The Siege of Vicksburg

by Captivating History Book 10 in the Battles of the Civil War series.

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The siege of Vicksburg was the culmination of Ulysses S. Grant’s 1863 campaign to seize the Confederate stronghold overlooking the Mississippi River. After failed attempts to approach the city from the north, Grant moved his army down the western bank, crossed below Vicksburg and fought inland before turning back toward the fortress.

John C. Pemberton’s Confederate army withdrew into Vicksburg after defeats at Champion Hill and the Big Black River. Grant’s assaults failed, and the operation became a siege in which artillery, hunger and isolation steadily weakened the defenders. Pemberton surrendered on 4 July 1863, giving the Union control of a crucial stretch of the Mississippi and cutting the Confederacy’s trans-Mississippi states off from the east.