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.Some of the civilians who had fled the city before the battle returned, butthey were greeted with hostility from those who had endured the siege.Many women of Vicksburg continued to work in hospitals to tend the sickor sew blankets for the soldiers.As most people in Vicksburg expected, the Union forces, this time underthe command of Ulysses Grant, returned in 1863.When the bombardmentof the town resumed, most of the civilians retreated once again into cavesdug into the bluffs.Some resourceful men made digging out caves a suc-cessful business with prices for caves ranging from $20 for a one-roomcave to $50 dollars for one with several chambers that were reinforcedwith timbers.Since the caves were damp and dark, civilians tried to stayout of them unless it was absolutely necessary.Tragically for civilians, this time the battle for Vicksburg took a moresavage turn.On orders from Washington, Grant issued commands thatthe Union force begin punishing disloyal southerners in the countrysideby confiscating their property.The town of Napoleon was burned downas retribution from guerilla raids.It was along the banks of the Mississippithat Union commanders learned that their armies could live off the landinstead of totally depending on supplies from the North.The result wasthe pauperization of the southern population.Food supplies in Vicksburgdwindled once again.After Grant s army was beaten back north of the city, the Union com-mander proposed a bold maneuver: float transports full of his men pastVicksburg and attack the city from the south.The strategy worked bril-liantly.Confederate forces from the city tried to slow Grant s advance inseveral battles, but they were soundly defeated.On May 17, Vicksburgresident Emma Balfour wrote:I hope never to witness against such a scene as the return of our routed army!From twelve o clock until late in the night the streets and roads were jammed withwagons, cannons, horses, men, mules, stock, sheep, everything you can imaginethat appertains to an army being brought hurriedly within the intrechment [sic].134 Daily Life along the MississippiNothing like order prevailed, of course, as divisions, brigades, and regiments werebroken and separated.As the poor fellows passed, every house poured forth all ithad to refresh them.I have every one on the lot and there were some visitors car-rying buckets of water to the corner for the men.Then on the back gallery I hadeverything that was eatable put out and fed as many as I could.3The Union army subsequently surrounded the city and cut it off fromsupplies.Grant thought the town could not hold out for more than sev-eral days, but the Confederates fought for 10 weeks.Citizens within thetown still hoped that a Confederate army would break the siege, but theConfederate army under General Joseph Johnston had been defeated andfled east of Jackson, the state s capital.The soldiers and civilians of Vicks-burg were alone.Daily life in the city took on heroic dimensions.Peoplelearned how to walk safely through the city during a bombardment.Atnight, they watched the trail of an enemy shell flying through the skyand were able to predict where it was going to explode.If it explodedoverhead, they knew that they would not be hurt because the shell frag-ments would scatter in front of them.Finding enough to eat was anotherchallenge.Rice and milk became the mainstay of most people s diet, andthose who could afford it bought mule meat and corn bread.Cooking wasdone outside of the caves, which exposed people to artillery fire.Soldiersand civilians waited in hunger for the fighting to end, and the heat ofthe summer made that wait unbearable.Since all of the streams that sup-plied Vicksburg with water came from the eastern part of the state, Unionsoldiers contaminated them by throwing carcasses of dead animals intothe water.Within the city, water was rationed to one cup a day.Soldierssuffered from malaria, dysentery, and diarrhea [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]