The Vicksburg Campaign, March 29–May 18, 1863

Civil War Campaigns in the Heartland, Further Reading, Back Cover

Civil War Campaigns in the Heartland The area west of the Appalachian Mountains, known in Civil War parlance as “the West,” has always stood in the shadow of the more famous events on the other side of the mountains, the eastern theater, where even today hundreds of thousands visit the storied Virginia battlefields. Nevertheless, a growing number of Civil War historians believe that the outcome of the war was actually decided in the region east of the Mississippi River and west of the watershed between the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. Modern historians began to rediscover the decisive western theater in the 1960s through the work of the late Thomas Lawrence Connelly, particularly his 1969 book Army of the Heartland, in which he analyzed the early years of the Confederacy’s largest army in the West. Many able scholars have subsequently contributed to a growing historiography of the war in the West. Despite recent attention to the western theater, less is understood about the truly decisive campaigns of the war than is the case with the dramatic but ultimately indecisive clashes on the east coast. Several years ago, three of Steven E. Woodworth’s graduate students pointed out that the western theater possessed no series of detailed multiauthor campaign studies comparable to the excellent and highly acclaimed series Gary W. Gallagher has edited on the campaigns of the eastern theater. Charles D. Grear, Jason M. Frawley, and David Slay joined together in suggesting that Woodworth ought to take the lead in filling the gap. The result is this series, its title a nod of appreciation to Professor Connelly. Its goals are to shed more light on the western campaigns and to spark new scholarship on the western theater. civil war campaigns in the heartland series The Shiloh Campaign The Chickamauga Campaign The Chattanooga Campaign The Vicksburg Campaign, March 29–May 18, 1863 The Tennessee Campaign of 1864: Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville The Vicksburg Assaults Forts Henry and Donelson Vicksburg Besieged The Kentucky Campaign of 1862 Vicksburg: To Chickasaw Bayou The Atlanta Campaign from Rocky Face Ridge to the Oostenaula: The Battle of Resaca Vicksburg: Grant’s Winter Endeavors The Atlanta Campaign from the Oostenaula to the Etowa: Dallas, New Hope Church, and Pickett’s Mill The Atlanta Campaign from the Etowa to the Chattahoochee: The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain Iuka and Corinth Peachtree Creek The Battle of Atlanta, July 22, 1864 Kenneth Howell Charles D. Grear, an associate professor of history at Prairie View A&M University, is the author or editor of six books, including The Chattanooga Campaign, Why Texans Fought in the Civil War, and The House Divided : America in the Era of Civil War and Reconstruction. Edited by Steven E. Woodworth and Charles D. Grear The Vicksburg Campaign march 29–may 18, 1863 Southern Illinois University Press Woodworth and Grear Ulysses S. Grant’s ingenious campaign to capture the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River was one of the most decisive events of the Civil War and one of the most storied military expeditions in American history. The ultimate victory at Vicksburg effectively cut the Confederacy in two, gave control of the river to Union forces, and delivered a devastating blow from which the South never fully recovered. Editors Steven E. Wood­ worth and Charles D. Grear have assembled essays by prominent and emerging scholars, who contribute astute analysis of this famous campaign’s most crucial elements and colorful personalities. This volume contains examinations of the pivotal events that comprised the campaign’s maneuver stage, from March to May of 1863. The collection sheds new light on Grant’s formidable intelligence network of former slaves, Mississippi loyalists , and Union spies; his now-legendary operations to deceive and confuse his Confederate counterparts; and his maneuvers from the perspective of classic warfare. Also presented are insightful accounts of Grant’s contentious relationship with John A. McClernand during the campaign; interactions between hostile Confederate civilians and Union army troops; and the planning behind Grierson’s Raid and such battles as Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, Champion Hill, and Big Black River Bridge. The Vicksburg Campaign, March 29– May 18, 1863, examines in depth the op­ erational masterpiece that paved the way to the Union’s triumphant siege of Vicks­ burg and turned the tide of the Civil War. Covering events from Grant’s first crossing of the Mississippi River to the day the siege began, this detailed volume...