Vicksburg is a city in the state of Mississippi, in the southern United States. It sits high on a bluff above the Mississippi River, and that position is the whole reason anyone outside America knows the name.

During the American Civil War (1861-1865), whoever held Vicksburg controlled river traffic. The South held it, and its guns on the high ground could stop any Northern boat going past. So the Union army under General Grant spent months trying to take it. In the end they surrounded the city and cut off food, and the people inside dug caves in the hillside to hide from the shells. The city gave up on 4 July 1863 — the same week as the battle at Gettysburg. After that the North controlled the whole river, and the South was cut in two. Historians often call it a turning point of the war.

So in English, "Vicksburg" in a sentence is usually shorthand for that siege, not for the modern city. "After Vicksburg, the war changed" means after the battle. The modern city is small and quiet, and today it lives partly on visitors who come to see the battlefield park and the old houses.

A local detail people find surprising: because the city fell on the Fourth of July, Vicksburg did not really celebrate American Independence Day for a very long time afterwards. The memory sat that deep.