Old Court House Museum

The courthouse stands on the highest point in Vicksburg for a reason—the city's entire history has been about holding the bluff. French colonists built a fort here in 1719. The Natchez attacked. The Choctaw took the ground by conquest. The Americans renamed it after a Methodist missionary. In 1858, enslaved labor raised this Greek Revival building on that same commanding elevation, the place from which you can see who controls the river. Both Jefferson Davis and Ulysses S. Grant walked these halls. On July 4, 1863, after Vicksburg surrendered—a moment that, along with Gettysburg, marked the turning point of the Civil War—Union forces raised the American flag from this roof. The building that had governed a Confederate river-port now flew federal colors over the Mississippi. It houses thousands of Civil War artifacts now. Flags, weapons, personal effects—the material record of what was fought over and what remained. The building itself is a National Historic Landmark, which means the federal government has determined it possesses exceptional value in illustrating the heritage of the United States. Nearly 40,000 visitors a year come to stand in rooms where the war's outcome was made tangible. You go because this is where the abstraction of "turning point" becomes physical. The bluff. The flag. The objects men carried. 1008 Cherry Street. Open Monday through Saturday, 8:30am to 4:30pm; Sunday, 1:30 to 4:30pm. Admission charged.