The long and gallant defence of
Vicksburg is in its details yet but little understood.
When its situation shall be such as to enable us to communicate with its brave defenders we shall have a thrilling retrospective view of the heroic deeds of the long struggle to beat back the masses which were day after day thrown against its defences.
That it has been bravely defended all of us know.
The
Commander in Chief,
Gen. Pemberton, has been as it were on trial; a trial of blood.
He has been charged with incompetency, in efficiency, and a want of patriotism.
He has certainly been unpopular.
The people of
Charleston were greatly dissatisfied when he was sent to command at that place, and it is supposed their remonstrances occasioned his removal.
Yet those at
Vicksburg were reported to have been equally discontented with his assignment to the command there.
There was beyond question a great want of confidence in him. The trial which was to vindicate him or prove the correctness of the accusations against him has come.
It has been one of the most terrible encounters with the enemy during the war — while it has been the most prolonged.
How
General Pemberton has acquitted himself, the details alone can fully explain.
That he has fought bravely, however, there can be no doubt.
It should be gratifying, however, to the nation, which known so little of him, that a man who has cast his lot with us should prove himself not only true, but worthy of the post assigned him.
The history of the defence of
Vicksburg will have an interest to every one, whether it falls or not. The general belief of the nation how is that it will be successfully defended, and that the besieging forces of the enemy will be driven away after discomfiture and disaster not exceeded by any previous engagement with the Confederate forces.
