future following the Civil War?
There is something primal about standing on the very ground, made hallow by utmost devotion and bloodshed from those who came before, and gazing back 154 years in contemplation of the web of events, coincidence, luck and fateful decisions that bring us back up through a tortuous history of twist and turns to the point where a great great grand daughter could return and stand at the spot where all the hopes, dreams and trials of four succeeding generations all hinged. Standing beneath the railroad trestle crossing the Big Black River, an ordinary looking brushy river bank of no beauty, yet we felt small before the immense tide of human history and time that we feebly recognized had passed before our arrival. Who among those who fought here in 1863 could have imagined, much less dreamed, of what future generations would see and accomplish after them?
Sue, looking over these photos said she was reminded of the plot of the movie, Back to the Future, where the main character Marty McFly has a photograph of him and his family where he fades from the photo as events in the past are altered to conspire to keep his parents from meeting, thus precluding his existence in the future. Sue felt that if some little thing, say, such as a Union artillery shell, landed somewhere else on the day in May, 1863, she would not exist.
The fact that I have a full, non-faded photo of my wife, proves that Lt. Lewis Maris did survive the Civil War. As General Pemberton retreated to the stronghold of Vicksburg, he left three brigades to defend his rear on the east side of the Big Black River. After defeating the confederates at Champion Hill, they next encountered Pemberton's rear guard east of the Big Black River. Once again as the rebel positions were overrun, the rebels pulled back across the river and the order was given to torch the railroad trestle to slow down the Union advance. The wooden bridge had turpentine soaked cotton bales tied to its structure in anticipation of needing to destroy it prevent Grant's army from using it to pursue the enemy, however, as fate would have it, the bridge and three steam boats used as another bridge were destroyed before all of the confederate forces were able to make it to the west side of the river. Reports of many confederate soldiers being drowned as they tried to swim the Big Black in flood stage, and the record show another 1,700 rebel soldiers captured. One of the 1,700 was Lt. Lewis Maris, 3rd Missouri Cavalry, Co. D. Lt. Maris would be a POW imprisoned on Johnston Island in Ohio for the remainder of the war.
Released in February 1865, Lewis would return to Savanna, Missouri where he would farm on the Platte River and and raise a family with his wife. Growing crops, raising livestock, taking a wife and nurturing a family, all the mundane daily endeavors of an ordinary life; but from our vantage on the sandy banks of the Big Black River looking back four generations, it could easily have never been so ordinary. We are feeling... what - fortunate? Insignificant? Blessed? Responsible for the coming generations? It is a place of feeling, but which one is dominant or true. Like the future, it is undecided.
Now we are feeling a little hungry, how about an ordinary lunch in Raymond? We all agree on that.
We four wended our way through small rural lanes, past burned out single-wide mobile homes and hound dogs resting in the shade of pine trees for another 12 miles to get to Champion Hill, the site of a battle that preceded the one a Big Black River Bridge. Champion Hill is still own by the Champion family, and is prominently marked as private land, no trespassing. While seeking direction at Vicksburg, we were told to respect the private property rights, and we agreed and we did. However, there is a sign dedicated to the carnage on the shoulder of the road and so we stopped to read of the ferocious fighting were men stood nearly toe-to-toe for hours firing into one another's face, as it was described by a Union officer.
By circuitous route we found ourselves at the southern edge of the battle line at the Coker House, a structure used by both sides as a field hospital. Where large camellia bushes and wisteria now stand, there once was piled amputated arms and legs of the stricken soldiers being treated inside the walls while under artillery fire. Trying to place today's flowering countryside next to images of detached limbs and the moans of the dying rattles and warps the imagination.
