Book excerpt: James T. Currie relates in this thought-provoking work that between July 4, 1863, and the end of the Civil War in May 1865, Vicksburg and the plantations around it were an enclave of Union territory in the heart of the Confederacy. He also identifies many of the problems confronting the city during the late 1860s and indicates the means through which solutions were sought. The book is an intensive examination of Vicksburg and Warren County for the seven years from 1863 to 1870.