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this line and as far as Haines Bluff, so strongthat when Johnston, after collecting Vicksburg with much difficulty 30,000 men, ar- besi eged.rived in the neighbourhood, he prudently refrainedfrom making an attack. Under such circum-stances the fall of Vicksburg was only a questionof time. There was no more fighting worthy ofmention. Mining, countermining, and sappingwent on as usual in sieges. Shells were throwninto the city as they had been for months, onlynow more constantly, the army’s siege guns aidingthe mortars of the fleet. To escape this. perpetualstorm of deadly missiles, the inhabitants had re-verted to the custom of earlier ages and learned todwell in caves. The bluff on which the city stoodwas honeycombed with subterranean vaults andpassages, like the Roman catacombs, and cavesfavourably situated brought high rents. Foodgrew scarcer and scarcer. Flour sold at ten dol-lars a pound and bacon at five dollars a pound.Mule meat 1 was in demand. “ Mule tongue cold,a la Bray,” it was jocosely said, was a favouriteside dish. On the 28th of June Pemberton re-ceived a curious letter from an unknown numberof soldiers, which said, among other things, “ Ifyou can’t feed us you had better surrender us, hor-
1 Which if well fatted is a great delicacy, as French cooksknow; but doubtless the mule meat of sieges is lean and tough.