Vicksburg, Southern City Under Siege: William Lovelace Foster’s Letter Describing the Defense and Surrender of the Confederate Fortress on the Mississippi - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0917860128 ISBN 13: 9780917860126

Publisher: Historic New Orleans Collection, 1982

Synopsis

Book by Foster, William L.

About this title

Review:

Foster was a young Baptist minister who as a military chaplain witnessed the forty-seven-day seige of Vicksburg that began in mid-May 1863. In part using notes he had taken earlier, he started on June 20 a letter to his wife that eventually reached seventy-nine pages by the time of the surrender of the city on July 4, 1863. A perceptive observer and a colorful writer, Foster's account provides a vivid portrait of this critical battle. Editor [Kenneth Trist] Urquhart has provided a brief introduction, useful annotations in the form of notes, and a brief bibliography. -- Journal of Southern History, vol. 48, no. 2, May 1982

From Scientific American:

This handsome volume fits nicely among the growing number of published Civil War primary sources written from the perspective of the common soldier. The author grasped keenly the drama and pathos of war. His letter, uncluttered by romantic images of gallantry, describes the horrors of combat, the misery of deprivation and death, in short, the human dimension of beleagured city under attack. Battlefield rumors and jealousies, wartime inflation, the indignities of cave life-these and numerous other topics captured Foster's careful eye.

About this edition

• Publisher: Historic New Orleans Collection
• Publication date: 1982
• ISBN 10: 0917860128
• ISBN 13: 9780917860126
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 81
• Editor: Urquhart Kenneth Trist