Battle of Vicksburg

BEFORE THE SIEGE

     Grant knew that attempting to capture Vicksburg was going to be tough because he had been involved in a few efforts to capture Vicksburg before (Channing, 135). It had proven challenging to capture because it was well protected on land and had good artillery coverage of the river itself" (Brinkley, 361). In fact, Grant attacked the city from many different directions to try and find a weak spot (BurdenGrant decided it was time to change tactics other then trying to conquer the city via land assault (Burden). Noticing that Vicksburg had its strongest defenses facing the north, Grant decided that he needed a plan to secretly bring troops and supplies to the south end of the city via the navy's cooperation without the Confederacy finding out (Brinkley, 362).            

     Grant told Sherman to "conduct two feints north of Vicksburg", so that the army would be distracted (Burden). Then, another distraction that resulted in opportunity for Grant was the remarkable Union calvary raid from Mississippi all the way to Louisiana led by Colonel Benjamin Grierson (Channing, 136). Grant seized this window of opportunity and on April 16, navy Admiral David Porter transported troops and supplies down the Mississippi River, while other troops were led down south as well (Burden). Both parties met up at a town south of Vicksburg that had better terrain; together, they had "transferred 24,000 men and 60 guns from the west bank to the east" (Burden). As this army made their way north towards Vicksburg, the rest of Grant's army-under the command of Sherman-made their way to Grant, making the total count about 45,000 men (Burden).

     While Grant and his army continued to make their way to the rear of Vicksburg, another Confederate general named Joseph Johnston arrived in Jackson, Mississippi (Channing, 136). Johnston and Pemberton both decided that the best way to hurt Grant would be to cut off his supply line to the Mississippi River (Battle Summary). Pemberton left Vicksburg with most of his men to find the supply line, but after suffering many losses at a few battles, he withdrew back to Vicksburg, greatly having limited their numbers and giving Grant the edge he was looking for (Burden).

SIEGE OF VICKSBURG

     Grant planned coordinated attacks with his army generals, although all three were pushed back and the losses were great (Channing, 136). After these three losses, Grant decided enough was enough. Grant executed the classic example of siege warfare by cutting Vicksburg off from any supplies, starving them out. (Brinkley, 363). In addition, his men dug trenches to get closer to the enemy's positions while Vicksburg civilians huddled in caves to aviod the shellings and heavy gunfire (Burden). Finally, on July 4th, Pemberton gave in and Confederate troops proceeded to stack their guns for the Union army (Burden).