Vicksburg: Grant's Campaign That Broke the Confederacy

I have read several books about the Civil War, but "Vicksburg" by Donald L. Miller, is the absolute best. In fact, if you want to understand the American Civil War, or any war for that matter, this is the book to read. Miller's book was exhaustively researched, is awesome in detail, and written in crisp English prose, that reads more like a novel than a history book. For the record, Miller's book is 506 pages long, with extensive notes, maps, and statistics. The subject of this book is Ulysses S. "Sam" Grant. Physically unimpressive, Grant was a humble, quiet man whom one would have trouble picking out in a crowd. One would never expect this unassuming man to lead the winning side in the Civil War's most crucial and consequential battle, the battle for a small town atop a bluff, overlooking the muddy waters of the lower Mississippi River. The town was Vicksburg, with a population of some 5,000 souls. While seemingly insignificant, this impregnable fortress was at the vital center of the Confederacy's railroad and shipping war effort. That Grant, or anyone should take it, seemed to defy impossible odds.The battle for Vicksburg was not about employing overwhelming land forces. It was more about thinking big and being creative, ignoring setbacks, and focusing totally on winning, and also on possessing that rare ability to visualize a battlefield in both time and space. All of these qualities would have made Grant an indomitable chess player.As with Abraham Lincoln, Grant was born and raised in the American midwest. Like Lincoln, he hated the sight of blood. Also like Lincoln, Grant was an exceptional writer. Grant failed at everything he tried. True, he attended West Point, but he had no desire to go there, or to lead a military life. Never a great student, he did, however, possess a retentive memory, absorbing information "like a sponge" as one classmate put it. He loved horses and rode them expertly, but "was the most unmilitary of boys in a military age" wrote Hamlin Garland, a Grant biographer. As far as being taught military tactics, Grant found the subject boring and learned next to nothing. Which seems curious, as Grant would prove to be a master military tactition, and one of America's greatest war-time generals.When first we meet Grant in Miller's book, he is managing a counter in his father's leather goods store, in Galena, Illinois, unhappy and deeply depressed. When the Civil War broke out, the state governor appointed Grant as a colonel, tasked with putting together an all-volunteer army division, and marching the division down to Cairo, Illinois, for military service. After doing as ordered, Grant declined to put himself forward as a candidate for captain, hoping to serve in a larger way. With few prospects forthcoming, Grant traveled to Cincinnati to try and land a position on the staff of Major General George B. McClellan, who commanded the army's Department of the Ohio. McClellan was so unimpressed with the 39-year-old, ex-army quartermaster, that he let him wait outside his office for two days, and then declined to see him.It must have come as some surprise, then, when Grant read in a newspaper that he had been nominated to be a brigadier general by President Lincoln. This was exactly what Grant wanted to do: lead men into battle. When next we meet Grant, he's seated at a desk in an office of the military district of of Southern Missouri. The person who observed Grant at his desk was John Wesley Emerson, an Irontown lawyer who owned the land on which Grant made his headquarters and would visit him frequently.Peering over Grant's shoulder, Emerson noticed that strategically important places that the rebels controlled were marked on a map with large red crosses: chief among them: Columbus, Kentucky; Fort Henry on the Tennessee River, and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River; Nashville, Memphis, and Vicksburg. "I was amazed at such a sudden plunge into the heart of the Confederacy," Emerson recalled, "when we were every hour fearing the Confederates would be upon us . . . in Missouri!"In the summer of 1861, "every eye was looking for the Coming Man," wrote the New York Tribune's Albert Richardson, "every ear was listening for his approaching footsteps, which would make the earth tremble. The impression was almost universal throughout the North that the war was to be very brief and that some great commander would decide its course. Grant's 'quiet earnestness', which seemed to 'mean business', was greatly upon me," Richardson recalled upon their first meeting, "but kindled no suspension that he was the 'Coming Man'.""No one could have suspected that this untried commander who had yet to overmaster a succession of soul-crushing personal setbacks would become, in a matter of months, the first Union hero of the war, " writes the author, "and in less than two years the conquerer of Vicksburg." Quoting historian T. Harry Williams, he adds, "Grant's life is, in some ways, the most remarkable one in American history. There is no other quite like it."In his first week of command, Grant advanced on one of the places he had marked on his map. On September 5, 1861, he learned from a Union spy that Confederate General Leonidas Polk (who had graduated near the top of his class at West Point), stationed in Tennessee, was casting a covetous eye on Columbus, Kentucky, a rail center south of Cairo. Sure enough, that same day Polk's troops captured Columbus, and installed 140 Big Guns on the river bluffs. The invasion was a brazen violation of Kentucky's neutrality and was one of the great blunders of the war, helping to swing