The 47 Days — How Vicksburg Endured the Siege

For 47 days in the summer of 1863, Vicksburg was the most important place in America. Grant's army encircled the city. Confederate defenders held the bluffs. And 4,000 civilians — men, women, children — dug caves into the loess hillsides and lived underground while shells rained down. They ate mule meat and rats. They held church services in caves. A woman named Mary Green gave birth in one. When the city surrendered on July 4th, Abraham Lincoln declared that 'the Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea.' Vicksburg refused to celebrate the Fourth of July for 81 years. The siege didn't just decide a war — it defined a city's identity for the next century and a half.