Vicksburg

[Texas2nd]

It's neat to talk to others who have familiar connections to Vicksburg. I think Vicksburg is awesome because it has been somewhat untended and unchanged.

I love the battlefield but the Old Capital museum is my favorite stopping place. It has to be one of the most packed ecclectic collection ever. Raw, as if the war was yesterday.

Condederate iron crosses, rare uniform accoutrements and such, letters and hq commands everywhere, original pictures and flyers rarely seen, old pieces of flags, firearms and artillary, each piece with a short, hand typed history of what it is and how it came to be and who donated it - wow! The staff is friendly and if your looking for particular information they can lead you to it.

Texas2nd

[dannycarlisle]

Cash gives a wonderful overview of his visit to Vicksburg with one exception -- the U.S.S. Cairo was sunk on the Yazoo River, not the Mississippi

[samgrant]

Originally Posted by civilwarbuglertn

Since were are coming up on the Th of July I thought I would ask did Grant overstep his authority when he granted paroles to the Vicksburg garrison?

Grant only overstepped his authority when the President said so.

[Texas2nd]

Grant sent a telegram to Sherman when negotiations over Vicksburg was underway."When we go in, I want you to drive Joe Johnston from the Mississippi Central Rail Road, - destroy bridges as far as Grenada with your calvary and do the enemy all the harm possible..."

He then sent a letter to Sherman the day of the close of negotiations telling him "I want you to drive Johnston out in your own way and inflict on the enemy all the punishment you can. I will support you to the last man that can be spare."

These quotes were from C.B. Flood's Grant and Sherman


The reason I brought them up is because of the question of parole. Grant wrote these with full confidence. He paroled Vicksburg thinking that the Confed soldiers could not reattach to Fightin Joe because Sherman would succeed.

Another thought is that Grant saw the condition of the Confed armies and the city. Several sources and pictures of the times cite how pitiful it was. He possibly did under estimate the patriotism of the Confed Soldiers, thinking they would at least sleep, eat, go home first before rejoining the fray.

A third thought - and I know these have all been hashed out before - is that he truly thought that winning Vicksburg was the end of the ACW in the western theater - afterall he stated that when Vicksburg fell, the South would fall. Lincoln's "Vicksburg is the key" tells us he thought the same thing. Grant would assume that these paroles would not go east to fight...

All I know and considerably little it is!
Texas2nd

[ole]

Wow! Good thoughts, Texas. Thanks. Until now, I had considered Grant's paroles a routine -- no biggy. You've opened another thing to think about.

Vicksburg was the end of the Confederacy. Someone, somehow, forgot to tell Johnny.

Keep posting, Texas.
Ole