In early July 1863, seven miles of Confederate earthworks, more than 70,000 United States troops, a fleet of Federal gunboats, and the muddy Mississippi River stand between a Confederate courier and his intended recipient, Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton. The dispatch he bears is unusual. It is tightly rolled, tied with a piece of cotton thread, and inserted into a small cork-stoppered glass bottle along with a .36-caliber pistol bullet. ¶ As the courier draws nears Vicksburg, however, he learns—perhaps from the sight of white flags planted atop Confederate earthworks, a glimpse of a United States flag flying over the city courthouse, or just a breathless explanation from another Confederate soldier—that Pemberton has surrendered the city to Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, bringing an end to the 47-day siege. ¶ Concluding either that he is unable to deliver the dispatch or that the situation had changed so materially as to render its delivery moot, the courier turns and begins to make his way back to his commanding officer, the unopened bottle still tucked in his pocket. ¶ It will take another 30 years for the dispatch finally to be delivered, although into different hands than those originally intended and far from Vicksburg, and more than a century beyond that before it is finally read.
Among the hundreds of items contributed to the newly opened Confederate Museum in Richmond, Va., in 1896 was a small glass bottle containing a paper cylinder and a