the state legislature "from lukewarm to war-like unionism" (according to Civil War historian James McPhearson). But Polk saw it at the time as a masterful strategic move and followed it up by sending a raiding party under Brigadier General Gideon Pillow to seize Paducah, a small Ohio River port in the northwest corner of the state. Paducah was even more important than Columbus.Grant realized that Paducah was a key to blocking the Union navy from patrolling the Mississippi River, and thereby blocking Union advances on the lower Mississippi valley. Grant alerted his staff. "There is no time for delay." There was also no time to await orders from Major General John C. Fremont, commander of federal forces in he West. Without delay Grant loaded two regiments and a battery of artillery onto navy transports and headed for Paducah that evening.The Federals reached Paducah early the next morning. The town was crawling with Southern sympathizers and rebel flags were hoisted to welcome Pillow's men, expected that afternoon. Grant had his troops disembark. Battle flags aloft, and took possession of the town without firing a shot.His mission accomplished in a matter of hours, Grant left troops to block the roads leading into town, positioned one of his gunboats to guard the riverfront, and returned to Cairo. He arrived at four that afternoon, less than twenty-four hours after he had left. On his desk was a telegram from General Fremont authorizing him to seize Paducah "if you feel strong enough."From the occupation of Paducah up the early part of November, nothing of import occurred under my command," Grant wrote disingenuously in his memoirs. Indeed, during this time Grant had been very busy. He had turned Cairo into a forward base for another offensive operation on western waters. Also, he commanded twenty-thousand untested volunteers, who were growing restless from inactivity, and grown tired of the rain, mud and general misery with life in Cairo. This volunteer army would become the nucleus of the mighty Army of Tennessee Grant would send to Fort Donelson and to Vicksburg. Best of all, the Union military brass directing operations in the West were ignoring Grant, and pretty much leaving him alone. This was good, as it gave Grant time to plan a new strategy, which was to take two new forts that the confederacy had built in Kentucky. They were Fort Henry on the Tennessee River, and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River.Having conceived a bold military offensive for taking both forts, Grant presented his plan to his commanding officer, Major General Henry Halleck. Halleck was a noted expert in military studies, who was known by a nickname that became derogatory: "Old Brains". Like many of the Union Generals during the Civil War, Halleck was fearful of engaging the enemy, and pretty much spent his days in his office doing paperwork, and little else. Halleck paid Grant the courtesy of hearing out his plans, and then dismissed him. There would be no offensive against the two forts. Period.For the moment Grant felt defeated. However, Lincoln and his military advisors in Washington were growing weary with the excuses for having failed to engage the Confederates in battle, and ordered the Western Generals to provide them with a plan of action--post haste. Having nothing to offer, Halleck forwarded Grant's plan to Washington, presenting it as his idea. Grant then was ordered to carry out the military attack he had devised. Working hand-in-glove with the federal navy, Grant's offensive took both forts within weeks. Wouldn't you know it? Halleck took all the credit. Had the press not been there to report the fact, Grant might never have received the credit due him. What brought the truth to light, was Grant's demand for "unconditional surrender", from the commander of Fort Donelson, Grant's old West Point classmate, Confederate General Simon Buckner. Buckner had no choice but to surrender the fort and his 12,000 troops. From that point on Northern newspaper heralded Grant as "Unconditional Surrender Grant". It made him a national hero.While planning his next move to take Corinth, Grant found himself relieved of duty. Why? because he had misjudged the strength of the Confederate's counterattack that nearly overwhelmed Grants forces at Fort Donelson. Only through Grant's grit and unwillingness to yield the field, did Grant manage a countermove that won the day. However, the cost in Union lives lost was too high in Halleck's mind, so he relieved Grant from command. Grant might have quit then and there, had not a fellow classmate from West Point talked him out of it. This was William Tecumseh Sherman, who was destined to be at Grant's side throughout his southern campaign.Lincoln, having learned of Grant's demotion, ordered Halleck to reassign him to his former command. Halleck objected strongly, but Lincoln responded, "I can't afford to lose this man--he fights."Once Grant resumed command of the Army of the Tennessee, Halleck's plan was to combine Grant's forces with the Army of the Ohio (commanded by General Donald Buell), and move on the City of Corinth, where two southern railroads intersected.While waiting for Buell's forces to arrive, Grant's army set up camp between Shiloh Church and Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River. Unbeknownst to one and all, was that a gathering Confederate battalion camped nearby, planning a counteroffensive. The counteroffensive struck before dawn on April 6, 1862. With their backs up against the Tennessee River, the Union Army was on the verge of being routed, when Grant was alerted and arrived late that morning. Rather than surrender, Grant spent