It was July 4th, 1863, and the stars and stripes flew again over Vicksburg, Mississippi. But this wasn’t a celebration. There were no parades, no fireworks, no songs of freedom. In fact, for 81 years, Vicksburg would skip Independence Day altogether. That morning, under a blazing Southern sun, a grim procession of exhausted Confederate soldiers stacked their rifles, furled their flags, and surrendered their city to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. The Civil War had reached its great turning point.