Vicksburg, Mississippi in Go Down, Moses (Location)

Vicksburg, a city on steep bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River, is mentioned several times in the novel. In "The Fire and the Hearth," Nat Beauchamp goes to visit her aunt there when her family gets in trouble with the authorities over their whisky-making. In "Delta Autumn," the unnamed young mother of Roth Edmonds' child also has an aunt who lives there. In 1940 there were about 25,000 people living in the city. It has a long history, but it is probably best known for the role it played as a strategically important Confederate stronghold during the Civil War until it surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant on July 4, 1863. It is frequently mentioned in Faulkner's fictions.