Vicksburg Hides Civil War Memories Behind Sleepy Facade : Once called ‘Gibraltar of Confederacy,’ Mississippi River town is famed for battlefield and mansions.

Nowhere else in the annals of military history is it recorded that an attacking army’s objective was spared, at least temporarily, by a strategically placed whiskey bottle. But it happened in Vicksburg during the Civil War.

This small Mississippi River town, halfway between New Orleans and Memphis, was called the “Gibraltar of the Confederacy” as the last major river port that had not fallen to Union forces. Early in the war, President Abraham Lincoln called Vicksburg the key to the Confederacy. Seizing it would cut the flow of arms and sustenance flowing to the Rebels from the western United States and South America, and would split the Confederacy at its heart.

For more than a year, Vicksburg was under attack by Union generals Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman, who tried just about everything to break the will of its garrison and people. When they sent the Union gunboat USS Cairo down the river to shell Vicksburg’s impenetrable bluffs, Rebel soldiers jerry-rigged a depth charge upriver from town, filling a whiskey demijohn with black powder and connecting it to shore with copper tubing. The Cairo went down without firing a shot.

Vicksburg fell to Grant on July 4, 1863, after a devastating 47-day siege. From then until the 1950s, the town refused to celebrate American’s national holiday with any fervor. “Oh, you’d hear a lil’ ol’ firecracker here and there,” a local told us. “Probably Yankees.”

V icksburg is still pretty much a sleepy little hill town running along a bluff that gazes down on the Mississippi. And trade goods still ply the river on small packets and barges, some proudly emblazoned with the OMR of the Ol’ Man River Co.

An aura of down-home friendliness and Southern hospitality hang over the town like the odor of jasmine on a summer night, most of it expressed by local folks in a soothing, Deep South drawl you could pour over warm flapjacks.

It’s also a very pretty place, with Antebellum homes shrouded in magnolias, honeysuckle, camelias, crape myrtle, rose gardens and 100-foot pecan trees. People here don’t get stirred up about much, unless it’s the arrival of the Delta Queen or Mississippi Queen paddle-wheelers, their calliopes blaring, cabins filled with pilgrims searching for a taste of the Old South. They’ll find a heady dose of it here: grits, collards, corn pone and all the rest.

How long/how much? Give the town, its battlefields and old mansions two days, perhaps another for a day trip up the Natchez Trace to the delightful and historic little town of Port Gibson. Lodging costs are very moderate, dining on great Southern vittles the same.

Getting settled in: The Belle of the Bend, an 1876 Victorian Italianate home, is named for the finest vessel in the Morrissey steamboat line. Capt. Tom Morrissey’s granddaughter, Jo Pratt, and husband Wally have done a wondrous job in converting this beautiful place into a three-bedroom lodging, burnishing the marvelous wood flooring, and outfitting rooms with Baccarat-crystal chandeliers, antique furniture and bedroom quilts from Jo’s mother’s dowry.

Take breakfast at a long formal table before the Carrara marble fireplace, beneath a ceiling of Bavarian baroque plasterwork. It’s a sumptuous affair of fresh fruit compotes, homemade biscuits, apple and pecan muffins, and garlic cheese grits with an omelet. Jo Pratt and the major-domo of the kitchen, Ardelia, do everything possible to keep guests comfortable and well-fed.

At Anchuca, an 1830 Greek Revival mansion, a frosty mint julep on a silver tray welcomes those who pay a small additional charge. Anchuca, from whose front balcony Confederate President Jefferson Davis once made a rousing speech, is at the heart of the historic district. It has four-posters in every bedroom and gas-burning chandeliers, a hot tub and pool in a flowery courtyard and full Southern breakfasts.

Families will love the 140-room Hampton Inn, on the outskirts of town off Interstate 20 and across the street from Vicksburg National Military Park. The Hampton has an outdoor patio and pool, tennis courts and in-room movies and. Continental breakfast is included.

Regional food and drink: Freshwater fish from the Mississippi are a staple, along with char-grilled redfish and other seafood and shellfish from the Gulf. Farm-raised catfish grow very large in Mississippi. These and other edibles are given the full Southern or Creole treatment in the kitchen, with gumbo a big favorite.

Go for the greens (collards, mustard, dandelion and a few others), since they’re cooked here with flavor you’ve never tasted before. And don’t knock deep-fried dill pickles until you’ve tried them, since they’re about as addictive as that other Deep South anomaly, boiled peanuts. Some Southerners would ask for their iced tea in the Arctic, so plan on oceans of the stuff in warm weather.

