Last year on July 4th I reflected on the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War, the three day battle at Gettysburg from the first to the third of July 1863. This year, appropriately, much is being made of that battle in recognition of its sesquicentennial anniversary.

But there is another important sesquicentennial anniversary today which Mr. Mac McCarty reminded us of last year: today is also the anniversary of the end of a very different battle — the battle for Vicksburg, Mississippi.

While maybe not as well known as Gettysburg, it’s importance in the war could be just as great, some think even greater. Vicksburg held a commanding position on the heights over the Mississippi River and was referred to as the “Gibraltar of the South.” Of its position and importance it was said by Jefferson Davis:

“Vicksburg is the nail head that holds the South’s two halves together.”

And by Abraham Lincoln:

“Vicksburg is the key. The war can never be brought to a close until the key is in our pocket.”

It was the one point that kept the Union from controlling the whole length of the Mississippi. (To be fair, there was another small garrison at Port Hudson that surrendered when they heard of Vicksburg’s fall.)

It was Major General Ulysses S. Grant’s objective to take the city and his efforts occupied over half a year from December 26, 1862 until the final surrender on July 4, 1863. During this time Grant had about a half-dozen failed attempts at attacking the city, a couple of them fairly creative, but finally on April 30 he got his army across the Mississippi unopposed using diversionary tactics. From there they fought their way to the city. By May 18 the city was surrounded but Vicksburg’s fortifications were significant and two direct attacks were repelled. So Grant lay siege to the city, shelling it with the army and the navy day and night. By July 3 no help had come and the conditions were grim. Lt. General John Pemberton, the Confederate garrison commander, asked for terms of surrender. On July Fourth their flags were stuck, the weapons stacked and the city was occupied.

Grant chose not to take the opposing forces as prisoners but to immediately parole the soldiers and release them. This did two things — first, it meant he did not have to deal with the logistics of moving and feeding about 30,000 prisoners of war and second it was a psychological weapon that would return many of these men to their homes defeated.

In reading about this battle one thing that struck me was the respect Grant showed his opponents. In response to the initial note asking to negotiate terms of surrender Grant includes this line [all these following quotes from his memoir]:

Men who have shown so much endurance and courage as those now in
Vicksburg, will always challenge the respect of an adversary, and I can
assure you will be treated with all the respect due to prisoners of war.

Of his meeting with the opposing commander he writes:

Pemberton and I had served in the same division during part of the
Mexican War. I knew him very well therefore, and greeted him as an old
acquaintance.

Although it should be noted that the friendship did not get in the way of Grant rejecting his proposed terms of surrender.

Regarding the respect for the adversary Grant set the tone from the top. He writes of the time of surrender:

Our soldiers were no sooner inside the lines than the two armies began
to fraternize. Our men had had full rations from the time the siege
commenced, to the close. The enemy had been suffering, particularly
towards the last. I myself saw our men taking bread from their
haversacks and giving it to the enemy they had so recently been engaged
in starving out. It was accepted with avidity and with thanks.

Furthermore upon the surrender and evacuation of the city by the paroled soldiers there were to be no Union celebrations. He describes it like this:

 The prisoners were allowed to occupy their old camps behind the
intrenchments. No restraint was put upon them, except by their own
commanders. They were rationed about as our own men, and from our
supplies. The men of the two armies fraternized as if they had been
fighting for the same cause. When they passed out of the works they had
so long and so gallantly defended, between lines of their late
antagonists, not a cheer went up, not a remark was made that would give
pain. Really, I believe there was a feeling of sadness just then in the
breasts of most of the Union soldiers at seeing the dejection of their
late antagonists.

As to the significance of the day Grant writes:

The fate of the Confederacy was sealed when Vicksburg fell. Much hard
fighting was to be done afterwards and many precious lives were to be
sacrificed; but the morale was with the supporters of the Union ever after.

And, as one history site says