The Siege Of Vicksburg

My American Civil War project topic is The Siege Of Vicksburg. It is one of the more remarkable campaigns of the American Civil War. For many a hard fought month, Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee had been trying to wrest away the strategic Confederate river fortress of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Previous, direct attempts to take this important town high above the Mississippi River were blocked by deft rebel counter moves and some of the most pernicious terrain in the entire Western theater.

In late April 1863, Grant undertook a new and bold campaign against Vicksburg and the Confederate defenders under John Pemberton. After conducting a surprise landing below Vicksburg at Bruinsburg, Mississippi, Grant’s forces moved rapidly inland, pushing back the threat posed by Joseph E. Johnston’s forces near Jackson. Once his rear was clear, Grant again turned his sights on Vicksburg.

Court House Long Description Union victories at Champion Hill and Big Black Bridge weakened Pemberton’s forces, leaving the Confederate chief with no alternative but to retreat to Vicksburg's defenses. The Federals assailed the Rebel stronghold on May 19 and 22, but were repulsed with such great loss that Grant determined to lay siege to the city to avoid further loss of life. Soldiers and civilians alike endured the privations of siege warfare for 47 days before the surrender of Pemberton’s forces on July 4, 1863. With the Mississippi River now firmly in Union hands, the Confederacy's fate was all but sealed.

The Siege Of Vicksburg is in Mississippi. About 83 miles away from Sardis Mississippi.

The Vicksburg Campaign was a series of maneuvers and battles in the Western Theater of the American Civil War directed against Vicksburg, Mississippi, a fortress city that dominated the last Confederate-controlled section of the Mississippi River. The Union Army of the Tennessee under the command of Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant gained control of the river by capturing this stronghold and defeating Confederate Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton's forces stationed there.

The campaign consisted of many important naval operations, troop maneuvers, failed initiatives, and eleven distinct battles over the period December 26, 1862, to July 4, 1863. Military historians divide the campaign into two formal phases: Operations Against Vicksburg (December 1862–January 1863) and Grant's Operations Against Vicksburg (March–July 1863).

Vicksburg, Mississippi, was an important, well-protected fortress for the Confederate Army during the Civil War. On May 19, 1863, Union General Ulysses S. Grant attacked Vicksburg with intent to take over the city. The Union navy had already prevented other recruits from joining Confederate General C. Pemberton.

When most people think of sieges, they tend to think of catapults, barrels of tar, ladders, moats, and battering rams. A specialty of Roman and Medieval warfare, the siege had lost its usefulness in the Napoleonic era. Armies, before the Civil War, met in large numbers of over 100,000 out in the fields of Europe. But the United States was not Europe. If anything, the Confederacy was geographically the opposite of Europe. In climate, it was hot and humid in the summer. In terrain, it was heavily forested and mountainous in the Eastern Theater. Warfare was changing and the technology along with it created for massive casualties in the Civil War. For Union General Ulysses S. Grant, the siege was more an act of desperation to take Vicksburg

For Grant, this was not his first siege. At Corinth in northeastern Mississippi, Grant had his army taken away from him for a while by Henry Halleck. Halleck employed the siege strategy in part because the previous battle at Shiloh had been so bloody. In addition, Corinth was not a large town. In little over a month in April and May of 1862, the Union forced the town to surrender and the Union had taken one of the few railroad junctions in the South. After the victory, Halleck went back east, Grant was given back the Army of the Tennessee, but only with 46,000 men

The Siege of Vicksburg began on Monday, May 18, 1863 and ended on Saturday, July 4, 1863. General Ulysses Grant lead the Union in The Siege of Vicksburg. There was no one specific leader of the Confederate States army as there were actually several armies that participated on the Confederate side of the war. However, the Army of Northern Virginia, which was one of the main armies was led by General Robert E. Lee.

"Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus." The Free Dictionary. Farlex, n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.WebsiteLinkTagsEditDelete "Google." Google. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2014.WebsiteLinkTagsEditDelete "History.com." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.WebsiteLinkTagsEditDelete N.p., n.d. Web.WebsiteTagsEditDelete “ Wikipedia ” . Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2014.WebsiteLinkTagsEditDelete “ WordPress.org " WordPress › Blog Tool, Publishing Platform, and CMS. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.

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