Civilian life during the siege of Vicksburg

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Civilian life during the siege of Vicksburg

• Cadet Jackson

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Vicksburg during the Civil War

• Approximate population of 5,000
• Civilians subjected to shelling, hunger, and
  difficult living conditions

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Emma Balfour

• Wife of Dr. William Balfour lived in house next
  door to Pembertons headquarters
• Remained in house rather than living in a cave
• We have slept scarcely none now for two days and
  two nights. Oh! It is dreadful. Every shell
  came rushing down like some infernal demon
• Excerpt from diary

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Balfour House
Shell damage
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Cave Life

• To escape the bombardment, citizens dug caves
  into the sides of the hills for shelter.
• The caves did their job very well during the
  siege less than 20 civilians were killed by the
  bombardment.
• The cave was an excavation in the earth the size
  of a large room, high enough for the tallest
  person to stand perfectly erect, provided with
  comfortable seats, and altogether quite a large
  and habitable abode (compared with some of the
  caves in the city) were it not for the dampness
  and the constant contact with the soft earthy
  walls.
• Mary Webster Loughborough, My Cave Life in
  Vicksburg

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Cave Characteristics

• Caves could be simple one-room abodes or
  multi-room suites.
• Contained parlors and bedrooms that were
  furnished with items from home.
• Most cooking was done outside the main cave
  entrance.
• Sometimes there were connecting openings from one
  family cave to another for escape purposes in
  case an artillery shell caused the earth to
  crumble.

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Cave Life
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Houses became Hospitals

• Many houses, like Cedar Grove, became hospitals
• Cedar Grove still has a cannon ball lodged in its
  parlor

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Vicksburg Newspaper printed on wallpaper
2 July 1863 edition of The Daily Citizen
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Sieges Today?

• One official at the Pentagon said that a siege of
  Baghdad is likely but that its aim would be to
  break the will of the regime -- not of the
  majority of the residents. "This will not be
  Vicksburg," the official said, referring to a
  nearly two-month siege of the city in Mississippi
  during the Civil War. "It's not Sherman's march
  to the sea. We do not want to destroy the
  people's resources, and we don't want to break
  their will. We will surround the city, and Gen.
  Franks will take the city on his terms and on his
  schedule."
• Troops Reach Baghdad's Airport, Geoffrey Mohan
  and Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times

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Sarajevo

• Judges at the Hague war crimes tribunal jailed
  Stanislav Galic, a former Bosnian Serb general,
  for 20 years 5 Dec 2003 for deliberately shelling
  and shooting civilians during the siege of
  Sarajevo in the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

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Considerations for Today

• What do our current law of land warfare and rules
  of engagement imply about Vicksburg-like sieges?