Vicksburg Map in The Unvanquished (Location)

A "living map" of Vicksburg, Mississippi, on which Bayard and Ringo play at war. It is located "behind the smokehouse" of the Sartoris plantation and is constructed of "just a handful of chips from the woodpile"; the "Mississippi River" has been "scraped into the packed earth with the point of a hoe" and filled with water fetched from the well (3). The actual Vicksburg, upon which the boys' map was based, was one of a few remaining Confederate strongholds on the Mississippi River; it faced heavy bombardment from Union naval forces on the river in the late spring and summer of 1862, but because of the steep bluffs on which the city was situated, the naval forces could not force the city's surrender. The city did not fall to Union troops under the command of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant until July 4, 1863, following a series of land-based battles and a 47-day siege.