'The Battle of Vicksburg\r'

'The object of contention in the siege of siege of Vicksburg campaign was the disseminated multiple sclerosis River, which exhaust the same relation to the seceding S pophern States that the Hudson aegir to the rebellious Thirteen Colonies in the extremist contend; it divided them into two part (B tout ensembleard(1) 3-5). If the Union personnels could get control of this river they would riptide the Confederacy in two, and stop the departure of supplies and men to the ally armies in the due east from Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas (Ballard(1) 72). This was a purely military consideration, simply at that place was too a political and commercial consideration.The disseminated multiple sclerosis was the great pass of trade between the no.thwestern States and the after-school(prenominal) world; so long as any part of it was controlled by Confederate batteries the high counsel was closed (Ballard(1) 8). The Confederates in the start year of the war controlled the mid dle part of the river by the forts at Columbus, New capital of Spain and Island No. 10, fortress reside and Fort Randolph (Ballard(1) 18). Columbus was evacuated a short tour after the take upon of Forts Henry and D angiotensin converting enzymelson (Ballard(1) 27). common Pope, with the help of Footes travel by, trip upd New Madrid and Island No. 10, in April, 1862.The victory at battle of Shiloh (April 6 and 7, 1862) advanced the Union roue southward to the Memphis and Charleston Rail manner, Fort Pillow was abandoned by the Confederates on the fourth of June, and Fort Randolph the next day (Ballard(1) 42-43). At this prison term the Federals and the Confederates both had fleets on the river. Footes fleet, right off dictationed by Commodore Davis, Foote being still disable by the wound he stock at Donelson, pushed on down the river, as one Confederate post after many other was evacuated or taken. On may 10, 1862, the Confederate flotilla had attacked the Union fl eet at Fort Pillow and been defeated (Shea and Winschel 10).On June 7 the Union squadron attacked the Confederate fleet at Memphis, destroying troika of its vessels, damaging others, and driving the fleet southward. The Mayor of Memphis immediately surrendered the town to Davis. The river was instantaneously open southward as uttermost as Vicksburg (Shea and Winschel 11-12). On the twenty-fifth of April, 1862, Farraguts fleet had arrived at New siege of Orleans and taken possession of that city; in May the fleet locomote up the river and took billy goat Rouge and Natchez, and, with the assistance of a small detachment of land soldiers, try to take Vicksburg, alone failed (Shea and Winschel 35-37).The Confederate authorities, in a flash appreciating the importance and the peril of Vicksburg, had it strongly garrisoned and provided with batteries to master the river. By direction of the authorities at Washington, Farragut, with his fleet of ships and gunboats, and General W illiams, with a small force of artillery and infantry, made another unsuccessful effort against Vicksburg, toward the end of June, 1862 (Ballard(2) 16-17).Vicksburg was without delay the only point of the river held by the Confederates, exclusively in August General Breckinridge garrisoned port Hudson, two hundred miles below Vicksburg, and began prospect up heavy batteries there to look out on the river. Thenceforward this point, also, was occupied by the Confederates until after the fall of Vicksburg. The Confederates also regained control of the river as remote northward as capital of Montana, Arkansas. (Ballard (2) 45-47). Such was the fact along the disseminated multiple sclerosis in September, 1862.Halleck, having captured Corinth and outspread his host, had gone to Washington to assume the plaza of Generalin-Chief, leaving concede â€Å"in command of all troops in the neck of the woods of Memphis and Corinth and as far back as Columbus, Ky” (Ropes 35). Bue ll and Bragg were in their race for Kentucky, and consecrates forces had been drawn upon to fortify Buells; apportion now had only round 42,000 men. With these he was required by Halleck to apply the railway from Memphis to Decatur, two hundred miles, and bring through open communication with Buell. This constrained him to a passive defensive attitude for the succession (Ballard (2) 186-87).The Confederate troops in Mississippi composed two independent commands, from each one just well-nigh 16,000 strong. One force to a lower place new wave Dorn; the other downstairs(a) superior damage. On the second of September expenditure original word from Bragg that Rosecrans, whose â€Å"Army of the Mississippi” organize the left(p) of duty assignments billet, was about to pre direct to Tennessee in order to marriage Buell. Bragg asked Price to prevent this motivatement. Accordingly, Price asked forefront Dorn to heart and soul forces with him to attack Rosecran s. new wave Dorn agreed to join him, but replied that he should not be able to assemble his scattered forces in the first place the 12th of the month.Fearing that this would not be wee enough to catch Rosecrans, Price moved out without waiting for Van Dorn. On the 14th he occupied Iuka. closely the 18th Price and Van Dorn coherent to join their forces at Rienzi for an advance against Corinth (Shea and Hess 303-113). mean prison term Grant had been watching the movements of Price and Van Dorn, and had resolved to attack Price at Iuka, in the beginning he and Van Dorn could tie their forces. To this end he assembled Rosecranss command and Ords variability at Corinth, and started them toward Iuka.Rosecrans took the roads by way of Rienzi and Jacinto, and was to approach Iuka from the direction of the south. Ord marched by way of the railway, and was to attack at the same time from the north and west. The combined attack was to grounds Price against the Tennessee River. As usua lly happens with bound of concentration, this one miscarried. The upshot was, Rosecrans approached by one road only from the south, and attacked the Confederates without Ord. Darkness finish the combat, and during the night Price slipped out by the other road [the Fulton road] to the south (Ballard (1) 75-77) .Rosecrans and Ord returned to Corinth. Van Dorn and Price met at Ripley on the twenty-eighth of September, and Van Dorn took command of their combined force by virtue of his rank. Van Dorn marched the coupled force by way of Pocahontas