the latter part of June, the Confederates, both soldiers and citizens,
began to suffer. Houses became untenable. The people sought what
refuge they might find. Some actually burrowed in the earth. The
garrison was placed on short rations, and then a condition of
starvation ensued. Pemberton held out with a resolution worthy of a
better fate. But at length human endurance could go no further. On
the fourth of July the white flag was hoisted from the Confederate
works, announcing the end. Generals Grant and Pemberton, with three or
four attendants each, met between the lines, and the terms of
capitulation were quickly named and accepted. Vicksburg was
surrendered. General Pemberton and all his forces, 30,000 strong,
became prisoners of war.

This was the greatest force ever surrendered in America, though it was
only about one-sixth of that of Marshal Bazaine and his army at Metz
seven years afterward. Thousands of small arms, hundreds of cannon,
and all the remaining ammunition and stores of the Confederates were
the other fruits of this great Union victory, by which the prospect of
ultimate success to the Confederacy was either destroyed or long
postponed, and by which in particular the great central river of the
United States was permitted once more to flow unvexed from the
confluence of the Missouri to the Gulf.


GETTYSBURG.

The battle of Gettysburg is properly included among the great battles
of the world. It was the greatest conflict that has thus far occurred
in America. The losses relative to the numbers engaged were not as
great as those at Antietam, Spottsylvania, and a few other bloody