If Great Great Grandfather Lt. Maris would have been killed in the fighting, there would be no Great Grandmother Rosa Sophia Maris Woodcock and then no Grandmother Lucile Woodcock Mott which would have precluded the existence of Dr. Helen Mott, her own mother. All of family history as we know it hinged upon the fate of Lewis Maris on May 17, 1863. Would the cavalry lieutenant be killed in action, would he retreat with his comrades to Vicksburg and be in harm's way during more fighting and then only to endure the Union shelling during the 34 day siege, possibly killed? Or would his fate be to be removed from the fighting and bloodshed to survive, preserving his memory and his seed far into a distant and unforeseeable future following the Civil War?
There is something primal about standing on the very ground, made hallow by utmost devotion and bloodshed from those who came before, and gazing back 154 years in contemplation of the web of events, coincidence, luck and fateful decisions that bring us back up through a tortuous history of twist and turns to the point where a great great grand daughter could return and stand at the spot where all the hopes, dreams and trials of four succeeding generations all hinged. Standing beneath the railroad trestle crossing the Big Black River, an ordinary looking brushy river bank of no beauty, yet we felt small before the immense tide of human history and time that we feebly recognized had passed before our arrival. Who among those who fought here in 1863 could have imagined, much less dreamed, of what future generations would see and accomplish after them?
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| Sue stands before the remains of the railroad bridge over the Big Black River, Site of the battle where Great Great Grandfather Lt. Lewis Maris was captured, May 17, 1863 |
The fact that I have a full, non-faded photo of my wife, proves that Lt. Lewis Maris did survive the Civil War. As General Pemberton retreated to the stronghold of Vicksburg, he left three brigades to defend his rear on the east side of the Big Black River. After defeating the confederates at Champion Hill, they next encountered Pemberton's rear guard east of the Big Black River. Once again as the rebel positions were overrun, the rebels pulled back across the river and the order was given to torch the railroad trestle to slow down the Union advance. The wooden bridge had turpentine soaked cotton bales tied to its structure in anticipation of needing to destroy it prevent Grant's army from using it to pursue the enemy, however, as fate would have it, the bridge and three steam boats used as another bridge were destroyed before all of the confederate forces were able to make it to the west side of the river. Reports of many confederate soldiers being drowned as they tried to swim the Big Black in flood stage, and the record show another 1,700 rebel soldiers captured. One of the 1,700 was Lt. Lewis Maris, 3rd Missouri Cavalry, Co. D. Lt. Maris would be a POW imprisoned on Johnston Island in Ohio for the remainder of the war.
Released in February 1865, Lewis would return to Savanna, Missouri where he would farm on the Platte River and and raise a family with his wife. Growing crops, raising livestock, taking a wife and nurturing a family, all the mundane daily endeavors of an ordinary life; but from our vantage on the sandy banks of the Big Black River looking back four generations, it could easily have never been so ordinary. We are feeling... what - fortunate? Insignificant? Blessed? Responsible for the coming generations? It is a place of feeling, but which one is dominant or true. Like the future, it is undecided.
Now we are feeling a little hungry, how about an ordinary lunch in Raymond? We all agree on that.
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| A descendant of Lt. Lewis Maris surrenders to her emotions Modern railroad trestle over the Big Black River |
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| Mark at the strategic cross roads of Champion Hill where General Grant gained access to the road to his military objective, Vicksburg. |
By circuitous route we found ourselves at the southern edge of the battle line at the Coker House, a structure used by both sides as a field hospital. Where large camellia bushes and wisteria now stand, there once was piled amputated arms and legs of the stricken soldiers being treated inside the walls while under artillery fire. Trying to place today's flowering countryside next to images of detached limbs and the moans of the dying rattles and warps the imagination.
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| Sue sits on the porch of the Coker House. The landscape now a picture of tranquility, but once a site of carnage and hostility. |
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| The Coker House subjected to artillery bombardment and used as a field hospital by first the Confederates, and then by the Union. |
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| Sue and Donna admire the camellias beside the Coker House. |
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| The sweet smell of wisteria blooms near where once amputated arms and legs of wounded combatants were piled. |
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| Camellia at peace in a place of a violent past |
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