The General Price. This merchant steamer was converted into a ram by the Confederate Navy, captured by the Union Fleet at Memphis and used as a Federal gunboat against Vicksburg. From Photographic History of the Civil War.
Only when the Union trenches approached close to the defensive works were determined efforts made to halt the Union threat. Then the Union sap rollers (woven cane cylinders filled with earth or cotton rolled in front of the open end of the trench to protect the work party) became targets for destruction. Fuses were set on artillery shells which were then rolled down against the sap rollers, or they were ignited by Minié balls dipped in turpentine. Occasional night sallies succeeded temporarily in driving off Union work parties and filling up trenches, but no daylight forays were attempted by the Confederates.
CIVILIAN LIFE IN VICKSBURG DURING THE SIEGE.
For the civilian population of Vicksburg, the siege was a grim and harrowing experience. Ordered to evacuate the city or prepare to face siege, many of the townspeople preferred to remain and share the fate of the army. They were joined by refugees accompanying the Confederate retreat into the city. Vicksburg had been subjected to periodic naval bombardment during the year of preliminary action and continuously during the siege. For relief and protection against shellfire, many of the townspeople occupied caves dug into the city’s plentiful hillsides.
To the civilians, as to the Confederate soldiers, there seemed only three intervals during the day when the shelling ceased—8 a. m., noon, and 8 p. m.—when the Union artillerymen ate their meals. However, much of the accustomed social life of the town continued. Men and women passed along the streets despite frequent shell explosions, and the town’s newspaper continued to appear—finally printed on wallpaper. Despite the artillery fire, few civilians were killed, although many dwellings were destroyed or badly damaged. Over more and more buildings, as the siege progressed, the yellow hospital flags floated. Thousands of Confederate sick and wounded were brought into the city, many being cared for by the women of Vicksburg. In the latter stages of the siege the food stores of the city were badly depleted, placing the people of Vicksburg on extremely short rations.
FRATERNIZATION.
A unique feature of the American Civil War was the inclination of the private soldier—Union and Confederate—to fight with unrelenting ferocity during the engagements of the war and yet to engage in friendly intercourse with each other once the battle had ended, or even during lulls in the fighting. Swapping of Northern coffee for Southern tobacco was a commonplace picket activity in all theaters of the war. In the long, weary siege of Vicksburg, the monotony was often lightened by jeers and pleasantries exchanged between lines. Many examples of soldier humor were recorded. The Confederates, taking grim delight in their ability to withstand the onslaughts of a steadily increasing Federal Army, would shout “When are you coming in Vicksburg for a visit?” To which a grimy, sweating Federal private would yell, “Not till you show better manners to strangers.”
A Civil War drummer boy. From a wartime sketch.