From the History of D. H. Montgomery.
On the Mississippi, Vicksburg and vicinity was held by a strong Confederate force under General Pemberton. Early in the spring of 1863, General J. E. Johnson, then at Chattanooga, Tennessee, moved with an army to join Pemberton. In a number of masterly battles, Grant defeated Pemberton before Johnson could unite with him. He forced Pemberton to retreat into Vicksburg, and drove Johnson off of the field.
For several weeks Grant and Sherman, with over seventy thousand, besieged Vicksburg. Union men were shelling the city night and day. Food was so scarce that the Confederates had but one cracker a day. The town was so knocked to pieces that women and children had to live in caves, dug in the earth. They too were reduced to a few mouthsful of food a day. Mule steaks gave out and many had to choose between eating cats and rats.
Out of less than thirty thousand, they had six thousand sick and wounded. They could hold out no longer and July 4th, 1863, Vicksburg surrendered. Grant took nearly thirty-two thousand prisoners. Union loss, twenty-three thousand three. Rebel loss, twenty thousand four hundred and fifty-one.
Among those that took part in that day of celebration and victory was the war eagle, Old Abe, the hero of many battles. He was carried on a perch, near the flag, by one of the color bearers of the 8th Wisconsin.