THE BATTLE OF VICKSBURG

VICKSBURG, 1863 The Battle of Vicksburg started on May 19, 1863 The Battle of Vicksburg happened in and around Vicksburg, Mississippi

MAJOR GENERALS/ LEADERS IN THE BATTLE (CONFEDERATES) Confederacy Lt. General John C. Permberton (Pictured Right) General Joseph E. Johnston, The Area Commander, In Command of The Confederate Department of the West.

MAJOR GENERALS/ LEADERS IN THE BATTLE (UNION) General Ulysses S. Grant (Pictured Right) Major General William T. Sherman Major General Nathaniel P. Banks

STRATIGIES OF THE CONFEDERACY The Confederates had only about 18,000 men, while the Union forces had over 35,000 men. The defensive line ran around 6.5 miles. The defensive line also had many notches and holes in the ground for the Confederates to hide in. They had steep hills on which the attackers had to climb to get to the crest. They had large walls where only access was ladders. They hoped it would repel the Union

STRATEGIES OF THE UNION Grant tried first to bypass the Confederate guns by digging a canal that would divert the flow of the river and bringing about the fall of the citadel without the firing of a shot. The effort failed. Grant next tried to land troops downstream at Grand Gulf. Confederate troops dug in, however, and the firepower of the U.S. Navy could not blast them from their defenses. Frustrated but undeterred, Grant moved further south and finally came ashore near Port Gibson. Fighting his way through Confederate defenders at Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, Champion Hill and Big Black River, he closed in on Vicksburg from the east.

Cont strategies Grant moved his forces into position around Vicksburg, surrounding the Confederate army but also trapping hundreds of civilians in the city now turned into a war zone. Union troops began to dig siege works and place artillery to bombard the town as Southern soldiers and civilians prepared to withstand the coming onslaught. They blocked the exit to the Mississippi with boats called Ironclads, shown to the right. There were about 13 of them.

The Battle of Vicksburg began on May 19, 1863, when Grant sent thousands of men storming forward in an effort to overwhelm the Stockade Redan, a powerful Confederate fort with 17-foot high walls and an 8-foot wide ditch. Defended by the 36th Mississippi Infantry, the redan proved impossible to take. The fight for Vicksburg now turned into a brutal, ongoing siege. Union troops inched closer to the Confederate lines by digging zigzag approach trenches and pushing their positions closer and closer. Mines were dug under Confederate forts and exploded. They knew that they would run out of food until they only had rations to spare.

Interesting Facts to know about the Battle of Vicksburg John C. Pemberton was actually a northerner, born in Philadelphia. He decided to surrender on July 4 th because "I know my people. I know we can get better terms from them on the Fourth of July than on any other day of the year.” After the surrender, the Fourth of July would not be celebrated for 81 years!

Who won this glorious and important battle? In the end it was starvation and not Union attacks that brought the siege to an end. With his soldiers and the civilians of Vicksburg reduced to eating mules, rats and even boiled shoe leather, Pemberton surrendered to Grant on July 4, 1863, a day after Gettysburg. The Union

Thanks to the Union winning the Battle of Vicksburg… The Battle of Vicksburg, Mississippi, was the culmination of a two year effort by Union armies and navies to wrest control of the Mississippi River from Confederate forces This sealed the fate of the Confederacy, for if they could not get troops over to the other side, they would run out of men. The “Anaconda Plan” was close to being finished.