The Surrender Site. The monument was erected and inscribed by Union soldiers on spot where Grant and Pemberton met.
During June, General Johnston had succeeded in increasing his force to about 30,000, many of whom were green troops, but efforts to secure adequate weapons, ammunition and wagons to equip the regiments had been only partly successful. Preparing to encounter an expected move by Johnston against his rear, Grant used reinforcements arriving from Memphis to construct and man a strong outer defense line facing Johnston’s line of advance. Grant then had two lines of works, one to hold Pemberton in, the other to hold Johnston out. While Seddon notified Johnston “Rely upon it, the eyes and hopes of the whole Confederacy are upon you, with the full confidence that you will act, and with the sentiment that it is better to fail nobly daring, than, through prudence even, to be inactive,” Johnston notified his government on June 15 “I consider saving Vicksburg hopeless.”
On July 1, Johnston moved his army of 4 infantry and 1 cavalry divisions to the east bank of the Big Black River, seeking a vulnerable place to attack Grant’s outer defenses. His reconnaissance during the next 3 days convinced him that no move against the Federal position was practicable. Receiving word of the surrender on July 4, he withdrew to Jackson.
THE SURRENDER OF VICKSBURG.
By July, the Army of Vicksburg had held the line for 6 weeks, but its unyielding defense had been a costly one. Pemberton reported 10,000 of his men so debilitated by wounds and sickness as to be no longer able to man the works, and the list of ineffectives swelled daily from the twin afflictions of insufficient rations and the searching fire of Union sharpshooters. Each day the constricting Union line pushed closer against the Vicksburg defenses, and there were indications that Grant might soon launch another great assault which, even if repulsed, must certainly result in a severe toll of the garrison. (Grant had actually ordered a general assault for July 6, 2 days after the surrender.)
General Pemberton, faced with dwindling stores and no help from the outside, saw only two eventualities, “either to evacuate the city and cut my way out or to capitulate upon the best attainable terms.” Contemplating the former possibility, he asked his division commanders on July 1 to report whether the physical condition of the troops would favor such a hazardous stroke. His lieutenants were unanimous in their replies that siege conditions had physically distressed so large a number of the defending army that an attempt to cut through the Union line would be disastrous. Pemberton’s only alternative, then, was surrender.
The Union ironclad gunboat Cairo, sunk by a Confederate “torpedo” (mine) near Vicksburg. From Photographic History of the Civil War.
David and Goliath of the Union fleet, photographed at Vicksburg after the surrender:
