Vicksburg Celebration: Patriots, Copperheads, and Sham Loyalists

Following news of the surrender of the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg, patriotic citizens across the Union went wild with joy. In Council Bluffs, Iowa, patriotic citizens celebrated in the streets. The local newspaper marked the moment in an editorial that described the excitement-and the reaction of others who were Southern sympathizers and a unique persona, the "sham loyalist."
"Life on the Civil War Research Trail" is hosted by Ronald S. Coddington, Editor and Publisher of Military Images magazine. Learn more about our mission to showcase, interpret and preserve Civil War portrait photography at militaryimagesmagazine.com and shopmilitaryimages.com.
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Image: Library of Congress
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[@nanavango9374]

Wow! Those are some hard feelings!

[@tomjones2202]

Always interesting GOOD stuff! :) Thanks Ron!

[@rickpaton7538]

I like William S Burke!

[@kalon227]

I’m now 87, the last and baby of my family. One of my great grandfathers, pvt Joseph C. Perkins Mississippi 35 company taken prisoner or rather paroled at Vicksburg. If Burkes was as angry at those copperheads wonder how he felt about men like my great grand father?

[@RichardDCook]

Thanks for the shoutout! Your superb content enriches so many, long may it continue.

[@alexsansone4294]

Love these short sessions !

[@gillgetter3004]

The campaign of Vicksburgs victory for the Union was to say the least hardly hardly fought. It came at the nick of time with victory at Gettysburg. I believe it was indeed the turning point but much war and suffering ahead!

[@conradnelson5283]

Many bitter feelings

[@davide9658]

Interesting. And we thought cancel culture was a recent phenomenon.

[@cht2162]

💥U.S. GRANT 💥

[@ukulelemikeleii]

I wonder if the editor wrote another op-ed, perhaps five or 10 years after the war had ended saying "come on now let's let bygones be bygones" and calling for an embracement of the copperheads and sham loyalists now that the war had long since passed? Or was he bitter and unforgiving until his final days?

[@crippledcrow2384]

Another Yankee opinion on the truth. Sounded like a sham-loyalist to me. That working together thing you talked about, is that the reason Vicksburg didn't celebrate July 4th for over 100 hundred years?