It was yielded unwillingly to the conqueror, only after all resistance had proved in vain.

It fell by famine, rather than by the arms of the enemy.
The defence was highly honorable to the besieged.

It lasted six weeks, in which they had displayed equal courage and endurance.

The consequences of this misfortune leave it somewhat doubtful, whether the determination to defend the city to the last extremity, was not the result of a correct policy; considering less its own loss, and that of the army, than the effect of the former upon the rustic population.
Certainly, the capture of the army was a vital misfortune to the southern States; yet the loss of the city itself was of prodigious effect upon the scattered settlements of the country.

The character and resolve of the capital cities, in those days, were very much the sources of the moral strength of the interior.