VICKSBURG

city, seat (1817) of Warren county, western Mississippi, U.S. It lies on the Mississippi River, at the mouth of the Yazoo, 44 miles (77 km) west of Jackson. Frenchmen settled there in 1718 and built Fort-Saint-Pierre (1719) on the high bluffs, but the settlement was wiped out by Indians 10 years later. A military outpost established on the site by Spaniards in 1790 was known as Nogales, later called Walnut Hills. A sprawling community developed, which was incorporated in 1825 and named for the Reverend Newitt Vick, a Methodist minister. The settlement prospered as a shipping point. Because of its strategic location, Vicksburg was besieged for 47 days during General Ulysses S. Grant's campaign for control of the Mississippi River in the American Civil War, before surrendering on July 4, 1863.The Old Courthouse (1858) is now a museum displaying Confederate and antebellum Americana. Vicksburg is now a major tourist spot and a shipping centre for cotton, livestock, lumber, and paper products. Manufactures include wood products, chemicals, light fixtures, prefabricated housing, petroleum products, and fabricated metal products, and there are boatbuilding yards. The Vicksburg National Military Park and Cemetery (2.7 square miles) partially encircle the city. The U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station is nearby. Pop. (1990) 26,886; (1994 est.) 28,122.