Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Poetry and Incidents., Volume 7.
Frank Moore, Ed.

The surrender of Vioksburgh.

As melancholy a sight as ever man witnessed, for brave men conquered and humbled, no matter how vile the cause for which they fight, present always a sorrowful spectacle, and these foes of ours, traitors and enemies of liberty and civilization though they be, are brave, as many a hard-fought field can well attest. They marched out of their intrenchments by regiments upon the grassy declivity immediately outside their fort; they stacked their arms, hung their colors upon the centre, laid off their knapsacks, belts, cartridge-boxes and cap-pouches, and thus shorn of the accoutrements of the soldier returned inside their works, and thence down the Jackson road into the city. The men went through the ceremony with that downcast look so touching on a soldier's face; not a word was spoken; there was none of that gay badinage we are so much accustomed to hear from the ranks of regiments marching through our streets; the few words of command necessary were given by their own officers in that low tone of voice we hear used at funerals. Generals McPherson, Logan, and Forney, attended by their respective staffs, stood on the rebel breastworks overlooking the scene never before wit nessed on this continent. The rebel troops, as to clothing, presented that varied appearance so familiar in the North from seeing prisoners, and were from Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, and Missouri; the arms were mostly muskets and rifles of superior excellence, and I saw but very few shot-guns; or indiscriminate weapons of any kind; it was plain that Pemberton had a splendidly-appointed army. Their flags were of a kind new to me, all I saw being cut in about the same dimensions as our regimental colors, all of the single color red, with a white cross in the centre.

The ceremony of stacking arms occupied little over an hour upon that part of the lines, and when it was concluded, the glittering cavalcade of officers, Federal and rebel, mounted and swept cityward on the full gallop, through such clouds of dust as I hope never to ride through again. A few minutes fortunately, brought us to a halt at a house on the extreme outskirts of the city, built of stone in the Southern fashion, with low roof and wide verandahs, and almost hidden from view in an exuberance of tropical trees, and known as Forney's headquarters.

And here were gathered all the notables of both armies. In a damask-cushioned armed rocking-chair sat Lieutenant-General Pemberton, the most discontented looking man I ever saw. Presently there appeared in the midst of the throng a man small in stature, heavily set, stoop-shouldered, a broad face, covered with a short, sandy beard, habited in a plain suit of blue flannel, with the two stars upon his shoulder, denoting a Major-General in the United States army. He approached Pemberton and entered into conversation with him; there was no cant chair near, but neither Pemberton nor any of his generals offered him a seat, and thus for five minutes the conqueror stood talking to the vanquished seated, when Grant turned away into the house and left Pemberton alone with his pride or his grief — it was hard to tell which. Grant has the most impassive of faces, and seldom, if ever, are his feelings photographed upon his countenance; but there was then, as he contemplated the result of his labors, the faintest possible trace of inward satisfaction peering out of his cold gray eyes. All this occupied less time than this recital of it, and meantime officers of both armies were commingled, conversing as sociably as if they had not been aiming at each other's lives a few hours before. Generals McPherson and Logan now turned back toward our camps to bring in the latter's division, and a party specially detailed galloped cityward, about a mile distant for the purpose of hoisting the flag over the Court-House.

Lieutenant-Colonel William E. Strong, assisted by Sergeant B. F. Dugan, fourth company Ohio independent cavalry, and followed by a numerous throng of officers, soldiers, and civilians, ascended to the cupola of the court-house, and at half-past 11 o'clock on the Fourth of July, 1868, flung out our banner of beauty and glory to. the breeze.

In addition to the arms borne by the captives, fifteen thousand Enfield rifles, intended for the use of Kirby Smith's army, fell into our possession. Kirby's [52] men are badly off for shooting-irons, I am told, and Pemberton was to have made an effort some time since to send the English rifles to him.

We have taken twenty-seven eight-inch and ten-inch guns, and several pieces of English manufacture — Brooks, Armstrong, and Whitworth. One hundred and nine pieces of light artillery have already come to light. We captured twelve of their field-batteries at Black River and Champion Hills. They had on hand at the time of surrender, fifteen tons of cannon-powder, besides what was in the different service magazines. Their rifle cartridges were nearly exhausted. Rebel officers told me that at the rate they had been firing they had ammunition enough to last them for two weeks.

The following paragraphs are from the Vicksburgh correspondence of the St. Louis Republican:

Pemberton was of course the chief attraction. He is in appearance a tall, lithe built and stately personage. Black hair, black eyes, full beard, and rather a severe if not sinister expression of countenance, as of one who had great trials of the soul to endure. He is, you know, a native of Philadelphia, who is said to have been enamored early in life of the charms of a Southern lady, and since then has cast his lot with her friends. He is a trusted friend of the President, who, it is thought, would have spared nothing of men or means to aid him in this extremity.

The greatest curiosities are the caves hewn into the banks of earth, in which the women and children and non-combatants crept during the heat of the bombardment. At night, and sometimes during an entire day, the whole of these people would be confined to these caverns. They are constructed about the height of a man and three feet wide, a fork Y shaped into the bank. There are perhaps five hundred of these caves in the city around the works. As many as fifteen have been crowded into one of them.