Chapter 4 A Century of Pain——Visit Vicksburg Part 1

Vicksburg (Vicksburg) is a famous small city on the Mississippi River.If you drive west along Interstate 20, cross Mississippi, and when you are about to cross the Mississippi River on the bridge, the city with red walls and green tiles flashing on the high slope on the right side of the road is Vicksburg.More than a hundred years ago, Vicksburg was an important water and land transportation hub and a military fortress guarding the main artery of the Mississippi River. It had very important strategic significance and was called "Gibraltar of the United States". When the Civil War first started, the battlefield was concentrated in Richmond, the capital of the Confederate States of Virginia in the east, and Mississippi was still the rear of the Confederacy.President Lincoln warned his generals at a military meeting: "Look, these people occupy a large piece of land, and Vicksburg is a key to this land. Only by putting this key in our pockets , the war may end." Two and a half years later, in the spring of 1863, President Lincoln ordered General Grant of the Union Army to lead an army down the Mississippi River to get the key.This is the most strategic battle in the history of the Civil War - the Battle of Vicksburg.

We used our Christmas break to do a trip down the Mississippi and visited this beautiful town again. one We started our vacation with New Orleans at the mouth of the Mississippi.After leaving New Orleans, drive north on Highway 61, which is basically parallel to the Mississippi River.We know that the vast and vast river is on our left, but it is difficult to see the river.Both sides of the Mississippi River are almost flat wetland forests. When the water is high, it spreads mightily, soaking the forest in the water; when the water recedes, dense forest vines and swamps are left.We wanted to be as close to the big river as possible, but the big river always pushed us to dry highlands more than ten kilometers away.

Highway 61 runs through undulating woodland, but the two-way four-lane road is "vehicle smoke" It is rare, and often the ancients are not seen before, and the newcomers are not seen behind. When driving, I always think about what is the best thing to see. Suddenly, I saw a small road that turned towards the direction of the river-go in and have a look, we will plunge into it Into the depths of the forest.The path in the forest is very well paved, with twists and turns, and the afternoon sun appears on the left and on the right for a while.Except for the warning sign for continuous curves, there are no street signs. I don’t know where we will drive. We only know that we are between Dahe and Route 61, and we can’t throw it anywhere.Occasionally, you can vaguely see the big house in Lin Shen's unknown location, and the large lawn and garden are very neatly maintained.

These are the former manors.When the setting sun was about to disappear into the dense forest, a sign suddenly appeared: the ruins of Windsor Manor - it turned out to be here, and it was what we always wanted to see. There used to be a big house in Windsor Manor, which was designed in the form of ancient Roman columns. After the Civil War, it was burned down in a fire and the manor was abandoned.It was not until we stood in front of the deserted ruins that we deeply sighed the charm of Roman columns.The ruins are actually the rows of huge pillars that remained after the house burned down. In the woods at dusk, the wind stopped, the birds roosted, and the dusk came quietly from all directions. Only the distant sunset illuminated the tall Corinthian capitals. .

It was dark when we left the ruins of Windsor, but we didn't know where we were on the map, and there was nothing to see in the dark, so we hoped that there would be a place to rest.Finally, a town appeared in front of us. Looking at the street signs, we knew it was Port Gibson (Port·Gibson), which was exactly what we were looking for.In this small town, an important battle of the Battle of Vicksburg was fought. two The Mississippi River is the lifeblood of America.All the produce along the river is transported by this great river to the east coast and to Europe.During the Civil War, this big river guaranteed the commerce and trade of the South, as well as the military supply of the Confederate Army.As early as the beginning of 1862, the Northern Army was about to cut off this transportation line to the South.In February, the Northern Army captured two riverside fortresses in Tennessee in the north; in April, the Northern Army captured New Orleans, which entered the sea in the south.However, as long as Vicksburg is in the hands of the South, the military supplies of the South can still be shipped to Vicksburg, and then transported to the front by Vicksburg's railroad.President Lincoln immediately ordered General David Farragut, the general of the Northern Army who occupied New Orleans, to attack Vicksburg along the north.

