Meeting the Generals

When you are an independent traveller you sometime come across unexpected events that no organised tour group would ever find.

At the Strand Theatre in Vicksburg on July 3rd, the day before the July 4th holiday there was a performance titled “Appomattox - The Last 48 hours”. There were two actors who were historians - a Dr Curtis Fields, as General Ulysses S. Grant, and Thomas Jesse, as General Robert E.Lee. They reenacted the written communications between Lee and Grant from the evening of April 7th 1865 and the afternoon of April 9th 1865. Having read “Grant” a 900 page history by Ron Cherenow I was impressed with how accurate (at least as far as historian’s have mostly agreed) the performance was. It really made history come alive.

The following day July 4th there was an “Annual breakfast with the Generals”. This was put on by a local historical society which call themselves “Vicksburg Civil War Roundtable”.  There was only about 40 people in attendance. There were historical presentations by the two generals as well as General Pemberton who was commanding the Confederates at Vicksburg, an English woman acting the role of women and nursing (as it was) in the Civil War, General Beauregard and the Secretary of State for the Confederate Government.

I spoke to the Generals and told them of my interest in the American Civil War and having recently read the Grant book.