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Letters from Vicksburg

Posted in genealogy, tagged , , , , , , , , , on March 1, 2026| Leave a Comment »

In which the Wilcox brothers write home while their brother, my G-G-G-Grandfather stayed home and tended the farm.

Vicksburg, March 13, 1863

Most of the regiments have moved up on the levee, and we have drawn our guns up. Half a mile below us the country is flooded.

Camp near Vicksburg, March 28, 1863

We arrived in camp last night after dark. We started on the 20th from here with one section of our battery. Thomas and I went on the YazooRiver about ten miles, then turned into Steele Bayou, on the left side of the river as you go up the bank. We went about 60 miles from the Yazoo. We were landed to guard the bayou, to keep them from felling timber into it. We camped on the first dry ground we came to on the Black Bayou. We enjoyed the time we were in camp very well, sailing in the canoes we found along the bayou.We came back on the gunboat Louisville. About 200 negroes, women and children, came back with us. The whole thing was one complete failure. The infantry had to wade in water up to their knees.

                Willard Wilcox

~

Camp before Vicksburg, March 29, 1863

Willard and I have returned from an expedition up the Yazoo river. It was a failure. The order came about 10:00 at night. Of the 19th, for the two howitzers. We went over 60 miles. Came back on gunboat. We were on a plantation.

                Thos. Wilcox

April 5, 1863

Thomas ill: “I have stayed in camp, and the boys have taken first rate care of me.”

~

Milliken’s Bend, May 3, 1863

Wilber was up in the Chickasaw and fought the battery for three hours without being disabled, but was struck a great many times.

Rear of Vicksburg, May 5, 1863

Have to stay at the guns most all the time. We were called up every night to fire ten or fifteen shots. The squads take turns of two hours each in firing it, or 25 shots at a time. Our men are getting all the heavy guns mounted and rifle pits dug to within 100 yards of the rebel works. Every battery on the line opened up on them one morning about 3:00 o’clock; for hours it seemed like a stream of fire from one end of the line to the other. One thing is certain, they cannot stand it much longer. We keep getting closer every night, and will dig them out. I would like to come home when we take Vicksburg. It seems a long time since I went away. Willard is as strong as ever. The Captain said that he is the only one that stays at the cassion that he can depend on to get anything done when he wants it. I do not like soldiering, no way you can fix it.

                Thomas Wilcox

~

Milliken’s Bend, La. 25 miles from Vicksburg. May 7, 1863

Willard has got over his fever. I am about well. The boys came back from their expedition without firing a gun. They went up the Yazoo River to Haines’ Bluff. The troops have all gone below Vicksburg except our division. We have a nice camp. We left Milliken’s Bend May 6, and went to Grand Gulf, and started for the bridge across the Black River. Water was scarce, and the roads so dusty we could not see two rods, and we were on half rations, but we stoof it first rate. We were in position three times but did not fire; were under fire several times. General Sherman ordered our battery up to the river bank, but after five shots they hoisted the white flag. Squad 2 crossed the pontoon bridge first with six horses.

Near Vicksburg, May 30, 1863

Left Young’s Point day before yesterday to join the company. Went up the Yazoo about 12 miles. We landed, found the battery near the place on the opposite side of the Chickasaw bayou from where we were last fall, near the place where 6th Mo., undertook to cross. Wilber and Thomas are here.

                W. J. Wilcox

~

We have been under fire for six days, within 400 yards of the breastworks. The four gun squads have to stay at the guns night and day.

Rear of Vicksburg, May 30, 1863

Thomas and Wilber are looking well. Our line of battle is on one range of hills, theirs on another, being about 400 yards apart. Where our battery is, we have got our line intrenched, but skirmishers keep firint at one another when they see anyone. Ore battery fires more or less every day. They brought in four 30-pound Parrotts last night. Our boys have one to man. They have to keep it going all the time, so they take turns at it. They fire all over, sometimes clear in to the center of town.

                Willard Wilcox

Near Vicksburg, May 31, 1863

The most trouble is to stand the heat. We are on the side of a high ridge without any shade, and in the middle of the day it is very hot, especially if we shoot. Yesterday we got up a 30-pound Parrott gun and fired 100 shots from it, and at 6:00 A.M. we fired from one end of the line to the other. They have got so that they don’t fire back but very little.

Camp in rear of Vicksburg, June 4, 1863

Our lines have not advanced since I came here excepting in places where they are making approaches which I don’t know much about. Both parties lie behind their works occasionally exchanging shots with small arms. We have fired a great deal with the artillery. You can form some idea of the amount, as the gun that I belong to fired 633 shots. If the Eastern armies could gain a victory, it would be a better feeling.

                Willard Wilcox

~

Camp in rear of Vicksburg. June 16, 1863

Vicksburg is not yet taken, but Grant and Sherman are working as fast as the rough nature of the ground will permit. The amount of work done by the army since we have been here is almost past belief, yet the men work with a good will, confident that we will have Vicksburg in spite of Johnston. There is not a day passes, but more or less men are killed.

