{"id":30232,"date":"2023-05-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dotcw.com\/?p=1889"},"modified":"2021-03-07T10:01:43","modified_gmt":"2021-03-07T16:01:43","slug":"the-siege-itself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/the-siege-itself\/","title":{"rendered":"Confederates retreating to Vicksburg: “Wan, hollow-eyed, ragged, footsore, bloody, the men limped along unarmed, but followed by siege-guns, ambulances, gun-carriages, and wagons in aimless confusion.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

May 17th, 1863<\/em>.\u2014Hardly was our scanty breakfast over this morning when a hurried ring drew us both to the door. Mr. J., one of H.\u2019s assistants, stood there in high excitement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, Mr. L., they are upon us; the Yankees will be here by this evening.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat Pemberton has been whipped at Baker\u2019s Creek and Big Black, and his army are running back here as fast as they can come and the Yanks after them, in such numbers nothing can stop them. Hasn\u2019t Pemberton acted like a fool?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe may not be the only one to blame,\u201d replied H.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re coming along the Big B. road, and my folks went down there to be safe, you know; now they\u2019re right in it. I hear you can\u2019t see the armies for the dust; never was anything else known like it. But I must go and try to bring my folks back here.\u201d<\/p>\n

What struck us both was the absence of that concern to be expected, and a sort of relief or suppressed pleasure. After twelve some worn-out-looking men sat down under the window.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is the news?\u201d I inquired.<\/p>\n

\u201cRetreat, retreat!\u201d they said, in broken English\u2014they were Louisiana Acadians.<\/p>\n

About 3 o\u2019clock the rush began. I shall never forget that woful sight of a beaten, demoralized army that came rushing back,\u2014humanity in the last throes of endurance. Wan, hollow-eyed, ragged, footsore, bloody, the men limped along unarmed, but followed by siege-guns, ambulances, gun-carriages, and wagons in aimless confusion. At twilight two or three bands on the court-house hill and other points began playing Dixie, Bonnie Blue Flag, and so on, and drums began to beat all about; I suppose they were rallying the scattered army.<\/p>\n

\n

Note: To protect Mrs. Miller\u2019s job as a teacher in post-civil war New Orleans, her diary was published anonymously, edited by G. W. Cable, names were changed and initials were generally used instead of full names\u2014<\/em>and even the initials differed from the real person\u2019s initials. (Read Dora Richards Miller\u2019s biographical sketch<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May 17th, 1863.\u2014Hardly was our scanty breakfast over this morning when a hurried ring drew us both to the door. Mr. J., one of H.\u2019s assistants, stood there in high excitement. \u201cWell, Mr. L., they are upon us; the Yankees will be here by this evening.\u201d \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d \u201cThat Pemberton has been whipped […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":98518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-30232","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-war-diary-of-a-union-woman-in-the-south"},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Dora-Richards-Miller.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}