Originally aired on July 07, 1995 - In part 45 of our Civil War series, Virginia Tech history professor James Robertson says that the most important city on the Mississippi to the Confederate cause was Vicksburg. However, the events there in July 1863 showed that Lee’s army was running out of manpower and time.
#45 – Vicksburg
No city on the Mississippi River became more vital to the Confederate cause than Vicksburg. Lying roughly midway between Memphis and New Orleans, and the second largest city in the state of Mississippi, Vicksburg became a veritable fortress during the early years of the Civil War.
It stood on a 200-foot bluff overlooking a huge bend in the river, and its heavy guns commanded every mile of that bend. Across the river, a maze of bayous and bogs blocked military operations except at low water. The Mississippi and an impassable swamp shielded Vicksburg on three sides. It could be attacked only by land from the east. Yet a high ridge there protected the town with all the security of a vast wall.
Early efforts by Union army and naval forces to take Vicksburg all failed. In January, 1863, General U. S. Grant came downriver to take personal command of Federals massed not far from the city. In the next three months, Grant attempted five different offensives against Vicksburg. All came to naught.
Grand was undeterred. No campaign better illustrated Grant’s coolness under pressure, his will to succeed, and his quiet ability to impart that will to subordinates. He was a plain-looking, cigar-smoking, unassuming general, but Grant had a marvelous knack of getting things done by sheer persistence.
The plan Grant ultimately adopted against Vicksburg called for the Union army to cross the Mississippi south of town, and move against the soft underbelly of the confederate defenses south of both Vicksburg and the state capital, Jackson. It was a simple but dangerous offensive. Once on the east side of the Mississippi, there could be no turning back. Grant would be cut off from his base until he could fight his way to the river somewhere at or above Vicksburg.
In mid-April, the Union advance began. Grant and about 23,000 soldiers drove eastward through Mississippi. When Grant joined forces with General William T. Sherman, the Union army had a total strength of about 44,000 Federals. Inside Vicksburg was a Southern garrison of 32,000 men.
Grant then led his army on a march of 180 miles. He fought and won four battles against separate enemy forces. By seizing Jackson and then moving due west, Grant firmly isolated the Confederates in the Vicksburg defenses. On May 19 and 22, Grant ordered attacks against the city. The Union efforts were repulsed.
That convinced Grant to employ siege tactics. Since he could not drive the Confederates from Vicksburg, he would let starvation and sickness do the job for him. And so for 6 weeks the Union noose slowly tightened. The Confederate garrison, reduced to quarter rations, subjected to artillery and mortar bombardment around the clock and sharpshooter fire throughout the day, sagged from hunger and exhaustion.
A Confederate officer inside the town observed that if the siege continued much longer, “a building will have to be arranged for the accommodation of maniacs” because the constant tension was driving people out of their minds.
On July 3, 1863, the Southern commander, General John Pemberton, asked for surrender terms. The next day, some 29,500 Confederate soldiers laid down their arms and staggered from the city. Vicksburg belonged to Grant. An overjoyed Abraham Lincoln exclaimed: “The Father of Waters runs unvexed to the sea”.
Grant had waged a campaign with what many likened to the genius of Napoleon. His casualties were less than 10,000 men, but his army had killed or wounded 10,000 of the enemy and captured another 37,000 soldiers at various stations along the Mississippi. Also seized by the Federals were 172 cannon and 60,000 muskets that the South could ill afford to give up.
With smashing twin Federal victories in the West at Vicksburg and in the East at Gettysburg, the month of July, 1863, made one point unalterably clear: the Confederacy was running out of both manpower and time.
