He initiated a plan that is still studied today as a classic example of how to conduct siege warfare. One group tunneled underneath the Third Louisiana Redan, named for its defenders, and on June 25 detonated barrels of black powder that blasted a hole in the works. Union soldiers surged into the breach only to be met by a counterattack. Desperate hand-to-hand fighting ensued for hours before the attackers were driven out. A second mine was exploded on July 1 but was not followed up by an attack.
That same day, Joe Johnston finally sent a relief force from re-occupied Jackson toward Vicksburg, but it was too little, too late, and did not play a role in the fighting. Food and other supplies from outside had been cut off for a month and a half. Horses, dogs, cats, reportedly even rats became part of the diet for soldiers and civilians alike. On July 3, Pemberton rode out to discuss surrender terms with Grant.
The next morning, July 4, Confederate soldiers began marching out and stacking their guns. The city of Vicksburg would not celebrate the Fourth of July as a holiday thereafter until well into the 20th century. Some 29, surrendered. With the fall of the Confederate Gibraltar, the last remaining Southern stronghold on the Mississippi, Port Hudson, also capitulated.
Rosecrans forced the Confederate Army of Tennessee to withdraw from the Middle Tennessee area to Chattanooga, just north of the Georgia state line. The winds of war had shifted in favor of the North. The Confederacy had been irretrievably divided east and west. Pemberton found the Confederate government was no longer willing to entrust him with high command and, remarkably, he resigned his commission and attempted to re-enlist as a private.
Southern president Jefferson Davis commissioned him a lieutenant coronel of artillery instead. Joseph Johnston briefly attempted to hold Jackson, but the Federals reoccupied it. Destruction there was so complete that it became known as "Chimneyville—virtually all that was left. Johnston would lead the Army of Tennessee during most of the Atlanta Campaign and again following the Southern debacle at Franklin and Nashville in the winter of Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia.
He came to regret his decision to parole the Vicksburg garrison, however. Most of its men re-enlisted without being exchanged for Union prisoners, as was the custom, putting thousands more rifles back into the Southern ranks.
As a result, Grant would virtually halt prisoner exchanges when he was promoted to command all armies, a decision that perhaps shortened the war but also condemned thousands of prisoners north and south to prolonged incarceration and death in the unsanitary conditions of overcrowded prisoner of war camps. Today, the Vicksburg National Military Park stretches over 1, acres of fields, woods, and ravines. It includes the Vicksburg National Cemetery, the final resting place of 17, Union soldiers, the largest number of any national cemetery.
Faust II, Library of Congress. Alarmed residents of Vicksburg, Mississippi, watched in despair on the night of May 17, , as thousands of ragged, downcast Southern soldiers poured into their city from all directions. The man the Rebels were running from, Union Maj. Grant, had ended months of Northern frustration and failure by landing an overwhelming force in western Mississippi on the night of April 30, then moving inland across the state. In 17 days of brilliant campaigning, the misleadingly phlegmatic Grant had inflicted five crushing defeats on separate bands of Confederate warriors who had always felt that enemy soldiers could never threaten them so deep on their own home soil.
All this Grant had accomplished while cut off from his base of operations and supply, and in direct violation of his stated orders to advance south into Louisiana for a combined operation against Port Hudson. By May 16, when he met and decisively defeated Lt.
Vicksburg had been the object of intense Union attention since the start of the war. Abraham Lincoln knew its importance. A Union charge was not long in coming. Grant, confident that one sharp push could overwhelm the demoralized Confederates in their defenses and avoid a long, uncomfortable siege, ordered an assault all along his front to begin at mid-afternoon on May Major General William T. Meanwhile, Maj. Pemberton had left 10, men in the city when he ventured out, and these unbloodied troops stiffened the resolve of those returning from battle.
They were also behind strong fortifications. And, as Grant soon would find out, he could not even rely on the normal competence of his corps commanders in the upcoming fight.
The May 19 action was hampered from the start. Only one brigade, commanded by Colonel Giles Smith, managed to gain much headway. Troopers from the 1st Battalion, 13th U. Volunteer regiments from Indiana and Illinois joined them, but they could not enter the works because of intense Confederate fire. Other Union troops did not get as far. The enemy wavered a moment, and then marched forward. They were again met by another volley, when they broke and fled under cover of the hills.
Many more Federal troops were pinned down between the lines, lying amid the canebrakes that covered the terrain. It was all they could do to remain low and avoid the killing rain of Minie bullets and artillery fire.
Not long after, when night had obscured the battlefield, Sherman ordered all his advanced troops withdrawn. With no newsprint left in stock, it printed its editions on pieces of cut-up wallpaper. Then he came up with an ambitious plan to use the navy to provide transports for the river crossing. Success hinged on getting boats safely past the Confederate guns at Vicksburg and seizing control of the river south of the city. Rear Adm. David Dixon Porter, who commanded the Mississippi Squadron, would mastermind the running of gunboats downriver, then later running a fleet of transports past the bluffs at Vicksburg.
On April 16, , Porter ordered seven ironclad boats, one armed ram, three army transports, and a tug to start downriver past Vicksburg. Porter urged his men to take "every precaution possible to protect the hull and machinery" of their ships. To shield against shellfire, each vessel had its port side, which would face the Vicksburg guns in passage, piled high with bales of cotton, hay, and grain. Coal barges were lashed alongside as an additional defense. The fleet would keep all lights extinguished, even when returning fire, and of course, make as little noise as possible.
The ships departed anchorage at p. One of the three transports sunk. The gunboats sailed through. Through this daring engagement, Grant was able to secure transports to cross the river. His landing of 17, soldiers was the largest amphibious operation in United States military history until the invasion of Normandy during World War II.
Vicksburg Vicksburg Animated Map. Close Video. How it ended Union victory. In context The Mississippi River was the primary conduit for supplies and communication through the south as well as a vital lifeline for goods going north.
During the Battle. Union 77, Aftermath Union. Estimated Casualties. Union 4, Questions to Consider 1. How were the citizens of Vicksburg impacted by the long siege? The ridges upon which Vicksburg is built, and those back to the Big Black, are composed of a deep yellow clay of great tenacity.
Where roads and streets are cut through perpendicular banks are left and stand as well as if composed of stone. The magazines of the enemy were made by running passage-ways into this clay at places where there are deep cuts. The Confederate soldiers and civilians trapped in Vicksburg dealt with dwindling supplies of food and ammunition, frequent bombardments, and disease. Pemberton realized that he was outdone and surrendered on July 4, , a day after the Union victory at Gettysburg.
Siege of Vicksburg. The Bluffs are very high, and the country very rough and heavy timbered. Admiral David Porter had run his flotilla past the Vicksburg defenses in early May as Grant marched his army down the west bank of the river opposite Vicksburg, crossed back to Mississippi and drove toward Jackson. After defeating a Confederate force near Jackson, Grant turned back to Vicksburg.
On May 16, he defeated a force under General John C. Pemberton at Champion Hill. Pemberton retreated back to Vicksburg, and Grant sealed the city by the end of May.
Terrain and Confederate fortifications around Vicksburg. Grant made some attacks after bottling Vicksburg but found the Confederates well entrenched. It was only a matter of time before Grant, with 70, troops, captured Vicksburg. Attempts to rescue Pemberton and his force failed from both the east and west, and conditions for both military personnel and civilians deteriorated rapidly.
Many residents moved to tunnels dug from the hillsides to escape the constant bombardments. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!
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