Following the surrender on 4 JUL 1863, the Federals were busy paroling the able bodied men of the garrison in their camps behind the trench lines. The able bodied paroled prisoners walked in groups (they were not allowed to march out in military formations) to the Big Black Bridge on 11 JUL 1863. The roadside was lined on both sides with Federal troops who wanted a glimpse of the defeated Rebels. Upon crossing the bridge, they were beyond Federal control.

At this point, the Federals started the paroling process in the various military hospitals in Vicksburg. My response is based on my examination of the records of 204 men of the 12th Louisiana Infantry (the "Dixon Detachment") who ended up inside the siege lines at Vicksburg on 18 MAY 1863 rather than at Jackson with General Loring.

Thirty-two (32) men from the regiment were among the Confederate sick and wounded left behind and paroled in the Vicksburg military hospitals after 11 JUL 1863. Seven (7) never left the hospitals and died during the summer. Two were sent by steamship to Mobile with other sick and wounded and delivered to Confederate authorities there as paroled prisoners of war. The remaining 21 hospitalized POWs were paroled and released during the summer to find their way across the Mississippi River (usually the Natchez crossing) and get home. Two (2) died en route home, and 10 more died shortly after arriving home. They died from various diseases contracted before and during the siege, or from diseases prevalent in the summer months of that era to which their weakened condition made them vulnerable.

You wrote that William and Seth Lambert of the 41st Georgia Infantry were in a Vicksburg hospital on 12/31/1863. I would recheck that date. My impression is that if you could get yourself to the toilet when "duty called", you were considered convalescent, paroled, and released. The Federals were not interested in holding and caring for sick enemy soldiers. I am not aware of any Confederate POWs still being cared for in the Federal Vicksburg hospitals by the fall of 1863. Those who could not walk across the Big Black Bridge were sent by steamboat down the Mississippi River to Mobile and handed over to Confederate authorities there.

But there are always exceptions and someone out there knows of one. Maybe you have the exceptions in the story of the Lambert brothers!

I look forward to your response!

Hugh