North Union Avenue and Grant Circle are closed to vehicular and pedestrian traffic for repairs. Entering these construction areas is prohibited. This work is to repair severe weather damage in 2020. The remainder of the park and tour road are open. More
Due to weather related incidents, Vicksburg National Cemetery is closed to vehicular traffic, however it is open to pedestrians. Visitor can park in the adjacent USS Cairo parking lot and walk into the cemetery.
General Lloyd Tilghman Monument, Champion Hill Battlefield
NPS Photo
The only other monument on the Champion Hill battlefield, this small stone marks the site where Confederate General Lloyd Tilghman was killed on the afternoon of May 16, 1863. Covering Bakers Creek ford — the only avenue of escape left to the Confederate army — Tilghman's Brigade pulled back from the Coker House to this ridge, known as Cotton Hill. Company G, 1st Mississippi Light Artillery (Cowan's Battery), straddled the road with two guns to the north and four guns to the south. General Tilghman dismounted, and was personally giving directions regarding the sighting of one of the guns north of the road, when he was struck by a shell fragment and instantly killed. Frederick and Sidell Tilghman, sons of the general, erected this stone at the turn of the century.
General Tilghman was interred in Cedar Hill Cemetery in Vicksburg, but in 1902, at the request of his sons, his remains were disinterred and reburied in New York City.
