Vicksburg Civil War Museum

Lincoln called Vicksburg "the key to the war," and for more than a century and a half, the city's museums told the siege's story from a narrow angle. Charles Pendleton changed that in spring 2021, opening the first Civil War museum in the United States owned by an African American. The collection at 1123 Washington Street—housed in the former Corner Drug Store building—includes original Confederate states' letters of secession, but its real work is recovery: surfacing African American contributions to a conflict that Vicksburg's other institutions have largely erased. The siege ran from May 18 to July 4, 1863. Grant's forces drove Pemberton's Confederate army into Vicksburg's defensive lines and settled in for more than 40 days until the garrison, supplies nearly gone, surrendered. The city was the last major Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River. Its fall split the Confederacy in two. What happened here decided the war's outcome, but who fought—and what they fought for—depends on which museum you walk into. Pendleton's is privately owned and operated as a nonprofit. Open daily; check hours before visiting.