[Leica] Lee England's PAW

[Engl6914 at cableone.net (Lee England)]

John,

    Here in Natchez we do celebrate the 4th of July, mostly with barbeque
and such.  I haven't been in Vicksburg (an hour's drive upstream) for the
4th but have always understood they don't celebrate it.  That may have
changed in the last 10 or 15 years, but I'm not certain.  They may still
not. I guess for a long time no one was in the mood.  Towns in Mississippi
are regarded as home towns, I think more so than in most places.  Families
stay for many generations.  Stories are passed down.  It's a rather insular
but wonderful place.  It is said down here that if you marry a Mississippi
woman, no matter where, you will eventually be living in Mississippi.
    In early July 1863 the Yankee approach trenches at Vicksburg had been
extended so close to ours that any further extension of them turned into
hand to hand combat.  So the Yankee were within days of rushing our lines.
Earlier rushes from farther away had been disastrous for the Yankees.
General Pemberton offered to General Grant to surrender on the 4th of July
in exchange for a better deal for our guys.  Genl. Grant did that, pardoning
our men and not sending them north to prison camps.  I'm not sure they had
enough camps at that point anyway.  The deal was that our guys wouldn't take
up arms again, but a lot of them did.  It's hard to go home and sit when the
Yankees are coming in and drinking your whiskey and burning your homes.
Society (read, the women) wouldn't stand for men to stay home in that
circumstance.  Some, instead, joined bands of deserters that would stay in
remote counties where the Confederate army was unlikely to come.  They would
take what they wanted from people, and the law was incapable of handling
them.  The next year after Vicksburg surrendered Genl. Grant assumed command
in Virginia against General Lee, and also overall command of US forces.  At
that point he said no more prisoner pardons or exchanges; they were all to
go to prison camps.  This was to grind down the southern  army.  So the
southern govt. set up prison camps as well.


Lee England
Natchez, Mississippi  USA


<snip>
> River, Vicksburg was doomed.  When Vicksburg fell it just killed us.


> It happened on the 4th of July.  For many years, the people of Vicksburg
> would not celebrate the 4th.  Do they still not?

JB