VICEROY (from O. Fr. viceroy, mod. viceroi, i.e. Lat. vice, in place of, and roy or roi, king), the governor of a kingdom or colony to whom is delegated by his sovereign the power to exercise regal authority in his name. The lord-lieutenant of Ireland and the governor-general of India are frequently referred to as viceroys, but the title has no official recognition in British government.
VICH, a city of north-eastern Spain, in the province of Barcelona, on the river Gurn, a small right-hand tributary of the Ter, and on the Granollérs-Ripoll railway Pop. (1900) 11,678. Vich is an ancient episcopal city, with narrow, ill-paved streets and many curious old houses irregularly built on the slope of a hill, which rises above one of the side valleys of the Ter basin. The cathedral, founded about 1040 and built chiefly in the 14th century, was to some extent modernized in 1803. Its Gothic cloisters (1340) are remarkable for the beautiful tracery in their windows, and there is a fine altar of sculptured marble. Some valuable manuscripts are preserved in the library of the chapter-house, and the museum contains an interesting archaeological collection, besides statuary, pictures, &c. The city is locally celebrated for the manufacture of sausages, other industries include tanning and the weaving of linen and woollen fabrics.
Vich, the Ausa of the ancient geographers, was the chief town of the Ausetani, in the middle ages it was called Ausona and Vicus Ausonensis, hence Vic de Osona, and simply Vich.
VICHY, a town of central France in the department of Allier, on the right bank of the Allier, 33 m. S. by E. of Moulins by rail. Pop. (1906) 14,520. Vichy owes its importance to its mineral waters, which were well known in the time of the Romans. They afterwards lost their celebrity and did not regain it till the 17th century, in the latter half of which they were visited and written of by Madame de Sévigné. Within the town or in its immediate vicinity there are between thirty and forty springs, twelve of which are state property, four of these having been tapped by boring. The waters of those which are outside the town are brought in by means of aqueducts. The most celebrated and frequented are the Grande Grille, L'Hôpital, the Célestins, and Lardy. The most copious of all, the Puits Carré, is reserved for the baths. All these, whether cold or hot (maximum temperature, 113° F.), are largely charged with bicarbonate of soda, some also are chalybeate and tonic. The waters, which are limpid, have an alkaline taste and emit a slight odour of sulphuretted hydrogen. They are recommended in cases of stomachic and liver complaint, also for diabetes, gravel and gout. Large quantities are bottled and exported. A luxurious bathing establishment, the property of the state, was opened in 1903. In addition to this, Vichy has the hydropathic establishments of Lardy, Larbaud and L'Hôpital, and a large military hospital, founded in 1843. A fine casino and two public parks add to its attraction. The promenade commands a splendid view of the mountains of Auvergne. Cusset, about 1 m. distant, has similar mineral waters and a bathing establishment.
VICKSBURG, a city and the county-seat of Warren county, Mississippi, U.S.A., on the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers,[1] 44 m. by rail W. of Jackson, and 236 m. N. by W. of New Orleans. Pop. (1890) 13,373; (1900) 14,834, of whom 8147 were negroes; (1910 census) 20,814, being the second largest city in Mississippi. It is served by the Alabama & Vicksburg, the Vicksburg, Shreveport & Pacific, and the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley railways, and by steamboat lines. It is built among the Walnut Hills, which rise about 260 ft. above the river. Among the principal buildings and institutions are the court-house, standing on one of the highest hills, a fine Federal building, the city hall, a state charity hospital, an infirmary, a sanatorium, a public library, the medical college of the university of Mississippi, All Saints' Episcopal College (Protestant Episcopal, 1909) for girls. Saint Francis Xavier's Academy, and Saint Aloysius College (Roman Catholic). The Civil War battle-ground has been converted into a beautiful National Military Park, embracing 1283 acres and containing numerous markers, memorials and monuments, including one (1910) to Lieut.-General Stephen Dill Lee, who was superintendent of the Military Park from 1899 until his death in 1908. On the bluffs just beyond the northern limits of the city and adjoining the Military Park is the Vicksburg National Cemetery, in which are the graves of 16,892 Federal soldiers (12,769 unknown). The principal industry of Vicksburg is the construction and repair of rolling stock for steam railways. It has also a dry dock and cotton compresses; and among its manufactures are cottonseed oil and cake, hardwood lumber, furniture, boxes and baskets. In 1905 the factory products were valued at $1,887,924. The city has a large trade in long-staple cotton grown in the surrounding country. It is a port of entry but has practically no foreign trade.
The French built Fort St Peter near the site of Vicksburg early in the 18th century, and on the 2nd of January 1730 its garrison was murdered by the Yazoo Indians. As early as 1783 the Spanish erected Fort Nogales, and in 1798 this was taken by some United States troops and renamed Fort McHenry. The first permanent settlement in the vicinity was made about 1811 by Rev. Newell (or Newit) Vick (d. 1819), a Methodist preacher. In accordance with his will a town was laid out in 1824; and Vicksburg was incorporated as a town in 1825, and was chartered as a city in 1836. The campaigns of which it was the centre in 1862 and 1863 are described below. Vicksburg was the home of Seargent Smith Prentiss from 1832 to 1845.
See H. F., Simrall, “Vicksburg: the City on the Walnut Hills,” in L. P. Powell's Historic Towns of the Southern States (New York, 1900).
Campaign of 1862-63.—Vicksburg is historically famous as being the centre of interest of one of the most important campaigns of the Civil War. The command of the Mississippi, which would imply the severance of the Confederacy into two halves, and also the reopening of free commercial navigation from St Louis to the sea, was one of the principal objects of the Western Union armies from the time that they began their southward advance from Illinois, Missouri and Kentucky in February 1862. A series of victories in the spring and summer carried them as far as the line Memphis-Corinth, but in the autumn they came to a standstill and were called upon to repulse the counter-advance of the Southern armies. These armies were accompanied by a flotilla of thinly armoured but powerful gunboats which had been built on the upper Mississippi in the autumn of 1861, and had co-operated with the army at Fort Donelson, Shiloh and Island No. 10, besides winning a victory on the water at Memphis.
At the same time a squadron of sea-going vessels under Flag-officer Farragut had forced the defences of New Orleans (q.v.) and, accompanied by a very small military force, had steamed up the great river. On reaching Vicksburg the heavy vessels again forced their way past the batteries, but both at Vicksburg and at Port Hudson they had to deal, no longer with low-sited fortifications, but with inconspicuous earthworks on bluffs far above the river-level, and they failed to make any impression. Farragut then returned to New Orleans. From Helena to Port Hudson the Confederates maintained complete control of the Mississippi, the improvised fortresses of Vicksburg, Port Hudson and Arkansas Post (near the mouth of Arkansas river) being the framework of the defence. It was to be the task of Grant's army around Corinth and the flotilla at Memphis to break up this system of defences, and, by joining hands with Farragut and clearing the whole course of the Mississippi, to cut the Confederacy in half.
The long and painful operations by which this was achieved group themselves into four episodes: (a) the Grenada expedition
- ↑ The channel of the Mississippi has changed greatly: until 1876 the entire city was on the Mississippi, which made a bend forming a tongue of land opposite the city; in 1876 the river cut across this tongue and formed an island, making the northern part of the city front on the shallow “Lake Centennial.” The Federal government, by turning the Yazoo through a canal across the upper end of the old channel, gave the city a river front once more.
