Letter Home Assignment From U.S. History Class

I’ve pasted an assignment from school into the extended body of this blog post. This assignment was to write a letter home as if you lived in Vicksburg at the time of the siege during the Civil War. Feel free to comment on it (or write your own) into the comments associated with this blog post. Enjoy, Alex.

Dear Family, This letter may be the final one you get from me because of this siege on my hometown of Vicksburg. I'm sure you know most of this already because of messengers, but you'll likely enjoy getting a first-hand account from one of your family members. This siege is extremely problematic to the local residents of Vicksburg, not only can we not leave (or come into) the town, but no supplies can either. My friends and I have not had any food short of rats since this siege began. We're all feeling quite sick now because of it. We also can't get that much sleep because of the loud sounds coming from the fighting. I'm quite scared that everyone in this town will die well before any of us get the chance to leave. I hope that the city leaders surrender soon so that they can spare what they can of their lives and their ways of life. If we surrender then we may be killed and/ or lose our entire livelihood here, but overall the Union would at least have less to brag about in the future, and that wil own this Confederacy more power. I hope that this final farewell can help to sustain and enhance your willingness to fight against the Union locally and nationally. Most of us haven't been able to do that during this siege, so we're all counting on relatives in different cities and states to help out. Sincerely, Alex Celeste