Confederate artillery at Vicksburg.
The natural fortifications around
Vicksburg rendered it wellnigh impregnable, and it was made completely so by
S. H. Lockett,
chief engineer of the defenses under
General Pemberton.
Only starvation finally reduced the beleaguered force.
In two unsuccessful assaults thousands of Federal soldiers were shot down.
An instance of the spirit in which
Americans fight is related by
Lieutenant Roswell Henry Mason, who led his company of the Seventy-second Illinois Infantry into the city.
The soldiers started in with three full days' rations in their haversacks.
The gaunt and hungry Confederates lined the road on either side.
“Hey,
Yank, throw us a hardtack,” they called; or “Hey,
Yank, chuck us a piece of bacon.”
When
Mason's company halted in the city not a haversack contained a morsel of food.
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A Confederate water battery that defended Vicksburg |
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Confederate works behind Vicksburg: where Grant's army was held for over six weeks |
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