'Siege of Vicksburg', (1878). After a siege lasting almost two months, the fortress of Vicksburg, Mississippi, fell to the Union on 4 July 1863. It was a crucial strategic turning point in the American Civil War, as it left the Union in control of the Mississippi River and split the Confederacy in two. From "Our Country: a Household History for All Readers, from the Discovery of America to the Present Time", Volume 3, by Benson J. Lossing. [Johnson & Miles, New York, 1878]