Vicksburg

Running the Gauntlet, Grand Gulf, Bruinsburg, Port Gibson

Agenda

• Running the Gauntlet

• Grand Gulf– Successful Confederate defense

• Bruinsburg– Turning movement bypasses Grand Gulf

• Port Gibson– Federal victory secures Grant’s position on

east side of Mississippi

New Plan

• After his failed attempts of Dec 1862 through Mar 1863, Grant decides to march his army down the west side of the Mississippi to a point below Vicksburg where river transports could ferry the men across

• To make this work, the transports would have to run past the gauntlet of the Vicksburg batteries

Running the Gauntlet

• To improve his chances of success, Grant’s creates several diversions– Sends cavalry under Frederick Steele to Greenville,

MS and destroyed Confederate supplies in an effort to convince Pemberton Grant had abandoned Vicksburg in favor of operations upriver

– Pemberton saw Federals boats heading back to Memphis to relieve traffic congestion around Vicksburg and misinterpreted this as a sign Grant was giving up and pulling back

Running the Gauntlet

• Sends Benjamin Grierson on a large cavalry raid that begins in LaGrange, TN, slashes through Mississippi, and ends up at Baton Rouge, LA

• Pemberton’s already unreliable intelligence service could not track Grierson’s movements and reported Federals everywhere at once– Pemberton confused and

paralyzed

Running the Gauntlet• On the night of April 16,

Porter led seven gunboats followed by three transports loaded with thousands of men– The transports towed ten

barges loaded with coal and ammunition to be used in future operations down river

• The Confederate batteries observed the flotilla, lit up the river with flares, and opened up with their cannon– Only one ship was lost

• On the 26th Grant ran the gauntlet again with six more transports laden with coal and rations

Land Movement to New Carthage

• While Porter was moving by river, the army was moving on land

• On Mar 29, Grant had ordered McClernand to march his four divisions from Milliken’s Bend to New Carthage– Grant joined him there on Apr 17– On Apr 22, Grant ordered the rest of his army

to move to New Carthage

Move to Hard Times

• Reconnaissance showed there was no suitable landing sites where high ground could be seized between New Carthage and Grand Gulf so Grant ordered the march continue to Hard Times

Diversion

• By Apr 27, McClernand was at Hard Times

• McPherson was closing rapidly

• Sherman was still opposite Vicksburg – This dispersal of Federal troops

kept Pemberton guessing• Grant confused Pemberton

more by having Sherman send a strong force back up the Yazoo to create a diversion around Hayne’s Bluff

The USS Black Hawk was one of the ships participating in the Hayne’s Bluff diversion

Diversion

• Sherman loaded 10 regiments worth of troops on transports and instructed every man to “look as numerous as possible.” – Sherman then moved the transports within view of the

Confederate forces at Hayne’s Bluff, moved them out of sight, reboarded and repeated the process three times.

– This gave the appearance of 30 regiments instead of 10 and resulted in the Haynes Bluff commander wiring an urgent message to Pemberton: “The enemy are in front of me in force such as has never been seen before at Vicksburg. Send me reinforcements.”

• In the meantime, Sherman was moving out to join Grant south of Vicksburg.

Grand Gulf

• Grant had a truly joint plan for Grand Gulf– Porter and the navy

would silence the Confederate batteries followed by rapid landings by McClernand’s Corps to seize the fortifications and secure a foothold for the rest of the army

Grand Gulf: River-Bluff Interface

Grand Gulf: Confederate Defenses

• Brigadier General John Bowen commanded the Confederate forces at Grand Gulf

• He built two fortified batteries, approximately 1,000 yards apart, on either side of Grand Gulf’s ruins (Admiral Farragut had burned the town in 1862)

• Just upstream of the town was Fort Cobun and downstrean was Fort Wade

Grand Gulf: Confederate Defenses

• Fort Cobun – Built by cutting a notch into the face of the bluff forty feet

above river level, and piling the spoil to form a parapet forty feet thick.

– One 8-inch Dahlgren, one 30-pounder Parrott, and two-32 pounders

• Fort Wade– About twenty feet above river level and approximately 300

yards back from the river– One 100-pounder Blakeley rifle, one 8-inch Dahlgren, and

two 32-pounder rifles• Several more field pieces stood between the forts• Some of Bowen's infantry manned a line of rifle pits that

connected the forts, but most were behind the crests of the hills

Grand Gulf: April 29, 1863

• Admiral Porter’s ironclads opened fire on Grand Gulf– Fort Wade was silenced,

but Fort Cobun remained active

– Porter declares, “Grand Gulf is the strongest place on the Mississippi.”

• Grant decides to outflank Grand Gulf by moving south to Bruinsburg

View from Fort Cobun

Crossing at Bruinsburg

• Grant receives intelligence from a local slave that there was an unguarded landing site at Bruinsburg, roughly halfway between Grand Gulf and Rodney

• Early on the morning of April 30, McClernand's corps boards Porter's ironclads and transports and steams downstream to Bruinsburg

Rodney and Bruinsburg Roads

• Unopposed landing of over 17,000 men• Largest amphibious operation in American history until the Allied invasion of Normandy during WWII

• Grant advances on Rodney and Bruinsburg Roads toward Port Gibson

Confederate Missed Opportunity

• Although the landing was unopposed the bluff line that represented high, dry ground was about a mile inland from the Bruinsburg landings.

• If the Confederates should establish defensive positions at the bluffs before Grant reached them it would be a repeat of Chickasaw Bayou

• However, the Confederates had misread Grant’s intentions– Pemberton was confused by all the diversions and conflicting

reports– “Thus, the Battle of Bruinsburg, potentially the most important

engagement of the Vicksburg campaign, never took place.” (CGSC Vicksburg Staff Ride Handbook)

Advance on Port Gibson

• Grant eventually meets Confederate outposts after midnight and subsequent battles ensue for about three hours

• After 3:00 am, the fighting stops and Union forces renew their advance on Rodney Road at dawn

The Windsor Ruins are 14 miles southwest of Port Gibson. The Federals used the captured plantation as a hospital and observation station.

Battle of Port Gibson

• At 5:30 am, the Confederates engage the Union advance and another battle begins

• The Confederates establish new defensive positions at different times during the day but they cannot stop the Union advance

Result of Port Gibson

• Ultimately Grant reaches Port Gibson and defeats Confederates there under the command of Brigadier General Bowen

• Victory secures Grant’s position on Mississippi soil and forces the evacuation of Grand Gulf

Grant declared Port Gibson was “too beautiful to burn”

Bruinsburg and Port Gibson as a Turning Movement

A turning movement is a form of maneuver in which the attacking force seeks to avoid the enemy’s principal defensive positions by seizing objectives to the enemy rear and causing the enemy to move out of his current positions or divert major forces to meet the threat.

Next

• Logistics

• Battle of Raymond

• Battle of Jackson