The Vicksburg Campaign, March 29–May 18, 1863

3. “In the Enemy’s Country” : Port Gibson and the Turning Point of the Vicksburg Campaign

43 3 “In the Enemy’s Country” Port Gibson and the Turning Point of the Vicksburg Campaign Jason M. Frawley On May 1, 1863, Union and Confederate forces collided west of Port Gibson, Mississippi, in what one Confederate veteran later called “one of the hottest little battles of the [American Civil] War.” As part of the Vicksburg Campaign, the battle of Port Gibson had important ramifications for both sides as well as for the future of the United States. For the Federals, the engagement represented the successful establishment of a beachhead in Mississippi and put them a step closer to conquering the citadel at Vicksburg. For the Confederates, the contest stood as the beginning of the end of their control over the most important point on the Mississippi River outside of New Orleans, Louisiana, which had already fallen into Union hands a year earlier. And for the nation and its history, the battle of Port Gibson represented the culminating event in a campaign that would prove to be the turning point of the struggle for control of the Mississippi River.1 By the early spring of 1863, Major General Ulysses Simpson Grant saw clearly that there was only one way for his Union Army of the Tennessee to take Vicksburg. Taking the greatest risk of his military career, he sent a message to Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter on March 29, 1863, asking him to prepare for a running of the batteries at Vicksburg.2 What Grant proposed was to have Porter’s boats move south of Vicksburg, where they would link up with the army, which would spend April marching down the Louisiana side of the Mississippi River. Once the two forces connected south of their target, Porter would ferry the army across the river, and Grant would lead his men on an assault against Vicksburg via the interior of Mississippi.3 History would remember it as one of America’s greatest military operations , but at the time, Grant’s new plan was riddled with numerous complications and extreme risks. First, there was the difficult step of getting Porter Jason M. Frawley 44 The first Confederate force to challenge Grant’s army after it landed on the Mississippi shore below Vicksburg was a division commanded by Brigadier General John S. Bowen, but after several hours of fighting in rough terrain, the outnumbered Rebels had to retreat. past the shore batteries at Vicksburg. This would not be the first time Union naval forces had run past the city, but it was still a very dangerous mission that would slow Porter down in the face of the Confederates’ heavy guns as he navigated past DeSoto Point, the sharp bend in the Mississippi River adjacent to Vicksburg. If things went poorly, the maneuver could very well end with the loss of naval forces vital to success in conquering and controlling the Father of Waters. Moreover, as Porter reminded Grant, once the boats were below Vicksburg, “we give up all hopes of ever getting them up again.” Hence, if Grant’s plan did not work, Porter’s brown water navy would be committed to operating below Vicksburg, where they would be cut off from directly supporting any future endeavors north of the city.4 “In the Enemy’s Country” 45 There was also the problem of getting the army down the west bank of the river during the spring high-water season. The only reliable way to march down the river on the Louisiana side was to rely on the winding natural levees that were surrounded by water of varying depth and sometimes not even connected to one another. Getting an army and its supplies safely to its destination along this route would not prove easy. Finally, Grant would have to reckon with the Confederate forces in his front. To paraphrase German military philosopher Helmuth von Moltke, no plan survives contact with the enemy, and it was unlikely that the Confederates would sit by idly while Grant carried out his daring offensive. Grant would have to prepare for possible reactions from Pemberton, or he would have to develop some way of keeping the Rebels occupied while his own plans unfolded. Also, once Grant’s forces were in position, they would have to launch a dangerous amphibious operation across the river into enemyoccupied Mississippi.5 The inherent dangers of such a crossing were substantial. In just a couple of months, President Lincoln...