July 4, 1863

Siege of Vicksburg

Pemberton surrenders the Vicksburg garrison to Grant

At 10 a.m. on Independence Day the defeated troops walked out, stacked their rifles and furled their flags — and Grant let nearly 30,000 of them go on parole.

10 a.m., 4 July 1863

Confederate commander John C. Pemberton formally surrendered his Vicksburg garrison on 4 July 1863, having asked for negotiations the previous day and accepted Grant's amended terms overnight.

At 10 a.m. the Confederate troops marched out of their entrenchments, stacked their weapons, removed their accoutrements and furled their flags. Grant's Army of the Tennessee then entered and occupied Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Parole instead of unconditional surrender

Grant is strongly associated with the phrase “unconditional surrender.” At Vicksburg he did not impose it.

He paroled the defenders, allowing them to leave after promising not to fight again until formally exchanged. The surrender covered 29,396 Confederate officers and enlisted men, all granted parole.

The river was not open yet

What capitulated was not only a city. Pemberton gave up an entire Confederate field army and garrison after weeks of encirclement, bombardment and supply shortage, with no effective relief arriving; his council of war on 3 July preceded the request for terms.

Vicksburg's fall did not by itself give the Union unobstructed use of the Mississippi. Port Hudson remained Confederate until it surrendered on 9 July, five days later.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 6 sources 2 audit passes

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →

What the sources leave uncertain

Sources use different starting points for the operation. The investment began May 18; an older official account dates siege operations from May 23; the current NPS siege page dates construction of the formal approaches from May 26. This explains apparently conflicting siege-date labels even though July 4 is secure.
Measurements of the defensive line vary according to what is counted. An NPS historical handbook describes a nine-mile arc from river to river, while another NPS planning document describes a 6.5-mile defensive line.