General Farragut, after a trial run, reported that Vicksburg was easy to defend.Both sides of the Mississippi River are swamps and lakes, and land soldiers and luggage cannot move along the river.Vicksburg is located on a steep highland on the east bank of the Mississippi River, facing the big river to the west. The Confederate Army lined up artillery arrays on the highland along the river in Vicksburg, condescending, and attacking from the river was almost suicide.It is guarded by swamps and wetlands to the south and north, and it is difficult to approach. Only the mountains to the east are accessible by rail and land, which is the current direction of Interstate 20, but that side is the rear of the Confederacy.The key to Vicksburg, held in the hands of the South, is by no means easy to take.

In the spring of 1863, President Lincoln ordered General Grant to go south by land and water from Tennessee in the north.All the way on land, in the territory of Louisiana on the west of the river, avoiding the swamps along the river, and taking the muddy path southward.The navy all the way, led by General Bouter (Daivid·Dixon·Poter), went down south along the river.But when they could see the dome of the courthouse atop Vicksburg Hill in the distance from the river, they had to stop.The Confederate defenders of Vicksburg, waiting for work at leisure, are invincible whether on land or on the river.

General Grant has been stagnant here for a long time, unable to make every attempt.In the end, he decided to take a big roundabout strategy.His plan was to go around the lower reaches of Vicksburg, cross the river from where the Confederates were weakly defended downstream, and then go deep into the hinterland of the Confederates east of the river, and come around to the east of Vicksburg.For this reason, on the one hand, he ordered land soldiers to carry luggage through the muddy path and march downstream; on the other hand, he needed ships to cross the land soldiers across the river downstream.To this end, he ordered General Bowtle's fleet to forcibly cross the Vicksburg River. On the night of April 16, the Northern Army fleet turned off their lights and lights, and drifted down the river in an attempt to sneak downstream under the cover of night.When the fleet approached the steep wall of Vicksburg, the sentry of the Confederate Army found it. With a cry, the Confederate Army set fire to the cotton bag soaked in ointment and threw it into the river.Burning cotton bales were floating on the river, illuminating the river surface brightly.On the river bank, Vicksburg's Confederate cannons fired continuously, and the rumbling sound made the ground tremble.

It was the most daring military action in the history of the Civil War.This time the Northern Army was lucky.Although nearly all ships were hit multiple times, and despite the loss of one transport ship, General Bowtle's convoy gained valuable minutes in the night.The artillery fire of the Confederate Army was late, and the fleet miraculously passed Vicksburg in the rain of artillery and bullets, and joined the land troops at a place called "Great Bay" downstream. Dawan is a suitable place to cross the river in this section of the river. There is a defensive fortress of the Southern Army on the river. On April 29, the Northern Fleet carried out continuous bombardment of the Dawan Fortress in an attempt to create conditions for land troops to cross the river.As a result, the fleet suffered heavy losses from the bombardment of the fortress.General Bowtle reported that the fort at Grand Bay was the strongest point on the Mississippi.The Northern Army had to give up crossing the river here and continue down the river.Finally, the Northern Army crossed the Mississippi River near Port Gibson, and launched a fierce offensive and defensive battle with the 8,000 Southern Army stationed in the town.The battle was fought extremely fiercely.In the end, the southern army fell and retreated to the northeast.The victims of the Confederate Army were buried in the "Wintergreen Cemetery" (Wintergreen·Cemetery) in today's town by the townspeople.This battle proved that the Confederates did not have the strength to fully defend the Mississippi River.The key to Mississippi is at stake.

three We lodged in the only hotel in Port Gibson, a negro-owned hotel, clean and quiet.For dinner, there is only one fish restaurant besides one fast food restaurant.Relying on the big river, it is good to eat fish.There is a large picture of fish on the entrance wall of the fish restaurant, which shows various fish species in the Mississippi River, marked with Latin scientific names, which seems to be a popular science textbook.The black girl who made the ticket said that only "buffalo fish" (buffalo fish) is served today.What is buffalo fish?She said a Latin scientific name, we still don't understand.The black guy in the kitchen said, come in and see.Entering the kitchen, there is a big pool in the middle, and there are big fish in the pool, the big one is more than one meter long.The young man put on a posture, fished out a fish about two feet long, and threw it on the ground at once. The big fish splashed and splashed everyone's heads.When we saw it, it looked like our Yellow River carp.Just eat this buffalo fish.It's a pity that no matter what the recipe is, there is only one way to cook fish: deep-fried, deep-fried.

