On this day in the Civil War, the Confederate army under General John Pemberton surrenders to the Union army commanded by General U.S. Grant at Vicksburg, Mississippi after a 47 day siege. Grant captured 30,000 soldiers, 60,000 small arms and 172 cannon.
Due to the bitterness of surrendering on July 4th, the citizens of Vicksburg did not officially celebrate Independence Day again until 1945, eighty-two years after Pemberton’s surrender.