Dining well: Harrison House Antiques and Tearoom (1433 Harrison St.) is a 115-year-old Victorian home with a $10 set luncheon in the downstairs rooms, and antiques above. Everything on both levels is for sale, including the dining tables, chairs and flatware. Our menu was mushroom soup, green salad, chicken with olives and artichokes, rice and asparagus, lots of hot biscuits, the obligatory iced tea, plus a choice of pecan pie or English trifle for dessert. The old house is right next door to McRaven, one of Vicksburg’s historic plantations.

New Orleans Cafe (1100 Washington St.) is downtown, very rustic, with a long bar festooned with neon beer signs and a jukebox hailing the music of Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel and others of that late ‘60s-early ‘70s ilk and era. This is the place for appetizers like fried crawfish tails, Pontchartrain oysters or fried crab claws, all about $6. Main courses of Cajun broiled catfish, sauteed Gulf redfish, blackened prime rib or 20-odd other Mississippi Delta and Cajun offerings run from $6 to $14.95. There are also a like number of po’boy sandwiches, burgers, soup and salads, all about $6. Most of the diners here are locals.

Tuminello’s (500 Speed St.) was opened as a grocery store by a Sicilian family in 1892, then moved into serving Italian fare to railroad workers. Today’s restaurant, paneled with willow-tree wood from the banks of the Mississippi, has gone considerably upscale but sticks pretty much to the things it has always done well, with a few forays into such as sliced tenderloin and butterflied shrimp flamed in cognac and wine, served with a Bearnaise sauce, for $16.95. After the blackened shrimp over garlic fettucine ($12.95) and filetto Siciliana in a robust wine sauce, we were almost ready to agree with Tuminello’s motto of “The finest food from Memphis to New Orleans.”

On your own: For a background on the city and its siege, stop in for a 30-minute film, “The Vanishing Glory,” at 717 Clay St. in downtown Vicksburg (adults $3.50, students $2, children free). The still shots of family privations during the siege are reminiscent of Ken Burns’ masterful “Civil War” epic on public television.

With North and South gun-emplacement markers and handsome monuments to both sides, the Vicksburg National Military Park is probably the best preserved and most beautiful of all Civil War battlefields. It is a fitting tribute to the more-than-100,000 men (36,000 from Illinois alone) involved in the grim battle and siege. You may drive through by car.

See the fascinating Old Courthouse Museum for a monumental assortment of Civil War (around here it’s still called the War Between the States) memorabilia, plus pictures and artifacts from the 19th-Century heyday of those colorful riverboats. Then stop by the Biedenharn Candy Co. Museum, where the first Coca-Cola was bottled in 1891. You’ll find an endless assortment of Southern candies, particularly pralines, and devil-squares cookies that make brownies taste like diet food.

Once a month (April through October), locals and visitors gather in front of the Old Court House for Pickin’ on the Front Lawn, with bluegrass and gospel music and assorted pickin’ and fiddlin’, Dixie-style. And while Vicksburg has enough Antebellum-and-older mansions to keep visitors antique-and-garden-gazing for weeks, try not to miss Cedar Grove, the Balfour House, Duff Green Mansion and McRaven, among others.

For a look at Vicksburg as Gen. Grant saw it, take a Mississippi River Adventures hydro-jet boat. The tour includes a look at the beautifully preserved USS Cairo. And if you’re not museumed out, stop in at the Toys and Soldiers Museum and store, or at the Antique Doll Museum with its fine collection of Jumeau French dolls, made between 1842 and 1935 and now considered priceless.

GUIDEBOOK

Visiting Vicksburg

Getting there: From Los Angeles, fly Delta, American or Continental to Jackson, Miss., then drive or take a very inexpensive bus 44 miles to Vicksburg. An advance-purchase, round-trip air ticket will cost $410.

Where to stay: Belle of the Bends (508 Klein St.; $85-$95 double B&B;); Anchuga (1010 First St. East; $75-$115 double B&B;); Hampton Inn (3330 Clay St.; $41.95 double B&B.;

For more information: Call the Vicksburg Visitors Bureau at (800) 221-3536, or write (Box 110, Vicksburg, Miss. 39181) for a brochure with city map, and a list of accommodations, dining and attractions, all with locations on the map.