My Mississippi Manifest Destiny: Vicksburg Battlefield, Part One

Earlier in my ongoing series, My Mississippi Manifest Destiny, I wrote about the battles of Shiloh, Corinth, and Tupelo. Now it's time for Vicksburg, which was the most important battle in the western theater of the Civil War.

From Wikipedia's entry on Ulysses S. Grant:

In an attempt to capture the Mississippi River fortress of Vicksburg, Mississippi, Grant spent the winter of 1862–1863 conducting a series of operations to gain access to the city through the region's bayous. These attempts failed.

However, his strategy to take Vicksburg in 1863 is considered one of the most masterful in military history. Grant marched his troops down the west bank of the Mississippi and crossed the river by using U.S. Navy ships that had run the guns at Vicksburg. There, he moved inland and—in a daring move that defied conventional military principles—cut loose from most of his supply lines. Operating in enemy territory, Grant moved swiftly, never giving the Confederates, under the command of John C. Pemberton, an opportunity to concentrate their forces against him. Grant's army went eastward, captured the city of Jackson, Mississippi, and severed the rail line to Vicksburg.

Knowing that the Confederates could no longer send reinforcements to the Vicksburg garrison, Grant turned west and won the Battle of Champion Hill. The Confederates retreated inside their fortifications at Vicksburg, and Grant promptly surrounded the city. Finding that assaults against the impregnable breastworks were futile, he settled in for a six-week siege. Cut off and with no possibility of relief, Pemberton surrendered to Grant on July 4, 1863. It was a devastating defeat for the Southern cause, effectively splitting the Confederacy in two, and, in conjunction with the Union victory at Gettysburg the previous day, is widely considered the turning point of the war. For this victory, President Lincoln promoted Grant to the rank of major general in the regular army, effective July 4.

A distinguished British historian has written that "we must go back to the campaigns of Napoleon to find equally brilliant results accomplished in the same space of time with such a small loss." Lincoln said after the capture of Vicksburg and after the lost opportunity after Gettysburg, "Grant is my man and I am his the rest of the War."

Like Natchez, Vicksburg sits on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi, although the Flood of 1876 shifted the river somewhat away from Vicksburg. There was very little fighting during the Civil War in Natchez. As for Vicksburg, the bluffs are steeper, which gave the defending Confederates a natural line of defense from the Union attacks. Both sides built earthworks strengthen their defensive positions.

As with Shiloh, there are countless monuments to various Union and Confederate regiments, as well as memorials representing each state that sent troops to this pivotal battle. The state monuments are much grander than those of Shiloh, and they will be the topic of my text post. On the top of the ridge on the right is the Louisiana Memorial, seen from the perspective of the Federal lines.

UPDATE 8:40 AM CST: The Public "I" has a take on the Battle of Vicksburg here.

Vicksburg-related posts:

Jewish Mississippi
Memorial Day tribute to our ally Australia
Memorial Day--a time to remember

Previous My Mississippi Manifest Destiny posts:

• Coca-Cola museums
• Prison laborer in Louisiana
• Natchez Part Three
• Natchez Part Two, Forks of the Road
• Natchez Part One
• The Father of Waters
• Logging
• The Natchez Trace Part Four, Ghost Town
• The Natchez Trace Part Three
• The Natchez Trace Part Two, Indian Mounds
• The Natchez Trace Part One
• $aving$ in Tupelo
• Where Elvis bought his first guitar
• Elvis Presley's birthplace
• The Battle of Tupelo
• Corinth
• Shiloh Part Four
• Shiloh Part Three
• Shiloh Part Two
• Shiloh Part One
• Carl Perkins
• The Varsity Theatre in Martin, Tennessee
• Lincoln and Kentucky
• Metropolis