Before the Civil War, Vicksburg was a small Mississippian city with a population less than 5,000. Nicknamed the ?Queen City of the Bluff? it sat atop a bluff over a horseshoe bend in the Mississippi River. It boasted three newspapers, a theatre, and an orchestra. Vicksburg was in the center of the south with several telegraph lines and railroads to major cities. It controlled the Mississippi from its highpoint 300 feet above the river. When the war started John C. Pemberton, a West Point graduate, was given charge of the fort and geographic region. Cannons were brought in and mounted…
