Category Archives: Vicksburg Campaign

“Eighty-odd years since …”

Posted on July 4, 2020 by SUMPTER

The Fourth of July 1863 was a glad day for the Union during the American Civil War. Rebels surrendered Vicksburg, Mississippi to Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant, and that evening the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia began to … Continue reading →

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honoring his mother …

Posted on January 18, 2014 by SUMPTER

and honoring her son From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in January 1864: PRESENTATION OF A BATTLE-FLAG. – The members of the 11th Regiment, Illinois Infantry, have recently presented their old battle-flag to Mrs. Rachel Nevius, of Lodi, in … Continue reading →

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private no more

Posted on August 16, 2013 by SUMPTER

From The New-York Times August 16, 1863: Jeff. Davis’ Private Letters. The country will be interested and amused, if not instructed, by the letters received by JEFF. DAVIS from all sections and all sorts of men during the secession Winter, … Continue reading →

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Haunted Fourth

Posted on July 4, 2013 by SUMPTER

From The Heart of a Soldier: As Revealed in the Intimate Letters of Genl. George E. Pickett (pages 101-103): On the Fourth – far from a glorious Fourth to us or to any with love for his fellow-men – I … Continue reading →

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“moral impossibility”

Posted on July 2, 2013 by SUMPTER

150 years ago tomorrow The New York Times published a huge article that put together many dispatches from besieged Vicksburg. The reports contained misinformation (General Grant announcing to his troops that Port Hudson had fallen), but the main themes were … Continue reading →

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Mutiny at ‘Gibraltar’?

Posted on June 29, 2013 by SUMPTER

150 years ago today a Richmond newspaper published information that the Yankee siege of Vicksburg was progressing but that Confederate General Johnston’s army was getting nearer. There was more information that things were going well for the rebels trapped in … Continue reading →

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“I quailed”

Posted on June 25, 2013 by SUMPTER

150 years ago today Union troops at Vicksburg exploded 2200 pounds of gunpowder under part of the Confederate defenses. Northern soldiers were unable to successfully exploit the resulting crater in the midst of the rebel works. Check out one of … Continue reading →

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Hot times at Vicksburg

Posted on June 12, 2013 by SUMPTER

The main thing I remember about The How and Why Wonder Book of The Civil War was an image of the caves in Vicksburg that residents lived in to avoid and/or survive the federal shelling of 1863 (I haven’t fact-checked … Continue reading →

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One of thousands

Posted on June 10, 2013 by SUMPTER

These two articles appear as one clipping in the Seneca Falls, NY Library notebook of Civil War clippings, and they do have a common theme – the federal efforts to take Vicksburg and Port Hudson, the last two Confederate strongholds … Continue reading →

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