and Chewalla, and formed line of battle to the northwest of Rosecranss position, confining intrenchments at Corinth, on the morning of October the 3rd. The Confederates attacked, and by sunset had driven the Federals into the redoubts at the bite of the town. The next morning Van Dorn re-create the assault.The combat was ferocious; but by noon it was over, and the Confederates were retreating from the field. Rosecrans made no followers un til the next day. Van Dorn made skillful his retreat to Holly Springs. Rosecrans and Hurlbut pursued to Ripley and were then recalled by Grant to Corinth and Bolivar. General Pemberton was now sent to Mississippi to take command of all the Confederate forces in the State; Rosecrans was called from Grants forces to relieve Buell of the command of the Army of the Ohio. Grant was promised by Halleck a â€Å"large form of new levies,” and he purposed taking the fetid without delay (Reed 88).Meantime McClernand was in Washington works out a secret shunning with the President and the Secretary of War, by which he was to raise a volunteer army in Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, and lead it down the Mississippi to capture Vicksburg. No intimation of this run crosswise was given to General Grant, but Halleck, of course, was apprised of it. The result was that when Grant first wrote to Halleck (October 26) ask leave to move against Vicksburg, he received no reply to his letter. Th en followed some(prenominal) contradictory and vague dispatches from Halleck, which kept Grant for some time guessing what he was expected to do.At last, however, it was arranged that Grant should move with the main army from Grand pairing to Holly Springs, and be joined by Sherman with the troops from Memphis, on the Tallahatchie River. A force from capital of Montana was to move across the Mississippi and adventure the Confederate rear at Grenada (Reed 92-95). At this time Van Dorn commanded the Confederate forces about Holly Springs-some 24,000 men, formed in two contributions, under Price and Lovell. Vicksburg was garrisoned by 6,000 Confederates, and behavior Hudson by 5,500. Pemberton had his headquarters at Jackson.By the fifth of November Grant had reached Oxford with the main body, and Sherman was at College Hill, a few miles northwest of that place. The force from Helena had carried out its part of the plan and had returned to Helena. Van Dorn had fallen back, before Grants advance, to Grenada. Up to this time Grant had advanced with no very definite plan, except to attack the rival if he overtook him. But Van Dorn, by Pembertons order, had kept falling back. As Grants line of communication was now more than cc miles long-a single-track railway back to Columbus, Kentucky,-Grant established a secondary base at Holly Springs.After extensive correspondence with Halleck, and the discussion of several plans with Sherman for the capture of Vicksburg, it was finally arranged, with Hallecks approval, that Sherman should return to Memphis with one division. at that place he was to pick up all the newly arrived troops, and, with the troops under Steele from Helena, he was to organize an expedition to move by transports, under escort of Porters fleet of gunboats, to Vicksburg, tour Grant marched his army along the left bank of the Yazoo against the same objective. Sherman was back at Memphis by the 12th of December, and set out for Vicksburg on the 20 th (Reed 104-106).But events occurred which prevented Grant from carrying out his part of the plan. As a consequence of raids Grant was forced to place his army on short rations, fall back to the Memphis and Charleston Railway, and open communication theory with Memphis. No supplies were to be had in the ground; it had been stripped. Sherman, in the meanwhile, had gone down the Mississippi. He had a force of 32,000 men and threescore guns, which he organized into four divisions. His division commanders were M. L. Smith, A. J. Smith, G. W. Morgan, and Fred Steele.The expedition reached Milikens Bend, twenty-five miles above Vicksburg, before daylight on Christmas day (Simon and Grant 98-100). Vicksburg stood 250 feet above the waters of the Mississippi, and from there a line of cliffs, known as Chickasaw Bluffs, ran northward twelve miles, to Hayness Bluff on the Yazoo River. The space between the base of the bluffs and the rivers was a wooded swamp cut up by bayous and creeks (Ro pes 71). Pemberton had learned of Shermans expedition, and had hurried reinforcements to Vicksburg; so that 12,000 Confederates were now intrenched upon the bluffs, awaiting Shermans attack.This expedition was also to have received the cooperation of an expedition under Banks from New Orleans. Banks, however, got no farther than Baton Rouge Sherman landed his troops, on the twenty-sixth of December, at Johnsons plantation, and his columns, on the 27th and 28th, meandered across the swamps and bayous toward the foot of the bluffs. Only one of the columns had a bridgetrain. On the 29th Sherman assaulted the Confederate position, but was unable to carry it. He remained in position two or three days, vainly trying to find some way by which to dislodge the Confederates.On the 2nd of January he reembarked his men, and, without opposition, returned to the mouth of the Yazoo. Here he was met by McClernand, with an order assigning that oecumenical to command the expedition. The order was da ted about the 17th of December (Ropes 74-76). Thus end in failure the project of a combined movement against Vicksburg by land and water. Works Cited Ballard, Michael B. (1) Vicksburg: The bunk That Opened the Mississippi. University of North Carolina Press, 2004. Ballard, Michael B. (2) Civil War Mississippi: A Guide. University Press of Mississippi, 2000. Shea, William L. and Hess, Earl J.Pea ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West. University of North Carolina Press, 1992. Shea, William L. and Winschel, Terrence J. Vicksburg Is the Key: The struggle for the Mississippi River. University of Nebraska Press, 2003. Simon, John Y. and Grant, Ulysses S. The written document of Ulysses S. Grant: April 1 †July 6, 1863 Vol. 8. Southern Illinois University Press, 1979. Reed, Samuel R. The Vicksburg Campaign, and the Battles about Chattanooga under the look out on of General U. S. Grant in 1862-63; a Historical Review. Cincinnati: R. Clarke, 1882. Ropes, John Codman. The Army in the Civil War. Charles Scribners Sons, 1881.\r\n'