After forty-seven days of intense siege, Vicksburg surrenders to Grant's Army of the Tennessee

Confederate General John Clifford Pemberton had contacted Union General Ulysses Grant the day before to discuss terms.  Grant had demanded "unconditional surrender" first but relented largely due to the almost 30,000 hungry prisoners that would result.  Parole was agreed and in the morning C.S.A. troops, after forty-seven days of siege, began stacking weapons. The Mississippi was now open to Union river traffic all the way to New Orleans.  (By John Osborne)