The Web of Victory: Grant at Vicksburg (review)

Book Reviews EDITED BY CHARLES T. MILLER B-Il University Hall Iowa City, Iowa The Web of Victory: Grant at VicL·burg. By Earl Schenck Miers. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1955. Pp. xiv, 320, xii. $5.00.) the action leading t? the greatest single strategic victory of the Civil War—the capture of Vicksburg, the unfettering of the Mississippi, and the first great splitting of the Confederacy—is the theme of Mr. Miers' second Civil War work. Following his treatment of Sherman in The General Who Marched to Hell, the author has now turned back to the man whose bold strategic gamble on the Mississippi contributed much of the inspiration for the March to the Sea. Despite its subtitle, the book is more than just a study of that campaign or of Grant the general. While it revolves around Grant, it is the story of two years of the war in the West, and of the men who influenced Grant, and hence the course of the war, during that period. The first of three parts, which Mr. Miers aptly calls "Too Many Generals," introduces Major General Ulysses S. Grant, USV, as he comes ashore at his Young's Point headquarters above Vicksburg in January, 1863. The campaign against the Confederate stronghold is already under way, but is so far conspicuously unsuccessful. In a series of flashback sketches, the author covers Grant's career from his command of the 21st Illinois to that of the Department and Army of the Tennessee, while woven throughout are skillful portraits of die men around Grant, above him and below him. Halleck, "Old Brains" and litüe else, wants no other rising stars in the West; Sherman, still unsure of himself , is finding a leader on whom he can rely; McPherson is turning from a young staff engineer into a fine, aggressive corps commander; McClernand plots to secure an independent command to further his political ambitions; Flag-Officer Porter is opinionated and full of wild schemes, but always ready to cooperate with the army,- Rawlins, Grant's adjutant general, hovers over his 315 316civil war history commander to protect him from his great weakness. And down die river waits die shadowy figure of Pemberton, die Confederate commander, already suspect , inside die fortress city, for his Northern background. In this first part also are presented die initial operations against Vicksburg. Sherman, with Porter's gunboats, moves down to assault die back door to Vicksburg, is forestalled by die alert Confederates, and is bloodily repulsed at Chickasaw Bluffs. In the wake of diis disaster comes McClernand, who has secret orders from Lincoln autìiorizing him to raise an army in his own political territory and to lead it against Vicksburg. But Grant blocks McClernand's attempts to split die command on the Mississippi, and although McClernand is allowed to build up a small army around Sherman's corps, it is for a sideshow up the Arkansas River. With Sherman doing die work, Arkansas Post is captured, and McClernand's star, he feels, is "ever in die ascendant!" The second part of die book is called "The Modi and die Flame," with die reader being left to decide, as die story progresses, just who really is die moth and what the flame. This is die true River War, and Mr. Miers describes it wonderfully well. First the reader follows die exploits of die youthful Colonel Eilet and his ram fleet through die capture of the Queen of the West. Next come McPherson's arduous but unsuccessful efforts to open die Lake Providence route and tìius to bypass Vicksburg to die west. Now Porter and his gunboats lead die troops in an attempt to strike at Vicksburg by way of die Yazoo Pass, an expedition followed dirough the increasingly pessimistic reports of James H. Wilson (later die cavalry commander) to Rawlins at headquarters. Finally Sherman and Porter try anodier water route, this time by Steele's Bayou, in a campaign which in less serious times would have been comic. It is a season of successive frustrations for die Union. Grant has been holding back one last big gamble, and by early April realizes diat he must play...