Vicksburg, Mississippi, situated on a high bluff that allowed the big guns placed there by the Confederates to interdict Union navigation of the Mississippi River, was considered by both North and South as a major key to victory in the Civil War. The Confederates had it; but U. S. Grant, at the head of a formidable Union army, wanted it, and was coming to take it if he could.
Even though every attempt Grant had made so far to achieve that objective had failed, nobody really expected him to give up. So, civilians were warned that a siege was a distinct possibility they should either prepare themselves to withstand, or they should get out before the storm broke.
A Warning to Get Ready or Get Out!
That was the warning Dora Miller recorded in her diary on March 20, 1863. Miller was a Northern-born, pro-Union woman living with her lawyer husband in Vicksburg. Her diary entry notes that in view of expected military operations against the city, non-combatants were being ordered by authorities to “leave or prepare accordingly.”
