Two Views of the Siege of Vicksburg, 1863

A Union soldier and Confederate lady at Vicksburg, 1863



This unique book offers two entirely different views of the important and pivotal siege of Vicksburg during the American Civil War. Grant, in command of the Army of Tennessee crossed the Mississippi and drove Pemberton's Confederate forces into defensive positions about Vicksburg and then put the city under siege. The action was fought between May and July, 1863 and resulted in a Confederate defeat which, together with Lee's defeat at Gettysburg, is generally considered to be a turning point in the war that led to the re-establishment of the union of states. This book, however, does not concern itself with momentous events or the machinations of grand tacticians, instead it looks at the siege from the perspectives of two, quite different, individuals. One is a resident of the besieged city, a woman of Confederate sympathies, who gives a moving and often gruelling account of what it was like to live under the constant Union Army assault. Many of the civilian population were forced to adopt a troglodyte existence by the continual assaults and Mary Loughborough's account brings the times into sharp focus. The second account here comes from the pen of a Union soldier on the other side of the battle-lines. Vicksburg was no 'easy nut to crack' and Federal losses were heavy, so this is an account from the sharp end of war.

Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their spines and fabric head and tail bands.