Fraternizing During the Siege

[Tom Hughes]

One of the things I have always found curious was the fraternizing that went on during the Vicksburg siege. Stories of men from both sides exchanging friendships or pleasantries during the 47 days of siege. Let's hear some stories....

 

[Forrest]

One of the things I have always found curious was the fraternizing that went on during the Vicksburg siege. Stories of men from both sides exchanging friendships or pleasantries during the 47 days of siege. Let's hear some stories....

Sometimes it was just to make life more pleasant. Not sure if this happened during the siege, but I've read several stories of men trading coffee for tobacco - two things you 'gotta' have, so, like buying products made in a country you typically avoid, you just do it every now and then.

 

[Tom Hughes]

I've heard the story when Grant called a truce to bury the dead after the May 22nd assault, men from both sides mingled with each other and traded stories, pleasantries, etc.....Not 100% sure if its true, but just what I've heard through the years.

 

[Forrest]

I've heard the story when Grant called a truce to bury the dead after the May 22nd assault, men from both sides mingled with each other and traded stories, pleasantries, etc.....Not 100% sure if its true, but just what I've heard through the years.

They were celebrating my birthday

 

[Tom Hughes]

They were celebrating my birthday

Happy Birthday!

 

[Bonny Blue Flag]

Source:
Thompson, Lauren K. Friendly Enemies: Soldier Fraternization throughout the American Civil War. University of Nebraska Press, 2020. HARDCOVER. $55.00 ISBN 9781496202451 240 p

Review of this book is by Andrew Turner

Lauren K. Thompson has shown that not only were friendly meetings between enemy soldiers frequent, they held deep meaning for soldiers who used them as measures of agency in a war that often left them feeling powerless. Thompson has illustrated that soldier fraternization was more than just an act of humanity in a frequently inhumane war.

Drawing on the primary accounts of 150 Union and Confederate enlisted soldiers, noncommissioned officers, and junior officers from the western and eastern theaters of the war, research has created a vivid picture of how soldiers used fraternization as a form of resistance against the military structure that limited their autonomy. Soldiers used fraternization to gather information, to engage in discourse with enemy soldiers about common experiences, to trade items that made soldiering more comfortable, and to negotiate ceasefires that gave momentary respites from fighting, especially during periods of sustained siege combat or intense campaigning such as during the Vicksburg and Overland campaigns. These areas of fraternization, often on picket lines, became semi-permeable boundaries and borderlands around

Understanding that conversation would not dwell on sectional or political differences, but rather on the common miseries shared during soldier life. As volunteer soldiers left civilian lives where they had enjoyed a significant amount of self-determination and became cogs in often oppressive military machines, they frequently used forbidden fraternization to ease their material wants and to experience comradeship with enemy soldiers who sought to exercise similar agency against stringent military orders and watchful senior officers. The grueling experiences of campaigning could transcend sectional differences to unite enemy soldiers who met on picket lines or during ceasefires is well-constructed.

--BBF

 

[Bradley]

I've heard the story when Grant called a truce to bury the dead after the May 22nd assault, men from both sides mingled with each other and traded stories, pleasantries, etc.....Not 100% sure if its true, but just what I've heard through the years.

According to Samuel H. Lockett, Sherman spotted Lockett pacing around and had him brought over for a pleasant chat where they complimented each other's advantages. I suspect someone on Sherman's staff recognized Lockett (#2 at West Point, if I remember right) and figured it wise to distract Pemberton's chief engineer from ascertaining too much.

Update. I found Lockett's account in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War.

While standing on the parapet of this work a Federal orderly came up to me and said that General Sherman wished to speak to me. Following the orderly, I reached a group of officers standing some two hundred yards in front of our line. One of these came forward, introduced himself as General Sherman, and said: "I saw that you were an officer by your insignia of rank, and have asked you to meet me, to put into your hands some letters intrusted to me by Northern friends of some of your officers and men. I thought this would be a good opportunity to deliver this mail before it got too old." To this I replied: "Yes, General, it would have been very old, indeed, if you had kept it until you brought it into Vicksburg yourself." "So you think, then," said the general, "(I am a very slow mail route." "Well, rather," was the reply, "when you have to travel by regular approaches, parallels, and zigzags." "Yes," he said, "that is a slow way of getting into a place, but it is a very sure way, and I was determined to deliver those letters sooner or later."
The general then invited me to take a seat with him on an old log near by, and thus the rest of the time of the truce was spent in pleasant conversation. In the course of it the general remarked: "You have an admirable position for defense here, and you have taken excellent advantage of the ground." "Yes, General," I replied, "but it is equally as well adapted to offensive operations, and your engineers have not been slow to discover it." To this General Sherman assented. Intentionally or not, his civility certainly prevented me from seeing many other points in our front that I as chief engineer was very anxious to examine.

 

[Nathan Stuart]

Fraternizations often occurred during burial truces called after battle, between the two warring sides.

After the costly Union assault on May 22, Pemberton and Grant agreed on May 25 to a two and a half hour truce to bury the dead and treat the wounded, starting at 7.00 p.m.

