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[Illustration: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR · March 3, 1849]
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Stewart L. Udall, _Secretary_
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
Conrad L. Wirth, _Director_
_HISTORICAL HANDBOOK NUMBER TWENTY-ONE_
This publication is one of a series of handbooks describing the
historical and archeological areas in the National Park System
administered by the National Park Service of the United States
Department of the Interior. It is printed by the Government Printing
Office and may be purchased from the Superintendent of Documents,
Washington 25, D. C. Price 25 cents.
VICKSBURG
National Military Park, Mississippi
by William C. Everhart
[Illustration: Siege cannon.]
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE HISTORICAL HANDBOOK SERIES No. 21
Washington, D. C., 1954
(Reprint 1961)
_The National Park System, of which Vicksburg National Military Park is
a unit, is dedicated to conserving the scenic, scientific, and historic
heritage of the United States for the benefit and inspiration of its
people._
[Illustration: NATIONAL PARK SERVICE · DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR]
_Contents_
Page
Vicksburg and the Mississippi 1
The First Moves Against Vicksburg 3
Grant's First Failure at Vicksburg 6
THE BAYOU EXPEDITIONS: GRANT MOVES AGAINST VICKSBURG--AND FAILS 8
The Geographical Problem of Vicksburg 8
Grant's Canal 10
Duckport Canal 12
Lake Providence Expedition 12
The Yazoo Pass Expedition 14
The Steele's Bayou Expedition 14
THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN: GRANT MOVES AGAINST VICKSBURG--AND
SUCCEEDS 16
Porter Runs the Vicksburg Batteries 16
The River Crossing 19
The Battle of Port Gibson 21
The Strategy of the Vicksburg Campaign 21
The Battles of Raymond and Jackson 23
The Battle of Champion's Hill 26
The Battle of Big Black River 30
The Campaign Ended 31
THE SIEGE OF VICKSBURG 33
The Confederate Defense Line 33
The Assault of May 19 34
The Assault of May 22 35
Union Siege Operations 40
Confederate Trench Life 41
Civilian Life in Vicksburg During the Siege 45
Fraternization 45
Johnston's Dilemma 47
The Surrender of Vicksburg 49
The Significance of the Fall of Vicksburg 52
GUIDE TO THE AREA 54
THE PARK 60
HOW TO REACH THE PARK 60
ADMINISTRATION 60
RELATED AREAS 60
VISITOR FACILITIES 60
[Illustration: _Merchant steamers unloading supplies at Vicksburg
after the surrender._ Courtesy Library of Congress.]
[Illustration: Cannon overlooking the river.]
_Across the imperishable canvas of the American Civil War are vividly
recorded feats of arms and armies, and acts of courage and steadfast
devotion which have since become a treasured heritage for all Americans.
Among the military campaigns, few, if any, present action over so vast
an area, of such singular diversity, and so consequential to the outcome
of the war, as the great struggle for control of the Mississippi River.
Seagoing men-of-war and ironclad gunboats engaged shore defenses and
escorted troops along river and bayou; cavalry raids struck far behind
enemy lines as the armies of the West marched and countermarched in a
gigantic operation which culminated in the campaign and siege of
Vicksburg. Protected by heavy artillery batteries on the riverfront and
with land approaches to the north and south guarded by densely wooded
swamplands, Vicksburg defied large-scale land and river expeditions for
over a year. Finally the tenacious Grant, in a campaign since accepted
as a model of bold strategy and skillful execution, forced the surrender
of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, splitting the Confederacy in two and
securing for the North its great objective in the Western Theater._
VICKSBURG AND THE MISSISSIPPI.
Control of the Mississippi River, whose course meandered over 1,000
miles from Cairo, Ill., to the Gulf of Mexico and divided the
Confederacy into almost equal parts, was of inestimable importance to
the Union from the outbreak of hostilities. The agricultural and
industrial products of the Northwest, denied their natural outlet to
markets down the great commercial artery to New Orleans, would be
afforded uninterrupted passage. It would provide a safe avenue for the
transportation of troops and their supplies through a tremendous area
ill-provided with roads and railroads; the numerous navigable streams
tributary to the Mississippi would offer ready routes of invasion into
the heart of the South. Union control would cut off and isolate the
section of the Confederacy lying west of the river--Texas, Arkansas, and
most of Louisiana--comprising almost half of the land area of the
Confederacy and an important source of food, military supplies, and
recruits for the Southern armies. Forcefully emphasizing the strategic
value of the Mississippi was the dispatch of the General in Chief of the
Union armies to Maj. Gen. U. S. Grant on March 20, 1863, as Grant
prepared to launch his Vicksburg campaign:
[Illustration: _"Johnny Reb." A volunteer soldier of the
Confederacy._ Courtesy Confederate Museum, Richmond.]
The great objective on your line now is the opening of the Mississippi
River, and everything else must tend to that purpose. The eyes and
hopes of the whole country are now directed to your army. In my
opinion, the opening of the Mississippi River will be to us of more
advantage than the capture of forty Richmonds.
To protect this vital lifeline, the Confederacy had erected a series of
fortifications at readily defensible locations along the river from
which the Union advance could be checked. Pushing southward from
Illinois by land and water, and northward from the Gulf of Mexico by
river, Union army and naval units attacked the Confederate strongpoints
from both ends of the line. They captured post by post and city by city
until, after the first year of the war, Vicksburg alone barred complete
Union possession of the Mississippi River. From the city ran the only
railroad west of the river between Memphis and New Orleans. Through the
city most of the supplies from the trans-Mississippi were shipped to
Confederate armies in the East. The city's batteries on the bluffs,
commanding a 5-mile stretch of the river, effectively prevented Union
control of the Mississippi. Vicksburg was indeed the key, declared
Lincoln, and the war could not be brought to a successful conclusion
"until that key is in our pocket."
[Illustration: _"Billy Yank." A volunteer soldier of the Union._
Courtesy Library of Congress.]