Karen,

I just ran across something that may shed a little light from a first hand account. UNC at Chapel Hill has an online transcript of Sarah Lois Wadley's diary. She was living in Monroe during the time period that you were wondering about. She does not seem to be very frightened at the time but in August she tells of the union troops coming into Monroe. She does constantly mention Vicksburg.

Here is an excerpt from July 18th, 1862 that you may find interesting, "A large body of Calvary from Texas passed here the other day, we waved to them, Miss Mary was in the grove waving and hurrahing, one cried out to her "I will bring you two Yankees home" "I will not thank you for so few as that", she said. He replied enthusiastically, "God Bless your little Jeff. Davis rebel soul"; a characteristic dialogue, characteristic of the time, ah! we almost froget humanity now, and applaud sentiments at which in other times, we would have wept."

If you are interested, here is the address, http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/wadley/wadley.html