damn NS.....Grant had no free will eh?
Pemberton (Yankee) made him bomb civilians....I get it.
Pemberton sucked though....you’re right about that.....but to be fair, it was reasonable to assume that he (Pemberton) could deal with gunboat traffic, defend to the east and not have to worry about the South and North land approaches which are horrible...impossible to the north.. to march an army through. He underestimated Grant’s ability to march down the Louisiana side and then cross over and take Jackson and Champion’s Hill etc thus making any hook up with Johnston impractical.
Which means it was Johnston’s fault as much since he did not make the effort necessary to match Grant and WT.
And yes...Grant did allow civilians to leave......those that wanted to but the ones who stayed were naive enough to think he would only target CSA encampments on the perimeter.
Any hardships and deaths among the civilian population of Vicskburg were due to the fact that Pemberton chose to hole up there with his army. Had Pemberton not done so then none of that would have happened. Sorry if that bothers you but as the wise man once said, war is hell.