Occupied Vicksburg by Bradley R. Clampitt (review)

Vicksburg, Mississippi, had already experienced the full fury of the American Civil War when Federal troops entered the war-ravaged river bastion and the Confederate banner came down from the city's iconic courthouse at the close of siege operations on July 4, 1863. Many new challenges awaited Ulysses S. Grant and Union officials who sought to consolidate their gains by attempting to implement procedures that would balance conciliatory attitudes with pragmatic military and social requirements. Military commanders and their operatives enjoyed varying degrees of success throughout the subsequent period. Confronting the needs of destitute civilians, clearing the detritus of battle, reinstituting trade policies, restoring businesses, and revitalizing the city were priorities that demanded attention at the same time. As difficult as the process of capturing Vicksburg had proved to be, significant issues continued to arise for those who sought to adapt to new realities. In Occupied Vicksburg, Bradley R. Clampitt brings these matters into focus.

The Vicksburg story certainly presented a powerful tableau for a nation riveted by the dramatic campaign and siege. As the focus of military events shifted elsewhere, attitudes and agendas continued to clash in the Unioncontrolled territory. Once the routine of occupation settled on the city and surrounding areas, conflicts regarding regulatory policies and priorities arose between the expected antagonists. The influx of slaves who left their masters to seek freedom, entrepreneurs who sought financial opportunities and demanded protection, missionaries and teachers who desired to bring moral and intellectual advancement, and local citizens who first craved Union rations to survive and then chafed under Federal authority created complications for military officials.

Although Clampitt's chapter on the week after Vicksburg's fall to Union forces seems strained, the volume's division into segments entitled with varying combinations of the terms blue, gray, and black largely allows the reader to concentrate on the competing elements at work in the city between the summer of 1863 and the end of the war. Readers will find some repetition as the author emphasizes one aspect of these complex relationships after another over the same chronological ground. Occasionally the text bogs down, particularly when the author navigates his way through an extended assessment of Federal power and African Americans. There are also moments, such as in the saga of Ellen Creevy in the book's epilogue, when Clampitt appears to want to say more than the evidence will allow. Nevertheless, the work is thoughtful and provocative.

Occupied Vicksburg contributes to scholars' efforts to assess the Civil War's impact on civilian communities and urban centers as part of the broadening study of the conflict's social aspects. Clampitt's work is strongest in its examination of the complicated relationship between Union military forces and the African American refugees who sought sanctuary in the occupied river city. The volume also succeeds in demonstrating the complexities of ongoing interactions between Federal soldiers and white, Confederate-sympathizing citizens who maintained hostile attitudes toward the soldiers. Vicksburg was one of many communities in the Confederacy that Union troops held in their grip for a time when the challenges of coexistence between opposing elements remained true. However, no other occupied place in the South was quite like Vicksburg. In this volume Clampitt offers an enlightening and informative window into that world.