Did This City Skip Celebrating The Fourth of July?
Today is July 4th, known as Independence Day in the US. From coast to coast there will be fireworks, family get-togethers, and parades.
But it wasn’t always that way. There was one city that some say did not celebrate Independence Day for more than 80 years following the Civil War. During that war, control of the Mississippi River was a major goal of the Union because it would split off Texas, Arkansas, and much of Louisiana from the rest of the Confederacy and deny them the men and materiel those states were contributing. By Spring of 1863, control of the Mississippi meant capturing the city of Vicksburg, the largest city on the river between Memphis and New Orleans.
The two sides fought a series of battles, some won by one, others by the opposite side. These battles culminated in two attempts to breach the Confederate lines at Vicksburg, both of which saw the Rebel forces under Lt. General John Pemberton hold fast.
Union commander Major General Ulysses Grant decided to conduct a siege of Vicksburg which lasted 47 days. If you have ever read any descriptions of the siege, you will know that Union forces kept up a continual bombardment and few, if any supplies were able to get through to the troops or the civilians. Civilians and troops lived in caves dug out in the side of the bluffs for protection against the bombardments. Rats were a mainstay of their diets. Disease, thanks to unsanitary conditions, was rampant.
On July 3rd, with half of his army felled by disease and starvation eminent, Pemberton sent a letter to Grant requesting terms. The surrender came the following day on July 4th.
There are reports that there were subdued celebrations of July 4th in the years following the victory, but others report that not even the US Post Office in Vicksburg closed on that holiday. According to most people, the Fourth of July wasn’t celebrated until the veterans returning from World War II insisted upon it. And that celebration did not catch up with the rest of the country until the Bicentennial in 1976.
I believe the civilian residents who lived through the horrendous siege of Vicksburg did not celebrate the holiday. And they passed that mindset on to their children and grandchildren. I am sure that there were isolated recognitions of the Fourth as the years passed, but I do not believe it was city-wide or sustained until after the Second World War.
If you are ever in the Vicksburg area, take time to tour the battlefield. You can stay in your car and visit much of the area. There are monuments to the different states that had units present, both Union and Confederate. On my last trip there, twenty years ago when my kids were in elementary school, we ran across a unit of reenactors and the kids (and I) were thrilled.