[FRAMED] REPRINT. THE VICKSBURG DAILY CITIZEN. JULY 2, 1863

J. M. Swords

Vicksburg was a city under siege. Both Lee and Grant wanted to control the city and its important location along a bend in the Mississippi River, and in May 1863 Grant had surrounded it. . Citizens literally took shelter in caves; food and necessities grew scarcer and scarce.~~Vicksburg’s newspaper naturally covered conditions on the ground in the city. But it also became a physical representation of those condition. The newspaper ran out of paper, and publisher J. M. Swords -- in a burst of ingenuity -- conceived the idea of cutting wallpaper into sheets and running them through the press as broadsides, with the wallpaper pattern one side and the text of the newspaper on the other.~~Swords issued 6 papers in this manner. This facsimile of the last was on July 2, 1863. Two days later the Confederates surrendered Vicksburg. Swords fled and Federal troops entered the city and “visited” the newspaper offices where type was still standing. They added a paragraph at the end of this issue added their own commentary, dated July 4, 1863:~“Two days brings about great changes, The banner of the Union floats over Vicksburg ... This is the last wall-paper edition, and is, excepting this note, from the types as we found them. It will be valuable hereafter as a curiosity”. ~~Presumably two issues of this facsimile framed together -- to show both sides.

Item #287089

Price: $500.00