The Battle for Vicksburg was a long and hard fought campaign. The prize was control of the mighty Mississippi River.
At the beginning of the war a Union officer, Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott, had a plan to capture the towns along the Mississippi to make a water route to the sea, and to separate the states of Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas from the rest of the Confederacy. His Anaconda Plan to squeeze the south in two was ignored but few years into the war, people saw he was right. http://www.almc.army.mil/alog/issues/NovDec08/Story_Images/ms474_pic1.jpg Supply Line Warfare by Dr. Cliff Welborn Army Logistician nov/Dec 2008 vol 30 issue 6
By then the rebels had Vicksburg heavily fortified so they could fire on any ships that tried to pass by on the Mississippi River.
The fight for Vicksburg lasted 9 months from the end of 1862 through the summer of 1863. It involved battles and then a long and relentless siege.
During the siege, Vicksburg was surrounded and Union forces shelled the city daily. From May through July no supplies could get in. Food was so scarce that people ate mules and even dogs to survive. Eventually the army and the citizens in Vicksburg were starving.
On July 4, 1863 Confederate General John Pemberton surrendered the city of Vicksburg to General U.S. Grant. Five days later, Port Hudson, the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi, also fell. Many historians see these events, combined with the fact that the Confederates were defeated in Gettysburg, as the turning point of the Civil War.
Now the Union forces had control of the Mississippi River. Bombardment and Capture of Island Number Ten on the Mississippi River, April 7, 1862 Colored lithograph published by Currier & Ives, New York, circa 1862.
Vicksburg National Park
Map? Questionable presentation quality.
Thought the color battle scene was more interesting.
