Vicksburg's Long Shadow: The Civil War Legacy of Race and Remembrance

I expected something different from this book, so since it is not what I expected, I was disappointed and am inclined to give it a low rating. Waldrep is obviously very well versed in the subject and appears to have completed very thorough research based on the sheer number of sources he has referenced or mentioned, but this made the book and topic a bit dense for me. I was hoping to learn more about the conditions of Vicksburg under siege, but Waldrep did not go into much detail on this, focusing instead on the military movements that lead to the Northern victory, which is all well and good, but not something I was interested in reading. Waldrep wrote the book to make the point that Vicksburg deserved as much attention, if not more, than Gettysburg, in addition to arguing that improvement in race relations were not a focal point of the Civil War, Reconstruction, or the years following, and by the end of the book, I felt that his tone was a bit whiny. I looked him up and learned he is a southerner, so it makes sense that he would work for such recognition of Vicksburg. He did make some good points, but I got too hung up on the density of his research.

Christopher Waldrep is extraordinarily detailed and well versed with his resources. You would be hard pressed to read through this book if you don't already have a fairly extensive background of Vicksburg, Mississippi's history during the Civil War and after.

The book, as stated, focuses on Vicksburg's intrinsic role in the American Civil War and then what followed after, focusing on such things as reconciliation, race relations, and the military park that was eventually erected. Throughout the whole of the pages you'll find a bit of animosity towards Gettysburg's limelight as, arguably, Vicksburg's siege was the reason the war was won. However, Waldrep skirts that topic almost entirely, allowing for the reader to draw their own conclusions.

The writing is heavily reliant upon other resources and each chapter has extensive reference pages for future reading or curiosity's sake.

Again, the book is suitable for a history buff or someone who has already begun the process of understanding Vicksburg as a historical city of the United States.

Vicksburg In American Time

On July 4, 1863, Confederate General John Pemberton surrendered the City of Vicksburg and its defending Army to General Ulysses Grant ending a long campaign and siege and giving the Union uncontested control of the Mississippi River. It was a great victory, probably the decisive event of the Civil War; but it has been overshadowed in the memory of most people by the Union Army's simultaneous victory at Gettysburg from July 1 -- July 3, 1863.

The military history of the Vicksburg Campaign has been told many times. In his recent book, "Vicksburg's Long Shadow" (2005), Christopher Waldrep discusses the ways in which Vicksburg has been perceived by successive generations of Americans. The book is part of an ongoing effort by many historians to study history and memory -- to study the way in which the history of an event has been perceived to better understand the event and the culture. There have been a number of studies of history and memory as applied to the Civil War and Reconstruction, but this is the first such book to focus on the siege of Vicksburg in American memory.

Waldrep is Professor of American History at San Francisco State University and he has written extensively on the American South, including a separate study of Vicksburg and Warren County, Mississippi, "Roots of Disorder: Race and Criminal Justice in the American South. 1817 -- 1880" (1998).

Although Waldrep considers how and why the Battle of Gettysburg was commemorated differently, and on a far larger scale, that Vicksburg, most of his book is given over to different themes. The first of these is the conflict between reunion and racial justice in considering the legacy of the Civil War. A second theme is how the commemoration of Vicksburg was used in the context of changing American values over time -- thus, in the late 19th Century, the creation of the Park was tied to the growth of capitalism as well as to a spirit of nationalism; during WW I, the reunions at Vicksburg were in part a means to secure support for the war effort. In the Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps did extensive work at Vicksburg, and with the New Deal the Park again became an important symbol of American patriotism and unity.

The book opens with a brief overview of the Vicksburg campaign, focusing substantial attention on the battle of Milliken's Bend in which African American troops performed heroically under fire. Waldrep gives substantial attention to the Reconstruction Era in Vicksburg, in which the goal of racial equality was frustrated for many years in the name of national unity.

Waldrep discusses the commemoration of the strategic and military aspects of the Civil War in the memoirs written by Grant, Sherman, Joseph Johnston, and many other military leaders. He considers the political efforts that led ultimately to the creation of the Vicksburg National Military Park and to its monumentation. Waldrep describes well the different roles of Northerners and local Vicksburg residents and Southerners in the creation and use of the Park, finding that Vicksburg, unlike Gettysburg, was a Park basically built by the North in a key battleground of the former Confederacy. Unlike the situation at Gettysburg, African Americans in Vicksburg were heavily involved in the use of the Park, making it a focal point for many years for the celebration of Memorial Day. There were two chapters of the Veterans group, the Grand Army of the Republic, in Vicksburg, one for African American soldiers and one for white soldiers.

Throughout his study, Waldrep contrasts two competing views of the Civil War and its aftermath: the first view sees the Civil War as leading to a united America and to the reconciliation of North and South while the second sees it as part of an ongoing effort to achieve racial justice for all Americans. His book shows admirably how these visions competed and interacted in the commemoration of the siege of Vicksburg, and how these themes continue to deserve the attention of Americans today.

Robin Friedman

I had high hopes for this one, but I think the author got too ambitious. It should have been two books: one about the establishment of the memorial and one about race relations during and after the war. As it ended up, it was a book that never gelled. It had interesting factoids throughout but I wanted more.