Siege of Vicksburg

Part of the second strategy in the North’s Anaconda Plan first proposed by Union General Winfield Scott, Union Major Gen Ulysses S. Grant’s 70,000-man Army of Tennessee began an assault on Confederate fortifications at Vicksburg, which was the last major Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River.

Preceded by a naval assault on the river city by Union Admiral David Porter, Grant marched his army along the west bank of the Mississippi, well past Vicksburg, crossing near Jackson in an amphibious campaign not to be equaled until the Second World War.

Grant vs. Pemberton

After defeating a Confederate force at Jackson, Grant turned back toward Vicksburg, where on May 16th, he defeated a Confederate force at Champion Hill led by General John C. Pemberton, before being repulsed at Vicksburg on May 19th and again on May 22nd. Finding Pemberton’s 30,000-plus-man army well entrenched in the hills surrounding Vicksburg, Grant prepared for a long siege by constructing 15 miles of trenches, which effectively trapped Pemberton’s forces inside its perimeter.

Confederate attempts to rescue Pemberton’s army failed from both the east and the west, and as conditions and supplies inside the city began to deteriorate, many residents moved into more than 500 manmade tunnels and cave to escape the North’s near-constant bombardment, prompting Union soldiers to nickname the town “Prairie Dog Village.”

Who Won the Siege of Vicksburg?

After holding out for 40 days, on July the 4th, 1863, 29,495 Confederate soldiers surrendered to Grant, giving the North full control of the Mississippi River, while effectively excising Arkansas, Texas and parts of Louisiana from the Confederacy for the remainder of the war. Combined with Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s defeat at Gettysburg the previous day, the back-to-back Union victories would prove to be a critical turning point in the Civil War, prompting President Abraham Lincoln to write that the Mississippi River “again goes unvexed to the sea.”

As for the besieged town of Vicksburg, her people would forego Fourth of July celebrations for the next 81 years to come.