BATTLE OF VICKSBURG
By: Aden McKinney
THE BEGINNING OF THE BATTLE
There were a lot of things leading up to
the Battle of Vicksburg. The Battle of Vicksburg was
part of a two year effort by the Union to seize control of
the Mississippi River. It was so important to do this
because if they won this battle they would have total
control of the river there for cutting off supplies for part
of the south. If the Confederacy won this battle though
they would keep control of the river which would supply
more food to the Confederate states. Before the Civil
War the Mississippi River was one of the most
important commercial arteries in the United States.
The battle of
Vicksburg was
fought in
Vicksburg,
Mississippi (on
the east of the
Mississippi
River) from May
19, 1863 to July
4, 1863.
The reason the
Confederate
surrendered on
J u l y 4 th w a s
because General
John C.
Pemberton had
hoped it would
bring more
sympathetic
terms to the
United States.
STRATEGIES FOR THE BATTLE
Union Strategies
There wasn’t just one strategy to
storm the other side. The Union had a
couple different strategies including digging
a canal to cut off the river and moving south
to try to cut off the river from the gulf where
they had control of it. After trying these and
other strategies that didn’t work they
eventually settled into a siege.
Confederate Strategies
The Confederacy had no
s t r a t e g y, t h e y j u s t s e t t l e d i n a b u n k e r a n d
tried to defend themselves and their town.
THE UNION IS COMING!
Now the Union is inching their
way forward by making zig-zag trenches and
completely destroying forts by putting mines
u n d e r t h e m . O n e o f t h e f o r t s , t h e 3 rd
Louisiana Redan, (a Redan is a triangular
fortification) was destroyed but the soldiers
inside heard digging under them and got out
before the mine exploded. After the mine
exploded they put on a counterattack.
Grant tried to storm Vicksburg
twice before settling into just sieging it.
LEADERS OF THE WAR
Ulysses S. Grant
Was born on April 27, 1822. Grant
was in the army until he resigned in 1854
but when the Civil War came he took the
c h a n c e a n d s i g n e d u p f o r t h e a r m y. T h e n
got quickly promoted to brigadier general.
A f t e r t h e C i v i l W a r h e b e c a m e o u r 1 8 th
president (1869-1877) who supported the
Radical Republicans. He died on July
23,1865.
John C. Pemberton
He was born in the Union in
Philadelphia in the August of 1814. In 1862
he was promoted to Lieutenant General. In
the year 1861 when the Civil War was
starting he retired from the Union and
joined the Confederate cause.
OUTNUMBERED
There were way more Union troops then Confederate
ones because the there were more Union states and more
volunteers. More Confederates didn’t want to be in the war so the
Union had many more troops and were able to beat the
C o n f e d e r a c y.
T h r o ug h o u t t h e
battle the
Union engaged
about 75,000
troops while
the
C o n f e d e r a te s
only engaged
about 34,000.
THE CASUALTIES BEGIN
In the first attack Grant tried to storm the town but ended up having 157 killed and
777 wounded compared to only 8 killed and 62 wounded on the Confederate side. The next
morning at 10 A.M. the Union attacked with forces three miles wide but in the attack about
3,000 Union soldiers were killed compared to only about 500 Confederates that were killed in
the attack. At the end of all the attacks the Union had about 4,800 casualties while the
Confederates only had about 3,300 but also had about 30,000 captured.
40000
30000
20000
10000
0
Confederates
Union
THE END OF THE BATTLE.
It actually wasn’t all of the attacks that made the Confederates surrender it was starvation because
the Union cut off the river so they couldn’t get food to soldiers of the Confederate but only to the Union. And
because of the war they couldn’t farm as well because they already stole from all the farms and stores but it still
wasn’t enough food to keep the soldiers well fed. Before they’re surrender the Confederates went to eating mules,
rats, and even boiled shoe leather. The surrender at Vicksburg on July 4, 1863 gave the Union total control of the
Mississippi River.
Since many of the civilians in Vicksburg survived the 1862 bombardment
from the Union many of the civilians had experience with survival when the Union
attacked. So less then 20 civilians were documented as dead. Dora Richards Miller a
civilian that lived at Vicksburg during the time of the siege wrote in her diary ”About three
o’ clock the rush began…humanity in the last throes of endurance.” When the Union first
started to attack it was a rush to build caves for the civilians because they knew that
they were safer in the caves then they were in their house.
WHAT IT
WAS LIKE
TO BE A
CIVILIAN
THE MEANINGS
• “Siege” is the name for a specific set of military circumstances, but the term is often wrongly used.
• An unconditional surrender is one in which the victors make no promise to their vanquished foes regarding their future
treatment.
• Civil War gunboats went through shallow waters, such as rivers and coastlines. Ideally, they mounted the arms and armor
necessary to contend with other gunboats as well as land-based fortifications.
• A redan is a V-shaped protrusion in a fortified line, with the tip of the V facing the enemy.
• The Union ring around Vicksburg was drawn tight through the construction of “approaches” and “parallels” — a system of
entrenchments that allowed Union soldiers to close in on the fortress with minimal risk.
• “Combined arms” is the military concept of harmonizing disparate weapons and equipment to multiply their effect on the
battlefield.
INTERESTING FACTS
1. Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis both saw Vicksburg as an important part to the
C o n f e d e r a c y.
2. Ulysses S. Grant captured Vicksburg by going away from it.
3. Southern leaders were divided on strategy at Vicksburg .
4. The battle for Vicksburg was fought at Champion Hill, Mississippi .
5 . U n i o n n a v a l o p e r a t i o n s w e r e e s s e n t i a l t o t h e s u c c e s s o f G r a n t ’ s a r m y.
6. Vicksburg had its own Crater more than a year before St. Petersburg.
7. Grant ordered an unconditional surrender at Vicksburg —and was rebuffed.
8. The capture of Vicksburg split the Confederacy and was a major turning point of the Civil
W a r.
9 . T h e C i v i l W a r Tr u s t i s e n g a g e d i n a n o n g o i n g e f f o r t t o p r e s e r v e b a t t l e f i e l d l a n d a t
Vicksburg.
1 0 . G r a n t r e m o v e d h i s s e n i o r c o r p s c o m m a n d e r, J o h n M c C l e r n a n d , d u r i n g t h e s i e g e a f t e r
McClernand released a self -congratulatory order extolling the virtues of his troops and
maligning the efforts of Sherman and McPherson at the May 22 attacks.
1 1 . C o l . B e n j a m i n H . G r i e r s o n l e a d 1 , 7 0 0 F e d e r a l h o r s e m e n t h r o u g h Te n n e s s e e , M i s s i s s i p p i ,
and Louisiana, creating confusion in the Confederate heartland, and moved Pemberton's
attention from Grant's massing forces in Louisiana.
12. Inaccurate artillery fire rapidly struck buildings in the City of Vicksburg, prompting civilians
to live in a series of subterranean caves for protection.
13. During the Vicksburg campaign, the U.S.S. Cincinnatti, which had been sunk on May 10,
1862 and subsequently raised, earned the distinction of being one of the few navy vessels
ever to be sunk twice.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
www.exploresouthernhistory.com/vicksburg1.html
www.civilwar.org/battlefields/vicksburg/maps/vicksburgmap.html
www.historynet.com/battle-of-vicksburg
www.slideshare.net/Bubblehead12/the-battle-of-vicksburg
http://mississippiconfederates.wordpress.com/2013/03/0
3/civilians-during-the-siege-of-vicksburg/
http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_vicksburg.html