The Siege of Vicksburg: Pemberton and Grant

A continuous siege, and a mighty battle imminent. A citadel surrounded by land and water. The bombardment almost incessant. The beleaguered garrison reduced to quarter rations; living on mule-meat, and thinking it good fare. The population of the town hiding in caves to escape the storm of mortar-shells exploding in their streets. A squadron thundering at their gates, by night as well as by day. Mines trembling beneath their feet. What rare news came from Johnston far from cheering; all hope indeed of succor quite cut off. Ammunition almost expended. The lines of the besieger contracting daily; his approaches getting closer, his sharp-shooters more accurate; his sap-rollers steadily rising over the hills that Vicksburg had proudly declared impassable. Every day some new battery opening from an unexpected quarter; every day the position detected from which to-morrow still another battery would surely begin its fire. To crown all, after a few more contractions of the coil, another mighty assault would bring the enemy immediately beneath the walls, when, covered by their works, and more numerous than the besieged, the assailants, in every human probability, would storm the town, and all the unutterable horrors to which fallen cities are exposed might come upon the devoted fortress. . . .

By the 1st of July the approaches in many places had reached the enemy's ditch. At ten different points Grant could put the heads of regiments under cover, within distances of from five to one hundred yards of the rebel works, and the men of the two armies conversed across the lines. The hand-to-hand character of the recent fighting showed that little further progress could be made by digging alone, and Grant accordingly determined to make the final assault on the morning of the 6th of July. Orders were issued to prepare the heads of approaches for the easy debouche of troops, to widen the main approaches so that the men could move easily by fours, and to prepare planks and sand-bags filled with pressed cotton, for crossing ditches.

Johnston was moving up at the same time. On the night of the 1st he encamped between Brownsville and the Big Black River, and on the 3d sent word to Pemberton that about the 7th of the month an attempt to create a diversion would be made, to enable the garrison to cut its way out. This attack, however, was never made. The movement to Brownsville was the last operation undertaken for the relief or the defence of Vicksburg.

On the morning of July 3, Pemberton wrote to Grant, proposing an armistice, in order to arrange terms for the capitulation of the city. Grant replied that "the useless effusion of blood you propose stopping by this course can be ended at any time you may choose, by the unconditional surrender of the city and garrison." After some further debate, in which Pemberton protested against the stringency of these terms, and desired that his men should be permitted to march out with their muskets and field-guns, he agreed to Grant's proposal, the latter promising to parole his prisoners. Ten o'clock on the morning of the 4th of July was fixed as the hour of the surrender. Sherman was directed to march against Johnston the moment the surrender should be consummated.

At ten o'clock of Saturday, the 4th of July, the anniversary of American independence, the garrison of Vicksburg marched out of the lines it had defended so long, and stacked its arms in front of the conquerors. All along the rebel works they poured out, in gray, through the sally-ports and across the ditches, and laid down their colors, sometimes on the very spot where so many of the besiegers had laid down their lives; and then, in sight of the national troops, who were standing on their own parapets, the rebels returned inside the works, prisoners of war. Thirty-one thousand six hundred men were surrendered to Grant. Among these were two thousand one hundred and fifty-three officers, of whom fifteen were generals. One hundred and seventy-two cannon also fell into his hands, the largest capture of men and material ever made in war.

On the 8th of July, as soon as the news of the surrender of Vicksburg had reached the defenders of Port Hudson, that place surrendered to Banks, and the Mississippi, from its source to the sea, became once more a highway of the United States of America.