Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 3.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[372] its sufferings and anxieties. The town, built in terraces above the Mississippi, was particularly exposed to the shells which the Federal fleet was constantly throwing in every direction to harass the defenders. The houses soon became untenantable. People took refuge in caves, which were enlarged by cutting into the gravel of the bluff. The construction of these underground dwellings became a species of traffic: the negroes who built them sold them for thirty to fifty dollars apiece, their value varying according to the amount of security they afforded.

It was also necessary to economize the ammunition and keep it for an assault or a sortie. Pemberton had a million more cartridges than percussion-caps, which discrepancy rendered the former quite useless. Every expedient was resorted to in order to supply this want. The cartridge-boxes of the killed and wounded among the Federals were carefully examined, while some daring individuals would undertake secretly to introduce these indispensable articles of ammunition into the place. Some, carrying them around their waists, would slip during the night across the thousand ravines which intersected the Federal lines, climbing acclivities in the dark which in the daytime would have given one the vertigo, and bringing to the besieged from outside, besides their precious freight, news and words of encouragement; others, disguised as Federal soldiers, would wander through the enemy's lines, carrying a canteen filled with percussion-caps appended to their shoulder-belts, which they dexterously threw at the Confederate skirmishers whenever an opportunity offered: nearly three hundred thousand caps were thus introduced.

The strict economy to which they were subjected paralyzed the defenders, especially during the early stages of the siege. Most of the Union batteries, once established, silenced almost entirely the fire of the besieged. As soon as a Confederate gun tried to break this silence fifteen or twenty cannon concentrated their fire upon it, and those serving it became a target for the balls of a swarm of Federal skirmishers, who were always on the lookout. In closing their embrasures the besiegers were soon able to make use of wooden blinds with impunity, which would only have been an additional danger if a bullet had struck them. The Confederates were, moreover, in a most disadvantageous position for the