Early the next morning, we walked and watched the town.In this small town, there are some very well-maintained old houses.At the entrances of the old houses worth seeing, there are explanatory boards in a uniform format, introducing the construction period, style characteristics, and historical allusions of the houses.Deep in the woods on the Mississippi River, the town seemed impossibly quiet and healthy.We have never seen so many churches in such a small town.In just a short church street, there are eight churches standing next to each other, belonging to different religious schools from Catholic churches to synagogues, and there are certain famous buildings and histories, which are worth exploring carefully. No wonder it is said that when General Grant entered the town, he said: "This town is too beautiful to burn it down." (toobeautifultoburn) Four After the Northern Army captured Port Gibson, it continued northward and fought fiercely near Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, east of Vicksburg on May 13.After occupying Jackson, a line of defense was formed to block Confederate reinforcements mobilized from the east.The Union Army then moved west along the Jackson-Vicksburg railroad.In order to defend Vicksburg, the Confederate Army could only shrink the defense line and concentrate on Vicksburg, backed by the Mississippi River, and built artillery defense lines on the north, east, and west of Vicksburg's periphery.A few days later, General Grant's 80,000 Northern Army approached the city. On May 19, the Northern Army attacked Vicksburg and was repelled by the Southern Army. On May 22, after resting and reorganizing, the Northern Army prepared enough ammunition to launch another attack.Beginning early in the morning, Union artillery bombarded the riverside town for four hours.At ten o'clock in the morning, Union soldiers struck simultaneously from a three-mile-long front.It was one of the bloodiest battles in Civil War history, fought with tenacity by soldiers on both sides. The Northern Army once broke through the Southern Army's defense line in several places and occupied the railway junction on the outskirts of the city. The Southern Army soldiers fought bayonets to regain it.On the Southern Army's front line, there were several places where the Northern Army's flag was flying at the same time, but then they were taken down by the swarming Southern Army, and the Southern Army's flag was raised again.When night fell, the Northern Army was repulsed, leaving behind the corpses of 3,000 Northern Army soldiers between the positions of the two armies; Go back to your position. This battle made General Grant realize that Vicksburg is indeed impenetrable, and a hard attack will not work.In the following days, the fighting ceased.However, the corpses of 3,000 soldiers on the battlefield were exposed to the scorching sun of Mississippi. Countless flies suddenly appeared on the positions of the two armies, and the smell of the corpses was disturbing. On the night of the 24th, the defenders of Vicksburg informed General Grant that tomorrow the defenders would cease fire briefly so that the Union Army could bury their fallen soldiers. On the battlefield outside Vicksburg the next day, there was a fleeting but memorable moment of peace.Soldiers from both sides walked out of the trenches and buried their fallen soldiers.The Confederates went to the trenches of the Northern Army, and the Northern Army went to the trenches of the Confederate Army.They greet and talk to each other, provide convenience to each other, thank each other, and entertain each other with a cigarette and a glass of water.During the short breaks, some soldiers even played cards together for a while.Colonel Anderson of the Union Army wrote in his diary: I saw a young soldier on our side, between two trenches, meet his brother in the Confederate army, and the two brothers sat on a log and talked for a while. This was also the most tragic moment in the war: the soldiers discovered that the enemies they fought bloody were actually exactly like themselves, ordinary peasant children, ordinary town children.In battle, a soldier has only one path, one goal, and that is to win.For this reason, if you don't kill the enemy, the enemy will kill you.However, the enemy in the civil war is actually the same as himself, kind and simple, with a noble moral heart.Even, that is his own brother. When the ceasefire was declared over, both sides called in their soldiers.Soldiers from the northern and southern camps bid each other farewell and cherished each other.The Northern Army immediately surrounded Vicksburg tightly, determined to get the key.The forty-day siege of Vicksburg began. Fives After a failed attack, General Grant decided to trap Vicksburg to death.At this time, the Mississippi River west of Vicksburg was blocked by the Northern Army fleet upstream and downstream, and the water supply had been interrupted.On the land, General Grant's army built artillery arrays and trenches, which were so tight that not even a rabbit could get in. The Union Army bombarded the Vicksburg position.Confederate soldiers could only take shelter in trenches and underground bunkers.In order to avoid accidental injury from artillery fire, the citizens of Vicksburg also dug holes in their house yards and roadside slopes, and got into the holes when the Northern Army bombarded them. Vicksburg was originally a small town, and the supply from the outside world was interrupted, and food was immediately