Vicksburg, Mississippi, was a major Civil War stronghold. Confederate president Jefferson Davis referred to it as “the nailhead that held the South’s two halves together.” The city was positioned in a vital location for the Confederate supply line, allowing the South to receive food and other needed materials from the West. As such, Vicksburg was an obvious target for the Union forces under Major General Ulysses S. Grant.
Major General William Tecumseh Sherman began his advance on Vicksburg in December of 1862. Grant joined him there in March of 1863. Initial attempts to approach the city failed, but in late April 1863, “Union gunboats and troop transport boats ran the batteries at Vicksburg and met up with Grant’s men who had marched overland in Louisiana. On April 29 and April 30, 1863, Grant’s army crossed the Mississippi and landed at Bruinsburg, Mississippi. An elaborate series of demonstrations and diversions fooled the Confederates and the landings occurred without opposition.” Grant then conducted a series of attacks on the Confederate forces, ultimately forcing them to retreat to Vicksburg after sustaining heavy losses.
After additional assaults on the city of Vicksburg on May 19 and 22, 1863, Grant determined to settle in for a siege. His Special Orders No. 140, issued on May 25, 1863, dictated that “Corps Commanders will immediately commence the work of reducing the enemy by regular approaches. It is desirable that no more loss of life shall be sustained in the reduction of Vicksburg, and the capture of the Garrison. Every advantage will be taken of the natural inequalities of the ground to gain positions from which to start mines, trenches, or advance batteries.” Union troops dug entrenchments around the city, ever nearer to the fortifications around the city. “With their backs against the Mississippi and Union gunboats firing from the river, Confederate soldiers and citizens alike were trapped. Pemberton was determined to hold his few miles of the Mississippi as long as possible, hoping for relief from Johnston or elsewhere.”
However, the siege was not the only problem that the Confederates faced. “The dead and wounded of Grant’s army lay in the heat of Mississippi summer, the odor of the deceased men and horses fouling the air, the wounded crying for medical help and water.” On May 25, 1863, Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton suggested a temporary truce: “Two days having elapsed since your dead and wounded have been lying in our front, and as yet no disposition on your part of a desire to remove them being exhibited: in the name of humanity I have the honor to propose a cessation of hostilities for 2 1/2 hours, that you may be enabled to remove your dead and dying men. If you can not do this, on notification from you that hostilities will be suspended on your part for the time specified, I will endeavor to have the dead buried and the wounded cared for[.]” Initially, Grant refused, but in the afternoon of the 25th, he agreed to Pemberton’s suggested terms, and that evening, the Union troops collected their wounded and dead while mingling with Confederate soldiers “as if no hostilities existed for the moment.” The siege of Vicksburg resumed the next day, and continued until the Confederate surrender on July 4, 1863, one day after Confederate forces at Gettysburg under General Robert E. Lee surrendered.
The 19th Regiment Kentucky Volunteer Infantry was mustered into service in January 1862 and mustered out of service three years later in January 1865, with some veterans becoming a part of the 7th Kentucky Veteran Volunteer Infantry. They participated in the Vicksburg campaign from late April through the surrender, as a part of the 2nd Brigade, 10th Division, XIII Corps, Army of the Tennessee. “The regiment lost a total of 198 men during service; 1 officer and 42 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded, 3 officers and 152 enlisted men died of disease.”
James J. Ray, one of the characters in the story “The Glorious Dead,” was an actual soldier in the 19th Kentucky. He was born in Washington County, Kentucky, in 1819, making him 44 years old during the Siege of Vicksburg. He kept a diary that he eventually sent home to his wife and children, which has remained among his descendants to the present day. The quoted entry of May 25th in the story is taken directly from his diary. Many thanks to James’s descendant, Ian Ruark of Murphysboro, Illinois, for providing me with a copy of his transcription of the diary for use in “The Glorious Dead.”
