==Fleeing blacks, etc== 
 Before the actual battles at Vicksburg commenced there was much organization and preparation that needed to be effected first. In the days before Grant began the siege, Grant not only had to bring all the speculators and collaborators under control, he had to organize all the many escaped blacks, making sure they didn't get in the way of or otherwise disrupt military operations, and did this by putting them to work, with pay. Since Grant's order, and its aftermath, effectively stopped most of the cotton from falling into rebel hands, who were unable to carry it all away, it was burned just before Union troops would enter a given area. A summary of these things  should be included at the beginning of the Vicksburg subsection.