Vicksburg, MD

Living historian Melissa Clark and her two infant children slept in the “Vicksburg Caves” to reenact the living conditions endured by Mississippians during the Siege of Vicksburg in 1863.

The City of Vicksburg Mississippi was considered by Lincoln to be the “key” to the Confederacy. Situated along the banks of the Mississippi River, Vicksburg in 1863 was the last major city on the river still in Confederate hands – capturing Vicksburg would mean severing the Confederacy in two and Union control of the entire Mississippi River.

The Confederate defenders built an elaborate series of trenches and earthen forts making Vicksburg near impregnable but also served to isolate the City. By March 1863 Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant had completely surrounded Vicksburg and had begun siege operations.

Once surrounded the residents of Vicksburg endured a daily bombardment of artillery shells from naval gunboats in the river and the Union Army’s guns on the eastern approach to the City. To escape the deluge Vicksburg’s residents dug caves into the bluffs around the City essentially living a subterranean life during the five month siege.

Vicksburg surrendered to Grant’s Army on July 4th 1863.

Image and text by Michael Falco