My Vicksburg

As her family hides in a cave during a Civil War battle, a girl faces a difficult choice in this “thoroughly researched and enjoyable historical novel” (Booklist). Claire Louise Corbett and her Confederate family flee their home as Union soldiers shell their town of Vicksburg, Mississippi. They venture out from the safety of a cave only three times a day—when the Union army takes their meals at eight in the morning, noon, and eight at night. But while many of the townspeople suffer from a lack of food, the Corbetts receive extra rations from Claire Louise’s brother, Landon, a doctor with the Union army. When Claire Louise discovers her brother tending to a Confederate soldier who was responsible for the South’s defeat at the Battle of Antietam, she is forced to make a difficult choice—in this story of family, courage, and secrets during the forty-seven-day siege of Vicksburg, which also includes an epilogue, author’s note, and bibliography. “A good choice for fans of historical fiction, particularly the Civil War era.”—School Library Journal “The family members are vividly portrayed individuals and their relationships are particularly well drawn.”—Booklist

Claire Louise Corbett and her Confederate family flee their home as Union soldiers shell their town of Vicksburg, Mississippi. They venture out from the safety of a cave only three times a day, when the Union army takes their meals at eight in the morning, noon, and eight at night. Although many of the townspeople suffer from a lack of food, the Corbetts receive extra rations from Claire Louise's brother, Landon, a doctor with the Union army. When Claire Louise discovers her brother tendingto a Confederate soldier who is responsible for Robert E. Lee's "lost order" (causing the South to lose the Battle of Antietam), she is forced to make a difficult choice between family and friends. Award-winning historical novelist Ann Rinaldi paints a story of family, courage, and secrets during the forty-seven-day siege of Vicksburg, a battle that has sometimes been ignored in history because it ended the same day as the Battle of Gettysburg.

"Thirteen-year-old Anna Green suffers through 47 days in May, June, and July 1863, as the Union army bombs Vicksburg day and night. She yearns for the days before her family moved to a dark, damp cave to protect themselves from falling shells. During one terrible bombing, a tragedy strikes Anna and her siblings and changes their lives forever"--Provided by publisher.

Winner of the Civil War Round Table of New York’s Fletcher Pratt Literary Award Winner of the Austin Civil War Round Table’s Daniel M. & Marilyn W. Laney Book Prize Winner of an Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Writing Award “A superb account” (The Wall Street Journal) of the longest and most decisive military campaign of the Civil War in Vicksburg, Mississippi, which opened the Mississippi River, split the Confederacy, freed tens of thousands of slaves, and made Ulysses S. Grant the most important general of the war. Vicksburg, Mississippi, was the last stronghold of the Confederacy on the Mississippi River. It prevented the Union from using the river for shipping between the Union-controlled Midwest and New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. The Union navy tried to take Vicksburg, which sat on a high bluff overlooking the river, but couldn’t do it. It took Grant’s army and Admiral David Porter’s navy to successfully invade Mississippi and lay siege to Vicksburg, forcing the city to surrender. In this “elegant…enlightening…well-researched and well-told” (Publishers Weekly) work, Donald L. Miller tells the full story of this year-long campaign to win the city “with probing intelligence and irresistible passion” (Booklist). He brings to life all the drama, characters, and significance of Vicksburg, a historic moment that rivals any war story in history. In the course of the campaign, tens of thousands of slaves fled to the Union lines, where more than twenty thousand became soldiers, while others seized the plantations they had been forced to work on, destroying the economy of a large part of Mississippi and creating a social revolution. With Vicksburg “Miller has produced a model work that ties together military and social history” (Civil War Times). Vicksburg solidified Grant’s reputation as the Union’s most capable general. Today no general would ever be permitted to fail as often as Grant did, but ultimately he succeeded in what he himself called the most important battle of the war—the one that all but sealed the fate of the Confederacy.

"My Cave Life in Vicksburg" is a first-hand account of the deprivations suffered by the civilian population during the Union army siege of the city of Vicksburg. The book is based on the diary author kept during the siege. Loughborough's books is one of the best sources of information about the everyday life of the civilians in occupied areas during the civil War

This book examines the Vicksburg campaign—a critical turning point during the American Civil War—from the perspective of Texans and the rest of the Trans-Mississippi Confederacy. Vicksburg 1863: The Deepest Wound provides a thorough exploration of this pivotal Civil War campaign that pays special attention to the role played by Trans-Mississippi troops, especially Texans, and evaluates the many consequences of the campaign for Confederate states west of the Mississippi River. The book covers the Vicksburg campaign from its beginnings in November 1862 to its final conclusion in July 1863, describing the significant contributions of individuals such as Edmund Kirby Smith, John C. Pemberton, Joseph E. Johnston, and Ulysses S. Grant, and providing evaluations of conflicts such as the Battle of Big Black River Bridge, the Battle and Siege of Jackson, the Battle of Port Gibson, and the Battle of Raymond. The work also examines how dramatically the fall of Vicksburg affected the Confederate states west of the Mississippi River and documents the disastrous effect of this Confederate loss upon both civilian and soldier morale in the region.

In this thrilling narrative history of the Civil War’s most strategically important campaign, Winston Groom describes the bloody two-year grind that started when Ulysses S. Grant began taking a series of Confederate strongholds in 1861, climaxing with the siege of Vicksburg two years later. For Grant and the Union it was a crucial success that captured the Mississippi River, divided the South in half, and set the stage for eventual victory. Vicksburg, 1863 brings the battles and the protagonists of this struggle to life: we see Grant in all his grim determination, Sherman with his feistiness and talent for war, and Confederate leaders from Jefferson Davis to Joe Johnston to John Pemberton. It is an epic account by a masterful writer and historian.