Private Ephraim M. Anderson, 2nd​ Missouri Infantry, CSA, wrote in his 'Memoirs' (at page 334) of events he witnessed during this period. …"I saw a young soldier of our command meet a brother, on half-way ground, from the Federal lines, where they sat upon a log and conversed with one another until the armistice was over. During the time we received some papers from the Federals, and several of the boys exchanged tobacco for coffee with them."…

Yet another account of this time was given by Sergeant Willie Tunnard, 3rd​ Louisiana Infantry, in 'A Southern Record – 3rd​ Louisiana'. At page 240, he recalled, …"numbers of the Confederates accepted invitations to visit the enemy's lines, where they were hospitably entertained and warmly welcomed"…

However, during this truce, Anderson also noted (ibid. page 334) that many gibes were exchanged, not just pleasantries, between soldiers of both sides. He gave an account, …"One of the Confederates hallooed out something to a Federal with whom he had been discoursing which he did not like, and received the very laconic reply, ..'Go to hell'…"… The Confederate replied that, …'hell was so full of bluebellies, there was no room for white men.'…"…

Tunnard also mentioned (ibid., at page 241) one incident, in particular, involving Captain Frank Gallagher who was enjoying the company of Federal officers. When they shook hands to depart, one Union officer remarked, …"Good day, Captain; I trust we shall meet soon again in the Union of old."… Gallagher quickly replied, …"I cannot return your sentiment. The only union which you and I will enjoy, will be in kingdom come. Goodbye, sir."…

 

[Nathan Stuart]

Another incident that reportedly occurred during the siege of Vicksburg is provided in the following account of an exchange between soldiers belonging to Missouri Regiments on either side, who were in opposing rifle pits.

…"Captain Kellog heard a voice calling from the Confederate trench, …'Is any of the boys of the Sixth Missouri there?'… The answer came, 'Lot's of 'em.'… Next, was heard, 'Is Tom Jones there?'… and the reply, 'Here I am; is that you Jim?'… The answer was. …'Yes, and say, Tom, can you meet me between the lines? I've got a roll of greenbacks and I want to send 'em to the old folks in Missouri.'… Both forces held their fire briefly while the brothers met"….

(Source – 'In Deadly Earnest – The Missouri Brigade' by Phil Gottschalk, at page 293)

This incident epitomized the sadness and tragedy of brother vs. brother.

 

[Vicksburger]

I've heard the story when Grant called a truce to bury the dead after the May 22nd assault, men from both sides mingled with each other and traded stories, pleasantries, etc.....Not 100% sure if its true, but just what I've heard through the years.

In Maurice Simon's diary he mentions that during the truce to bury the Federal dead the Rebs were engaging in conversation with the the burial parties:


"Why don't you come in town? Why did you turn back the other evening?... This is the right road to Vicksburg."


"Well, when are you coming to pay us another visit?"

Pointing to the blue-clad corpses laying in front of the lunette, and said:

"These friends of yours, they didn't make the trip."

 

[chuckcurtis]

One of the things I have always found curious was the fraternizing that went on during the Vicksburg siege. Stories of men from both sides exchanging friendships or pleasantries during the 47 days of siege. Let's hear some stories....

"Vicksburg National Military Park covers 1,300 acres of the actual battlefield, where once there was a several-hours truce to allow the removal of the dead and wounded and when the young soldiers poured out of their trenches and caves to fraternize with their 'enemies.'" LAP progressive website, "The Real Civil War."

 

[chuckcurtis]

"Vicksburg National Military Park covers 1,300 acres of the actual battlefield, where once there was a several-hours truce to allow the removal of the dead and wounded and when the young soldiers poured out of their trenches and caves to fraternize with their 'enemies.'" LAP progressive website, "The Real Civil War."

 

[Pine Hill Resident]

As a native Vicksburger I find this story especially appealing and inspiring:
On May 22, 1863, PrivateThomas H. Higgins of the 99th Illinois volunteered to carry the regimental colors because the regular standard bearer could no do so that day. His captain's orders were to advance and not stop: "until he had that flag planted inside the Confederate works. Higgins obeyed the order."
After a two hour cannonade, Higgins' regiment neared the particular stronghold of the 2d Texas Infantry who opened a devastating fire. " 'The blue lines vanished amid fearful slaughter', recalled confederate Charles Evans of the 2d Texas. The firing stopped."
Higgns alone advanced in heavy fire but unscated. At the breastworks, the CSA troops cheered and captured Higgins. After the war he received the Medal of Honor…at the instigation of the Texas 2d! The only moh honoree ever nominated by an enemy force. See "Above and Beyond", p. 37.

 

[Tom Hughes]

As a native Vicksburger I find this story especially appealing and inspiring:
On May 22, 1863, PrivateThomas H. Higgins of the 99th Illinois volunteered to carry the regimental colors because the regular standard bearer could no do so that day. His captain's orders were to advance and not stop: "until he had that flag planted inside the Confederate works. Higgins obeyed the order."
After a two hour cannonade, Higgins' regiment neared the particular stronghold of the 2d Texas Infantry who opened a devastating fire. " 'The blue lines vanished amid fearful slaughter', recalled confederate Charles Evans of the 2d Texas. The firing stopped."
Higgns alone advanced in heavy fire but unscated. At the breastworks, the CSA troops cheered and captured Higgins. After the war he received the Medal of Honor…at the instigation of the Texas 2d! The only moh honoree ever nominated by an enemy force. See "Above and Beyond", p. 37.

That is an interesting story. Thanks for sharing it!