On May 19, 1863, General Ulysses S. Grant
attempted to take the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg, Mississippi.
After making a daring run past Confederate batteries, Union naval
forces joined troops several miles down river. Working together, they
detained Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston in Jackson, preventing him from assisting General John C. Pemberton at Vicksburg. Siege of Vicksburg… Kurz & Allison, c1888. Civil War. Prints & Photographs DivisionVicksburg, Miss. Levee and Steamboats. William R Pywell, photographer, February, 1864. Civil War Glass Negatives and Related Prints. Prints & Photographs DivisionWhen Grant’s direct assaults failed to overwhelm the city, on this date and again on May 22, he settled down
to a six-week siege. Twelve miles of Northern entrenchments paralleled
Confederate earthworks. At some points, soldiers held their separate
lines within shouting distance. By mid-June, nearly 80,000 Union troops
were massed at the city on the Mississippi River bluffs. With Union gunboats
on the river and enemy trenches surrounding the city, the citizens and
soldiers of Vicksburg were sealed off from supplies. In addition to
dwindling food stores, they weathered nearly constant bombardment by
land and naval forces. To escape the shells, Vicksburg residents
abandoned their homes
for caves carved into the city’s hills. Weeks passed and starving
denizens of “Prairie Dog Villages,” as Union soldiers dubbed the maze of
dugouts, still hoped for salvation at the hands of General Johnston. By day forty-four of the siege, the editor of Vicksburg’s Daily Citizen was reduced to printing on wallpaper. Still, he managed to quip:
[T]he great Ulysses—the Yankee Generalissimo, surnamed Grant—has
expressed his intention of dining in Vicksburg on Saturday next, and
celebrating the 4th of July by a grand dinner and so forth. When asked
if he would invite Gen. Jo Johnston to join he said. ‘No! for fear there
will be a row at the table.’ Ulysses must get into the city before he
dines in it. The way to cook rabbit is ‘first catch the rabbit.’ &c.
Unbeknownst to the writer, the ordeal was drawing to a close.
Pemberton and his 30,000 men surrendered on July 4, 1863. When Northern
forces entered the city that day, they found the Citizen ready for the press. The issue was printed by Grant’s men and distributed with this addendum:
Two days bring about great changes, The banner of the Union floats
over Vicksburg, Gen. Grant has ‘caught the rabbit;’ he has dined in
Vicksburg, and he did bring his dinner with him. The ‘Citizen’ lives to
see it. For the last time it appears on ‘Wall-paper.’ No more will it
eulogize the luxury of mule-meat and fricasseed kitten—urge Southern
warriors to such diet never-more.
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