Vicksburg, and the simultaneous repulse of Lee's invasion at the battle
of Gettysburg, marked the beginning of the end for the Confederacy.
Previously, there had been confidence that victory, although demanding
desperate measures, could yet be achieved. Afterward, there was only the
hope that the North might sicken of the frightful cost of continuing the
war and terminate hostilities. The great objective of the war in the
West--the opening of the Mississippi River and the severing of the
Confederacy--had been realized with the fall of Vicksburg. While in the
East the Union armies battled on in bloody stalemate before Richmond,
the armies of the West would now launch their columns deep into the
vitals of the Confederacy.
Grant emerged from the Vicksburg campaign with a hard-won reputation as
a master strategist, which prompted President Lincoln to place him in
supreme command of all the armies of the United States. From this
position he was destined to direct the final campaigns of the Civil War
and to receive Lee's surrender at Appomattox. As for Pemberton, the fall
of Vicksburg subjected him to painful criticism from those who held that
a more resourceful defense might have saved the city, or his army, or
both. Essentially, both commanders had disobeyed orders in like
manner--Grant in striking behind Vicksburg alone rather than waiting to
combine forces with Banks; Pemberton in deciding to protect Vicksburg at
all cost rather than joining Johnston and risking loss of the city. But
Grant's gamble had succeeded and Pemberton's had failed; and in war, as
a leading Confederate commander had soberly remarked, the people measure
a general's merit by his success. "I thought and still think that you
did right to risk an army for the purpose of keeping command of even a
section of the Mississippi River," President Davis wrote to General
Pemberton after the fall of Vicksburg. "Had you succeeded none would
have blamed, had you not made the attempt few if any would have defended
your course."
In the Confederate capital, Gen. Josiah Gorgas, one of the most able of
Southern leaders, confided to his diary the implications of the
calamitous change in fortune to the South attending the twin disasters
of Gettysburg and Vicksburg:
Events have succeeded one another with disastrous rapidity. One brief
month ago we were apparently at the point of success. Lee was in
Pennsylvania threatening Harrisburgh, and even Philadelphia.
Vicksburgh seemed to laugh all Grant's efforts to scorn.... All looked
bright. Now the picture is just as somber as it was bright then. Lee
failed at Gettysburgh.... Vicksburgh and Port Hudson capitulated,
surrendering thirty-five thousand men and forty-five thousand arms. It
seems incredible that human power could effect such a change in so
brief a space. Yesterday we rode on the pinnacle of success--today
absolute ruin seems to be our portion. The Confederacy totters to its
destruction.
In Washington, a grateful President sat at his desk seeking words to
express appreciation to Grant "for the almost inestimable service you
have done the country." Explaining the fear he had entertained that the
Union Army might be destroyed during its daring thrust in the rear of
Vicksburg, which he believed at the time to be "a mistake," Lincoln
wrote to Grant, "I wish now to make the personal acknowledgement that
you were right and I was wrong."
On July 9, the Confederate commander at Port Hudson, upon learning of
the fall of Vicksburg, surrendered his garrison of 6,000 men. One week
later the merchant steamboat _Imperial_ tied up at the wharf at New
Orleans, completing the 1,000-mile passage from St. Louis undisturbed by
hostile guns. After 2 years of land and naval warfare, the Mississippi
River was open, the grip of the South had been broken, and merchant and
military traffic had now a safe avenue to the gulf. In the words of
Lincoln, "The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea."
[Illustration: _The Union Army passing the courthouse as it took
possession of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863._ From a wartime sketch.]
_Guide to the Area_
Vicksburg National Military Park is shaped like a great crescent,
enclosing the city of Vicksburg within a 9-mile arc which curves from
the old bed of the Mississippi River north of the city to the river
south of Vicksburg (from U. S. 61 north of Vicksburg, across U. S. 80
east of the city, to U. S. 61 south of Vicksburg). The two main avenues
in Vicksburg National Military Park, Union Avenue and Confederate
Avenue--constructed along the siege lines established by the two
armies--are parallel. The black markers, on iron standards, indicate the
position of the fortified lines and the units which occupied that
sector. The remains of artillery batteries, forts (and the ditches in
front), and trenches are clearly visible, although, during the 36-year
interval between the siege and the establishment of the park, the
fortifications and trenches have suffered marked alteration from wind
and weather. All the cannon barrels are originals, used during the Civil
War; the carriages are replacements. This self-guiding tour begins at
the museum, going north on Confederate Avenue. It provides a brief
inspection of Union Avenue, proceeds to the national cemetery, a
distance of 6 miles, and returns south by way of Union Avenue. The
numbered stops of this tour correspond to the numbers on the tour map
found on pages 28-29.