in short supply.The shelves in the store were stripped.The commander of the garrison announced that food would be rationed.The siege entered the second half of June, and Vicksburg was close to running out of food.The citizens rely on the pitifully small daily food rations and use their own possible methods to survive. More and more time is spent in the cave, and they have no energy to do other things.Industry and commerce in the city basically came to a standstill.Even under such circumstances, the "Citizen" of Vicksburg's own city did not stop printing, but still printed it intermittently, reporting news to the citizens of the city.The only difference is that the paper has long been used up, and the "Citizen" can only be printed on the back of the stored wallpaper. At that time, no one had the intention to use wallpaper to paste the wall. Confederate soldiers were also starving, weak and sick.They stayed in the trenches day and night, exposed to the sun during the day and windy at night, many of them had no strength to stand and watch. In late June, the Northern Army planned another attack.Under the cover of artillery fire, the Northern Army engineers dug an underground passage from their own position to the opponent's position, and buried a large amount of explosives under the opponent's position. On June 25, the Northern Army ignited the explosives, and with a bang, the Southern Army's position flew into the sky.There was a big gap in the Southern Army's front, a huge pothole.One hundred and fifty Union cannons fired at the same time, and fifty thousand Union soldiers attacked across the board.Pre-ambushed Union soldiers rushed into this gap in an attempt to assault Vicksburg from there. Hungry and tired Confederate soldiers went up to meet them, and a close-quarters battle broke out.The soldiers on both sides were red-eyed, no one ran away, no one flinched; in fact, they had no other choice but to kill them until they fell down.The battle lasted for twenty-six hours, and the soldiers of the Southern Army, who were too weak to stand up, forced the Northern Army out of their positions.When the Northern Army finally gave up its offensive, countless fallen soldiers were left on the battlefield.The convulsions, struggles and miserable groans of the wounded before they died were so shocking that the soldiers and officers on both sides fell silent. General Grant finally understood that the Confederate soldiers in Vicksburg could not be defeated.But he didn't need to fight anymore, Vicksburg was out of ammunition and food. six The commander of the Confederate Army at Vicksburg was General John Pemberton.General Pepperton is a northerner. Like General Grant of the Northern Army, he graduated from West Point Military Academy and also participated in the Mexican War.His wife was a Southern Virginian, and he was influenced by her to sympathize with the South.When the Civil War was about to start, he thought the South was right, and he wanted to resign from his post in the Union Army to serve the Confederate Army.He hesitated, worried about what his family back home in Philadelphia would say about him.At last, at the urging of his wife, he left Washington to join the Confederate Army, and with his integrity, courage and ability, he was quickly promoted and entrusted with the important task of defending Vicksburg. Now, at the end of June, 1863, he was desperate for Confederate reinforcements, and he knew that there was no way out of besieged Vicksburg.He knew better that the people in the city and the soldiers in the trenches were watching him. On July 2, 1863, General Paibelton called a meeting of his officers.The officers told him that the soldiers had nothing to eat and they didn't even have the strength to stand up.General Pebelton said that our soldiers still have a way out, and that is to surrender. We can start negotiating with the other party on the conditions of surrender while we still have the last bit of fighting power.He asked his officers to vote on it. All but two of the officers voted to surrender.General Pebelton said, I agree with everyone, and I will inform General Grant and negotiate with him. seven When visiting Vicksburg, the most interesting thing to see is the Vicksburg Battlefield Park managed by the National Park Service. In 1899, thirty-six years after the Battle of Vicksburg, Congress legislated to establish the Vicksburg National Military Park, which included almost all the battlefields of the siege of the Vicksburg suburbs within the scope of the park, covering an area of 1,800 acres to protect the remains of the battlefield.In order to prevent Feng Shui from washing the trenches and losing the actual situation of the military confrontation between the two sides, the Vicksburg Military Park has set up permanent signs for the locations of all military units in the siege.These signs are red for the Confederate side and blue for the Northern side.The continuous red and blue signboards clearly marked the fronts of the siege and defense battle at a glance.Some of the defense lines of the Confederate Army are already in the residential areas of the city, and now signs and monuments are also erected.Some of these signs and monuments are on the school playground, and some are in the residents' yards.The states where the soldiers who participated in the war are located in their hometowns have successively set up monuments in military parks, where their soldiers shed blood and sacrificed their lives, and set up statues for the