Under Siege! (9 page)

When Grant and Sherman entered Jackson, they stopped at a textile mill. Grant allowed the workers time to gather their belongings and then burned the mill.

THE YANKEES ARE COMING!
May 1863

A
fter enduring the shelling of Vicksburg the night of April 16, when Grant successfully got his ships down the river, Mary Loughborough had been happy to stay at home in Jackson with her little daughter. She felt safe there, for the city was protected by Joe Johnston and his army. Then the news came: Grant was headed toward Jackson and would soon attack! Not only that, but there would be no defense. General Johnston had ordered Jackson evacuated. He and his troops were leaving.

Reeling in shock, people wondered where to go. What place was safe? The Yankees were everywhere!

Mary tried not to panic. She was responsible for the safety of her daughter and her two house slaves. An occupying army wasn’t her greatest fear: “We were in far more danger here from the rabble that usually followed a large army, and who might plunder, insult, and rob us,” she said.

She sought advice from friends. One who was leaving immediately for Vicksburg by train urged her to come, too. Mary hesitated, thinking, “May I not be in danger in Vicksburg? Suppose the gunboats should make an attack?” But her husband was in Vicksburg, and she wanted to be near him.

“Very hurriedly we made our arrangements, packing with scarcely a moment to lose, not stopping to discuss our sudden move and the alarming news.” The streets of Jackson were jammed with wagons, carriages, and people on foot. Panicked citizens rushed in all directions. When Mary and her daughter, slaves, and friends finally reached the train depot, it “was crowded with crushing and elbowing human beings, swaying to and fro—baggage being thrown hither and thither—horses wild with fright… and so we found ourselves in a car, amid the living stream that flowed and surged along … seeking anything to bear them away from the threatened and fast depopulating town.”

The little group managed to get seats, and soon the train was chugging through the countryside with its cargo of refugees. When the train pulled into Vicksburg that evening, the depot was crowded with soldiers heading out to fight. Mary was greatly relieved to see her husband, who had come to the station, hoping she would be on the train from Jackson. He took her to the home of friends and assured her that she had made the right decision.

But the next morning she was upset to learn that General Pemberton was urging everyone but soldiers to leave, for it was clear, now that Grant had reached Jackson, that he would soon march on Vicksburg. Mary thought briefly of trying to find a place in the country. But the Yankees were out there. The city, on the other hand, was guarded by Confederate troops. When her husband assured her that Pemberton would meet Grant miles from town and soundly defeat him, she decided to stay.

The next few days were uneventful. “With our sewing in the morning, and rides in the evening, our home was very pleasant—very happy and quiet.” Each day she visited Sky Parlor Hill and peered through her spyglass at the Union gunboats that stayed just out of reach of the Vicksburg cannon. Federal troops were encamped along the Louisiana shore directly across from the Vicksburg wharf. Watching them, she said, was “far more stirring and interesting than the quiet fortified life of Vicksburg.”

B
UT THE CALM
did not last. All of Vicksburg was horrified to learn that the Yankees had burned Jackson and that they were laying waste to the countryside. Grant’s men seemed bent on total destruction. They tore up railroad tracks, pulled down telegraph lines, burned cotton fields—anything they could do to demoralize citizens and cripple the South’s ability to fight. They killed poultry and livestock; emptied crocks of molasses and vinegar; and burned homes, smokehouses, barns, stores, and warehouses. Horses, mules, oxen, carriages, and wagons were confiscated for the army’s use. In spite of orders to the contrary, many officers looked the other way when soldiers stole jewelry, china, and silver; slashed feather mattresses; and took clothing. Though army rules forbade it, some officers claimed valuable belongings for themselves.

Stories of looting and destruction spread quickly. The cry of “The Yankees are coming!” struck fear into every heart. Southerners thought these men must be cutthroat monsters, more animal than human. In fear of their lives, many people hid when the Yankees approached, leaving their valuables unguarded. A Union officer told of houses that were grand beyond description, and how the owners had run off, leaving his men to help themselves.

One young girl, whose family had fled Vicksburg to hide on a plantation, watched in fear as Yankee soldiers marched along the road. She saw that “their arms were filled with fine china, plates, dishes, and every kind of ware, which they had taken from the Blackman place adjoining our plantation. As they rode along they would throw these beautiful pieces to the ground just for the pastime of seeing them smashed to a thousand pieces.”

A Union soldier wrote home that he’d seen forty or fifty plantations burn in a single day. Before setting them afire, officers often quartered in them for one or more nights. General Grant himself was known to enter kitchens and order whoever still lived there to feed his officers. Usually it was only old people, women, and children who remained, for older boys and men were in the Confederate army. A few slaves continued to serve their owners, but most left the moment the Yankees appeared. It wasn’t just
Union soldiers terrorizing the population. Blacks following the army did their share of looting and tried to carry their newfound treasures with them, even if it meant dragging along furniture, rugs, and featherbeds.

Southerners had to decide whether to stay and try to protect their property, or take what they could and flee. Many lost everything, regardless of which choice they made.

E
VEN THOUGH THEY MISSED THEIR FATHER
,
who had stayed in Vicksburg to continue his ministry, Willie Lord and his sisters were happy at the Flowers plantation, deep in the countryside. They had plenty of space to play, and the plantation house was most interesting to explore.

But Mrs. Lord worried. She missed her husband and complained about being separated from him. When rumors reached the plantation that
Yankees were in the area, she was convinced she and her children would be killed. “My mother was so constituted that when separated from those she loved, her imagination constantly drew the most painfully realistic pictures of possible disaster,” said Willie. Mr. Flowers tried to assure her that she and her children were safe where they were, but she sent word to her husband, begging to come home. Willie knew that his father was concerned about the impact that worry was having on her health, and he “reluctantly gave his consent to our return to the city.”

In the agricultural South, some plantation owners had thousands of acres of land, hundreds of slaves, and large, beautiful mansions. But most plantations were more like medium-sized farms, with fewer slaves and homes like the one shown here.

Soon preparations were in place. “On our return journey to Vicksburg we rode in state in the Flowers’ family carriage,” said Willie, “but left behind us, alas! the priceless library, our household bric-a-brac, and the greater part of my mother’s dainty wardrobe; all, by the courteous permission of our host, stored, safely, as we supposed, in the apartments we had occupied on the ground floor of the plantation mansion. As it happened, this was about the worst possible disposal of our treasures.”

The Lord family had just set out for Vicksburg when they received word that the Yankees had indeed arrived in the area and were burning and looting homes. What was meant to be a pleasant ride back home
turned into a long and frightening journey, for they were fearful that at any moment the Yankees might catch them. Finally, with great relief, they came within sight of the city and soon reached their house. They found sleeping soldiers overflowing the church, and military wagons and artillery jamming the streets and filling the yard.

But they were home, and as long as Mrs. Lord had anything to say about it, they would not leave again.