After our tour of the Vicksburg battlefield, we returned to our ship moored on the banks of the Mississippi to find the river reflecting the orange afterglow of sunset. I made this image just before reboarding, and used the curving shoreline to symbolize the snakelike flow of the river itself, which bends and twists its way from Vicksburg to the sea. The orange water and sky incongruously bring a mood of peace and silence to a place that once knew the roar of Union Navy gunboats, as they bombarded Vicksburg’s Confederate defenses not far from this spot. It was here on July 4, 1863, that forces under the command of Ulysses S. Grant sealed the doom of the Confederacy, allowing Abraham Lincoln to say “The Father of Waters once again goes unvexed to the sea.”