officers of their states.Vicksburg Military Park has a total of 1,324 monument signs and explanatory panels.These monuments and statues make Vicksburg Military Park the largest outdoor sculpture park in the southeastern United States.The park also preserves the ruins of trenches with a total length of 20 miles, 15 historical bridges, 5 historical buildings and 140 old cannons. We got to Vicksburg around noon.Get off Highway 20 and enter the military park gate.Take a map at the information center at the gate, and start to patrol the position along the one-way tour line.First pass the siege front of the outer federal army. The signs along the way indicate which troops from the northern state are stationed here, the names of the officers, the battles and the number of casualties.This road is more than ten miles long, and finally reaches the Vicksburg National Cemetery, where 17,000 soldiers who died in the Civil War are buried on the hillside facing the Mississippi River.This is the largest Veterans Cemetery in the United States. Then we began to tour the defensive positions of the Confederate Army on the inside.Some of the lines of the two armies are far away, while others are close at hand, and the opponent's shouts can be heard.At a place between the lines of the two armies, there used to be an old oak tree on the hillside. On July 3, 1863, General Grant of the Union Army and General Pepperton of the Confederate Army met under the oak tree. General Pebelton told General Grant that the purpose of the trip was to negotiate the terms of surrender.General Grant said the surrender must be unconditional.General Pepperton insisted that the condition of surrender was that the Confederate officers and soldiers must be released and returned home after taking an oath not to take up arms.General Pepperton asked his staff to continue negotiations with the Union staff. That night, a surrender agreement was finally reached: Confederate officers and soldiers would be released, but they had to surrender Vicksburg the next day, July 4, 1863, the National Day of the United States. Eight We visited the Old Court Museum in Vicksburg, which was the most spectacular building in Vicksburg back then, and is now the history museum of Vicksburg. On July 4, 1863, a formal surrender ceremony was held in the square in front of the court. The gunfire stopped, and the smoke was clearing.Confederate soldiers came out of the trenches, lined up with the last of their strength, and stood in front of their opponents.Standing in the sun, they no longer worried about stray bullets coming for the first time.The citizens of Vicksburg, staggering out of their burrows, watched silently with tears in their eyes—their city, on the National Day of the United States, surrendered.The Battle of Vicksburg was over, and with it the Civil War would be drawing to a close.Soon, the civil war will end and peace will come. Civil war is a tragedy for any nation.Americans have never stopped reflecting on this civil war since the Civil War.But nowhere has the pain of the Civil War been more painful than in the citizens of Vicksburg.They were forced to surrender after being besieged by a powerful army for forty days and running out of ammunition and food. And the day of the surrender happened to be the National Day of "Northern People's Country".When peace comes, the hardships and hardships of hunger and suffering during the war will be forgotten, but when the national day is celebrated with fireworks, the humiliation and unspeakable pain brought by the war will never be forgotten.Since then, the city of Vicksburg no longer celebrates the Fourth of July.Every year on this day, the whole country is full of joy and joy, only this beautiful city by the Mississippi River is dead silent. The Civil War left its worst fratricidal wound at Vicksburg.Those who came from that battle, whether it was the Southern Army or the Northern Army, could never forget the day when the two armies faced each other and killed each other. In the spring of 1890, the veterans of the two armies of the Battle of Vicksburg revisited the old place for the first time to participate in the joint commemorative activities of the veterans of both sides.Veterans reunions will be held here every year thereafter.The old people have a good time drinking and talking, and sometimes they have to fight again for the ideals of the year.When these old people are getting old, the number of reunions every year is getting smaller and smaller, and finally no one comes to reunite, the pain of Vicksburg is still there.The citizens of Vicksburg still do not celebrate the National Day. On May 22, 1937, the grandson of General Grant and the grandson of General Pebelton met on the battlefield of their grandfathers. They shook hands solemnly and greeted each other under the old oak tree where the two generals negotiated the terms of surrender.They wanted to use this move to heal Vicksburg's century-old pain. On July 4, 1945, on the eve of victory in World War II, the citizens of Vicksburg celebrated the National Day for the first time in eighty-two years.So far, a century and a half after the Civil War, Vicksburg is still different from other towns on the Fourth of July every year. It is still calm and there is still no mass celebration. I think that if General Grant, and later President Grant of the United States of America, could imagine the century-old pain in the hearts of the citizens of Vicksburg, he would not have to enter the city on the Fourth of July.