Battlegrounds and cemeteries around Vicksburg tell the story of the city’s role in the Civil War, and now residents and tourists can learn about a different aspect of the 1863 siege.

If you go

Pemberton’s Headquarters at 1018 Crawford St. is open for public tours on Fridays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. through Aug. 1. Downtown walking tours guided by rangers from the Vicksburg National Military Park are offered at 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. on each of those days. Tours — which avoid the hills — last about 30 minutes and start at Pemberton’s Headquarters. Tours are free with the park entrance fee. For more information, call 601-636-0583 or visit http://www.nps.gov/vick.

Walking tours led by rangers from the Vicksburg National Military Park will take visitors through the area around the Willis-Cowan house, known today as Pemberton’s Headquarters, where Gen. John C. Pemberton decided to surrender Vicksburg to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.

The house at 1018 Crawford St. is owned by the Department of the Interior and maintained and operated by the Vicksburg National Military Park. For the second summer, the house will open each Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Aug. 1. Walking tours will take a flat, westward route at 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. on those days.

VNMP rangers lead visitors along Crawford to Walnut Street, stopping to tell the stories and about the significance of houses and monuments along the way.

“These compelling stories are tightly woven into the American experience,” said Ranger Ray Hamel.

Summer Ranger Lindsey Smith said that because the military park is more than a mile from downtown, the tours focus on the siege from a civilian standpoint.

The area housed some of the “movers and shakers of Vicksburg,” Hamel said. The neighborhood is on high ground, away from stagnant marsh air, and attracted a higher class of residents than in other parts of the city, he said.

Visitors meet in the high-ceiling, hardwood-floor Willis-Cowan house for the 30-minute tour. From there, they cross bricked Crawford Street to the Cobb House, built in 1830.

Oliver Cobb was a wealthy plantation owner who bought the townhouse with his wife, Melissa.

When the Cobbs came into financial problems in the 1840s, Oliver got so desperate that he killed himself and Melissa was forced to sell the house. During the siege, the Cobb House was used as a hospital for soldiers and some civilians, who were caught in the crossfire from the east and west.

“In many cases these overshots would land in the city of Vicksburg, doing damage to buildings and causing civilian casualties and fatalities,” VNMP historian Terry Winschel said.

From the Cobb House, visitors look across the street at the Balfour House, next door to the Willis-Cowan House. During a Christmas ball at the Balfour House in 1862, a muddy courier ran in with news and Maj. Gen. Martin Luther Smith announced, “The ball is at an end. The enemy are coming down the river; all noncombatants must leave the city.”

Moving west on Crawford Street, walking visitors come to three houses between Cherry and Monroe: the Young, Lane and Mitchell houses.

The Young House was built in 1877 for Confederate soldier Upton Young who was injured in battles at Champion Hill, Kennesaw Mountain and Franklin, Tenn.

In the middle of the row sits the Lane House, an 1824 structure that features Vicksburg’s signature pierced columns. John C. Lane, married to the daughter of Vicksburg founder Newit Vick, was a minister and judge.

West of the Lane House is the Mitchell House, built in 1877, for Dr. Charles J. Mitchell. Mitchell’s wife, Lucy, was the niece of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

The tour crosses Monroe Street, where the ranger points out the Louisiana monument in Memorial Rose Garden between Crawford and South streets. The memorial was the first Civil War monument erected in Vicksburg and pays tribute to the state that had the most troops fighting to defend the city.

In the next block, visitors see the former U.S. Post Office and Federal Courthouse and they are told about sites blocks away. To the south, they are shown Sky Parlor Hill, where Vicksburgers cheered at the sinking of the USS Cincinatti, and to the north, the Old Court House, where Union gunners used the clock for target practice.

Throughout the tour, Hamel tries to illustrate Vicksburg during the siege, but he said the city’s change and growth make it hard to picture.

“Try to ignore the skyline here and imagine Confederates opposing Union guns,” Hamel said. “It’d be quite a spectacle standing here 146 years ago.”

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Contact Andrea Vasquez at avasquez@vicksburgpost.com