                Wilber Wilcox

~

Camp near Vicksburg, June 23, 1863

We have a new battery, five light 12-pounders and one 10-pound Parrott gun. They will carry farther than our old battery; our men are at work making approaches. They are within a few feet of the enemy’s ditch in several spaces, but there has got to be a parallel ditch dug to hold many men before they can storm it. Our pickets are in one ditch while theirs are in another. They used to talk a great deal, but that has been forbidden, so they write on pieces of paper and pass backward and forward. One of our boys threw over a part of a loaf of bread and they threw back a biscuit. You can talk to them quite easy from the guns where Thomas stays, when they are on the breastworks.

                Willard Wilcox

The siege ended on the 4th of July, 1863. The brothers would then march to the sea with Sherman, Eventually, one of them would die and only the two would make it back home (John having already died at Chickamagua).

A “Parrott” gun was a cannon.

If you want to learn more about the Battle of Vicksburg, the following are some links to get you started.

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/maps/vicksburg-campaign-1863

https://www.battlefields.org/visit/virtual-tours/vicksburg-virtual-tour

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American Civil War Part 3

Posted in genealogy, tagged , , , , , on February 2, 2026| Leave a Comment »

 The Siege of Corinth took place April 29 – May 30, 1862. This was before the battel of Vicksburg in 1863. We are stepping back in time a little, to a previous campaign my ancestors were part of, before John Wilcox died at Chickamauga in 1863.  10,699 rebels were killed, wounded, or taken prisoner. 12,217 Union soldiers were killed, wounded, or taken prisoner. Let those numbers sink in a little bit.

A “battery” consisted of six guns: four 6-pounders and two 12-pounders. My great-great uncles wrote a few letters home during this conflict.

May 2, 1862

The army is moving toward Corinth. Our division has not moved yet, but expects to in a day or two. Have been out on two marches lately.

May 22, 1862

I have about recovered. I put on my clothes today. I shall be ready to take part in the next skirmish. Wilber is well.

About the attack being a surprise, in one sense it was and it was not. We were all well aware of the enemy’s being near, for they had driven our outposts the day before and was in sight on the roads from our line. We were on the extreme right of our line so were in reserve, but as soon as the battle commenced were moved to the left. Grant was at Savannah when the battle commenced, which was about four miles down the river from where the hospital was. Some of our line gave way the first fire, but other portions fought well and inflicted heavy loss on the enemy. The principal part of the loss on both sides was on the first day. It depends a great deal upon circumstances about what anyone does, but I can say one thing that no man of Co. A can say: I stayed with the battery three hours after I was wounded, and I passed through one of the most trying scenes of my life.

W.J. Wilcox.

After the battle of Shiloh, the rebels withdrew to Corinth. The last of April the Union army began the advance toward Corinth. Corinth was evacuated by the rebel army May 30, McClernand’s reserve, consisting of his own and Lew Wallace’s division, was then turned west to Bolivar and Memphis. Battery A. was sent with this division, reaching Union Junction, near Memphis, June 17, 1862.

Memphis, July 13, 1862

Just arrived from White River where squad 2 went last Monday to guard a steamboat. Went up the river about 125 miles.

W.J Wilcox

~~~

Memphis, Oct 1, 1862

We had an order for boards for our tents, which looks like staying all winter here. Wilber had just been drilling us in dismounting the guns and carriages, so we can show off at grand battalion review. The squads try to see which can harness and hitch the horses on the guns the quickest. Squad 2 came out five seconds ahead; we were two minutes and twenty-five seconds with the postillions and cannon mounted. Last week we had a trial at target shooting at a snag in the river, 1,000 yards off, about as big as a man. Wilber came out best.

Thos. Wilcox

~~~ Note: a 1,000 yard shot is a long shot. Think eight football fields, lengthwise, assuming the distance is 120 yards (10 football fields if you lay them down goal post to goal post). The most common rifles used during the Civil War had a firing distance of about 300-500 yards. Even today, that is one heckuva distance for an average deer rifle, say a .30-30. Of course, they were probably firing artillery and I have no clue what the ballistics are.

Nashville, Nov. 14, 1862

All I have to say is that I have enlisted, and have no grumbling to do, but intend tyo live and die as a true soldier, but my advice to them that have homes is, they had better stay there. We have marched 440 miles since leaving Louisville. Capt. B and I cook together, eat and drink from the same dish, and sleep together. He has the privilege of buying his rations. I saw him with sixteen doughnuts. I have not taken any private property of any kind.

John Wilcox

~~~

Memphis, Dec 14, 1860

Arrived yesterday/ Gen. Sherman came back with us. We lived on the inhabitants partly while out. The boys went for everything they wanted. The General had to stop them. We did not bring in as many negroes as when we were out last summer.

WJ Wilcox

So much of the Civil Way was about stealing food, ravaging the opponent’s homesteads and mansions, and taking slaves to force them to be soldiers on whichever side managed to take them captive. It was not pretty, it was not neat, and it often wasn’t about setting the captive free as much as it was about using the captive to bolster the military numbers. It was a savagery that ripped across the American soil.

When you hear current politicos talk about “another civil war”, you wonder how much of history they have read. How much blood spilt, families divided, homes wrecked, and innocence destroyed.

Yet, it is my family’s history. And I hope they were all like John, not taking what wasn’t theirs.

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