This paper appeared
daily to the last, although paper grew so scarce that it sometimes
consisted only of one sheet eighteen inches long and six inches
wide. At length printing paper gave out altogether, and the journal
appeared printed on the plain side of wall paper.
Day was added to day, and week to week, and still the siege of
Vicksburg lasted. All day cannon roared, shells screamed and whistled,
and the city seemed enveloped in flame and noise. The streets
were places of death and danger, and the people took refuge in the
cellars of the houses, or in caves which they dug out of the clayey
soil. In these caves whole families lived for weeks together, only
creeping out to breathe the air during the short intervals, night
and morning, when the guns ceased firing.
Food grew scarcer and scarcer until at length there was nothing
left but salt bacon, the flesh of mules, rats, and mouldy pea flour.
The soldiers became no longer fit to man the guns, their rations
being no more than a quarter of a pound of bacon and the same of
flour each day. Water too ran short, and they were obliged to drink
the muddy water of the Mississippi.
Like pale specters the people crept about, and many, both soldiers
and citizens, died from starvation and disease brought on by
starvation. At length Vicksburg seemed little more than one great
hospital, encircled by fire, made hideous by noise.
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