“Orleans, Gentilly, D’Artaguette, Marigny, Bourbon! Bourbon! Gayoso, Galvez, Bouligny, Casacalvo, Derbigny, Don Almonester’s bells intone; For Bienville and for Serigny, For d’Iberville, for d’Assigny They make incessant moan. Orleans, Gentilly D’Artaguette, Marigny, Bourbon! Bourbon!” [Illustration] [Illustration] VICKSBURG THE CITY ON THE WALNUT HILLS BY H. F. SIMRALL Vicksburg has no colonial traditions. The Walnut Hills on which it stands, near the northern margin of that portion of Mississippi which was successively under the sway of France, Great Britain and Spain, could not be settled and improved until long after the region about Natchez. The city is, in fact, of modern origin. The county of Warren was not organized until 1809, and Vicksburg had no real existence until it became in 1836, second after Warrenton, the county-seat. To understand the late origin of the town, one should study the colonial history of Mississippi. By the discovery and exploration of the Mississippi in 1680-82, France claimed all the territory drained by the river and its affluents from the source to the mouth, and also all territory east and west drained by streams that entered the Gulf of Mexico. The French colony was planted at Biloxi on the Gulf coast, which was made the capital. Shortly afterwards the capital was transferred to Mobile and finally located at New Orleans. Settlements spread slowly along the shores of the Gulf and up the Mississippi River, penetrating but a short distance inland on account of the contiguity of hostile Indians. During the eighteen years of British control that followed the French and Indian War, an impulse was given to emigration from Great Britain, and from the older colonies some settlers came who desired to avoid participation in the Revolutionary War. In 1779-80 Spain drove Great Britain out of the territory west of the Mississippi, acquired by the treaty which closed the French and Indian War, and held and controlled the same for fifteen or more years, with the colonial seat of authority at Natchez. By the treaty of peace with Great Britain at the close of the Revolutionary War, the Mississippi River on the west and the 31st parallel on the south were declared the boundaries of the United States. [Illustration: MEETING OF GENERALS GRANT AND PEMBERTON AT THE “STONE HOUSE” INSIDE THE REBEL WORKS ON THE MORNING OF JULY 4, 1863. (FROM AN ACTUAL SKETCH MADE ON THE SPOT BY ONE OF THE SPECIAL ARTISTS OF “FRANK LESLIE’S ILLUSTRATED NEWSPAPER,” NOW IN THE COLLECTION OF MAJOR GEORGE HAVEN PUTNAM.)]