The Annals of the Civil War Written by Leading Participants North and South
Alexander Kelly McClure, Ed.

[119] few. I know of but one, and that was not fatal; the loss of an arm by Mrs. Major Reid, while bringing her children under shelter from a sudden storm of shells. There were doubtless others, but I have sought in vain to obtain the facts and names. Inside and outside the lines there were many exaggerated stories in this connection. One of the mortalities published was that of Mrs. General Pemberton, who was at Gainesville, Alabama, the while.

How these people subsisted was another wonder. The straits to which the garrison were reduced are known, in part. “After the tenth day of the siege,” says the report of General Stephen D. Lee, “the men lived on about half rations, and less than that toward the close.” The ration has been described to consist of one-quarter pound of bacon, one-half pound of beef, five-eighths quart of meal, beside an allowance of peas, rice, sugar, and molasses. Of this, anon. The citizens must have had less; and where they got that from was a mystery. Business, of course, was suspended. There were some stores that had supplies, and at these prices climbed steadily in a manner suggestive of the prophecy of Jerusalem's undoing. A barrel of flour at last came to sell for one thousand dollars--an immense figure then; but worse than the figure were the two later facts-that nobody had the money and then nobody had the flour. Some people eked out their supplies by cooking the tender sprouts of the common cane, of which there was an immense “brake” just below Vicksburg. I have reason to believe that few applications, and these only by the poorest people, were made to the military powers for help throughout all this trial. Sympathy and patriotism must have improvised a practical communism. The cruise and barrel had a little dust and unction to the last.

How about the mule meat? everybody will inquire, while rations are being treated. Both horse and mule meat were extensively sampled during the siege, though not in the way that by many may be imagined. On account of the want of provender nearly all the horses of the garrison were turned out of the lines, and as the other side could not safely take them unless they strayed within reach, many of them were killed by the cross-fire. Early in the siege, when some of the men complained of the scanty ration, General M. L. Smith, I believe, who had seen the thing done on the Plains, issued a circular to his brigades, recommending that the experiment of horse meat be tried to piece out supplies. I was on hand that very evening, when somebody, waiting till dark, slid over the works and cut a steak out of a horse that had been shot that day beneath them. It was cooked at General Vaughn's fire, and everybody tasted a little; but the flesh