Vicksburg: the gate to the Mississippi
The handwriting is that of
Surgeon Bixby, of the Union hospital ship “Red Rover.”
In his album he pasted this unique photograph from the western shore of the river where the
Federal guns and mortars threw a thousand shells into
Vicksburg during the siege.
The prominent building is the courthouse, the chief landmark during the investment.
Here at
Vicksburg the
Confederates were making their last brave stand for the possession of the
Mississippi River, that great artery of traffic.
If it were wrested from them the main source of their supplies would be cut off.
Pemberton, a brave and capable officer and a Pennsylvanian by birth, worked unremittingly for the cause he had espoused.
Warned by the early attacks of
General Williams and
Admiral Farragut, he had left no stone unturned to render
Vicksburg strongly defended.
It had proved impregnable to attack on the north and east, and the powerful batteries planted on the river-front could not be silenced by the fleet nor by the guns of the
Federals on the opposite shore.
But
Grant's masterful maneuver of cutting loose from his base and advancing from the south had at last out-generaled both
Pemberton and
Johnston.
Nevertheless,
Pemberton stoutly held his defenses.
His high river-battery is photographed below, as it frowned upon the
Federals opposite.
