13. Civilians at Vicksburg lived under ground
To escape the ferocity of the combined Union bombardment, civilians within the Vicksburg perimeter abandoned their homes and moved underground. A long ridge ran along the Confederate lines, with the side facing the central portion of the city shielded from Union fire. Citizens dug caves in the side of the ridge, and some were furnished with items from their homes, including rugs, chairs, tables, and beds. As food supplies in the city dwindled, others remained in their homes, sheltered in cellars, in order to guard their vegetable gardens from starving Confederate troops. The Union troops concentrated their fire at Confederate defensive positions, though inevitably stray shells struck private homes and businesses.
The underground caves numbered over 500 during the month of June, and were easily seen by troops from many positions along the Union lines. Union soldiers called the ridge the Prairie Dog Village, its occupants by extension were called Prairie Dogs. Despite the ferocity of the bombardment few civilians fell to Union fire, though deaths from malnutrition and disease were high. Vicksburg fell to the Union on July 4, 1863. It was the same day Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia began its retreat from Gettysburg, marking that Independence Day as the turning point of the American Civil War.