The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1885-09-10


The work Of connecting by rife pits, whel
this was not already done, was an cas-.
! task for the troops that were to defen(
them.
Johnston evidently took in the situa
ton, and wisely. think, abstained from
making an assault on us. because it would
simply have inflicted loss on both side,
without accomplishing any result. W.
were strong enough to have taken thu
| offensive against him, but did not fee
disposed to take any risk of losing oul
hold upon Pemberton's army, while ]
would have rejoiced at the opportunity Of
defending ourselves against an attack by
Johnston.
"At 3 O'Clock Pemberton appeared al
the point suggested in my verbal message
! accompanied by the same officers who had
borne his letter of the morning. Gems
Ord, Mcpherson, Logan, A. J. Smith and
several officers of my staff accompanied
me. Our place of meeting was on a hill
side within a few hundred feet of the rebel
lines. Near by stood a stunted oak tree,
which was made historical by the event.
Lit was but short time before the last YES
tige CT its body, root, and limbs had disap-
peared, the fragments being taken as
trophies. Since then the same tree, like
the true cross, has furnished many cords
OF wood in the shape of trophies.
''Pemberton and [ had served in the
same division in part of the Mexican
war. l knew him very well, therefore and
greeted him as an old acquaintance. He
soon asked what terms proposed to give
his army if it surrendered. My answer
was The same as proposed in my reply to
your letter. Pemberton then said. rather
snappishly: The conference might as well
end, and turned abruptly as if to leave. 1
said Very WE'LL Gen. Bowen, 1 saw.
was very anxious that the surrender should
be consummated. His manner and re-
marks while Pemberton and I were talk
ing showed this. He now proposed that
he and one of our generals should have a
conference. | had no objection to this.
as nothing could be made binding upon me
that they might propose. Smith and
Bowen accordingly had conference, dur
ing which Pemberton and were in con-
versation, moving short distance away
towards the enemy's lines. After awhile
Bowen suggested that the Confederate
army should be allowed to march out with
the honors of war carrying their small
arms and field artillery. This was
unceremoniously rejected The interview
then ended, I agreeing, however, to send a
letter giving final terms by 10 O'Clock that
night. X \
During the siege there had been good
deal of friendly sparring between the
soldiers OF the two armies on picket and
where the lines were close together. All
rebels were known as 'Johnnies, all union
troops as 'Yanks'. Often johnny would
Call Well, Yank, when are you coming
into town p The reply was sometimes,
we propose to celebrate the Fourth of
July there Sometimes it would be, we
always treat our prisoners with kindness
and do not want to hurt them , or, we
are holding you as prisoners of war while
you are feeding yourselves &c.
The garrison, from the commanding
general down, undoubtedly expected an
assault on the 4th. They knew from the
temper of their men that if would be sue
cessful when made, and that would be a
greater humiliation than to surrender. Be-
sides, it would be attended with severe
loss 20 them. The Vicksburg paper
(which we received regularly through the
courtesy of the rebel pickets) said prior to
the 4th. in speaking of the. Yankee boats
that they would take dinner in Vicksburg
that day, that the best receipt for cooking
a rabbit was, First ketch your rabbit.
The paper at this time, and for some time
prior, was printed on the plain side of wall
paper. The last edition was issued on the
4th, and announced that we had caught
our rabbit. < X y
II rode into Vicksburg with the troops,
and went to the river to exchange congrat-
ulations with the navy upon our joint vic
tory. At that time found that many of
the citizens had been living under ground.
The ridges upon which Vicksburg is built.
and those back to the Big Black, are COM
posed Of deep yellow clay of great ten
acity, When roads and streets are cut
through perpendicular banks are left, and
stand as well as if composed of stone. The
magazines Of the enemy were made by
mining passageways into this clay at places
where there were deep cuts Many citi-
zens secured places of safety for their
families by carving out rooms in these
embankments. A doorway, in these cases.
would be cut in high bank, starting from
the level of the road or street, and after
running it in few feet room of the size
required would be carved out of the CLAW.
the dirt being removed by the doorway.
In some instances saw where two rooms
were cut out for a single family, with a
doorway III the clay wall separating them.
Some OF these were carpeted and furnished
with considerable elaboration, In these
the occupants were fully secure from the
shells OF the enemy, which were dropped
into the city night and day without inter-
mission.
"At Vicksburg $1,000 prisoners were
surrendered, together with 172 cannon,
10000 muskets, and large amount of
ammunition. The small arms of the
enemy were far superior to the bulk Of
ours. Up to this time our troops at the
west had been limited to the old United
States flint lock changed into percussion.
the Belgian musket imported early In the
war-almost as dangerous to the person
firing it as to the one aimed at-and a few
new and improved arms, These were Of
many different calibres, thus causing much
trouble in distributing ammunition during
an engagement. The enemy had gener-
ally new arms, which had run the blockade
e 80