the rest of the day riding back and forth along the outer perimeter, redirecting his forces to defend the ground."We had the devil's own day," Sherman said to Grant that evening, thinking they would withdraw from the battlefield in the morning. "Yes," Grant replied, and added, "Whip 'em tomorrow, though."Whip them they did, with help from the Army of the Ohio, that arrived the following afternoon.The loss of life on both sides was the highest it had been up to this point in the Civil War. People in the North and South were stunned at the loss of life.Despite leading the winning side, Halleck demoted Grant to second in command. Being demoted allowed Grant to watch Halleck lead a force of 42,000 soldiers on what should have been a two-day march, to the railroad center of Corinth. It took a month. Halleck was so afraid of being attacked unawares, he had his soldiers dig entrenchments every day, which slowed progress to a crawl. When at last Corinth was in sight, Grant watched the daily movement of trains in and out of the village, and advised Halleck that the Confederates were leaving. Halleck, who thought the trains were resupplying Beauregard's army, did not believe him.Sure enough, when the Union Army arrived, no sign of the Confederate army could be found. They had indeed moved out. Meanwhile, Grant was considering taking a leave of absence. "There's nothing for me to do here," he told Sherman. Before he could leave, word arrived from Washington that Halleck was being promoted to replace George McClellan, who, as Lincoln put it, "had a case of the slows." Little did he suspect that Halleck suffered from the same malady.Seeing the ferociously desperate fighting put up by the Confederate Army at Shiloh, opened Grant's eyes. The fighting was vicious and unyielding. He realized the South would not give up easily, that the war would be long and hard fought, and require extreme measures for the North to prevail. This belief would be reinforced while commanding forces in the lower Mississippi Valley, witnessing first hand the hostility of white plantation owners, as well as the cruelty with which they treated their slaves.Once freed, slaves would arrive by the hundreds each day in Union military camps, seeking freedom, and volunteering for the most menial of tasks. Many showed signs of having been ill-fed, and badly mistreated. They also encountered hate-filled Southerners intent on retrieving their "property". Grant would not give them up, but employed them to serve the Union objective, including active duty as soldiers. As Granted suspected, these former slaves fought with valor for the Union cause.With Halleck gone, and Grant put in charge of the new Department of West Tennessee, an area bounded by the Mississippi to the west, the Ohio to the north, and the Tennessee to the east, General John Pope's Army of the Mississippi was folded into Grant's Army of the Tennessee, and Pope was moved east to command the new Army of Virginia. In July, Sherman took command of the new District of Memphis, under Grant's command. Together they began planning an assault on Nashville, and after that Vicksburg.Meanwhile, Captain David Porter of the U.S. Navy had sacked New Orleans, thanks to the Big Guns aboard his ironclad warships. Having benefited from ironclad warships in conquering the Confederate strongholds in the Ohio Valley and upper Mississippi Valley, Grant reached out to Porter for Naval assistance in carrying out his plans to take Vicksburg, and thereby divide the Confederacy, as well as open up the Mississippi to Northern shipping. The plan called for Porter to come north and make Cairo his base of operations, where he would oversee construction of twelve steam-powered, flat-bottomed, ironclad warships.With Porter's "brown-water" warships, Grant could easily mobilize his army anywhere in the Confederate south, on the network of rivers that crisscrossed the Southland. The prize was of course Vicksburg. On June 5, Porters' fleet subdued Memphis, after that it combined with Captain David Farragut's fleet of warships stationed near Vicksburg, constituting the most powerful concentration of brown-water naval power in history.In early 1863, Grant realized the best way of mounting an offensive on Vicksburg was from south of the Fortress-City. After having failed to find a land route, Grant realized the only way was by sending Porter's gunboats down past Vicksburg, and then docking on the east side of the river. To Sherman, this was a suicide mission that would sink Porter's Twelve gunboats, and kill Union soldiers wholesale. However, Grant would not relent and ordered Porter to send his armored fleet down the Mississippi on the night of April 16. As expected, the Confederate Big Guns fired away relentlessly. The result? All but one gunboat, made it safely past. As it turned out the Confederate battery was too high up on the bluffs to inflict serious damage. The worst damage they could muster was to shoot off the gunboat's smokestacks. As a result, Grant was able to transfer his fighting units and supplies past the Vicksburg fortification, cross over to the eastern side of the Mississippi, and set up a staging area below Vicksburg.Grant's plan called for his army to live off the land, and mount its offensive against the city of Jackson, east of Vicksburg. Jackson was the Mississippi state capital, and, at the moment, not well protected. However, there was a Confederated battalion rumored to be on the way. To attack meant Grant's forces would have to turn their backs on the Confederate forces stationed in Vicksburg. Grant knew the risk but also knew well the Confederate General in command there, whom he suspected was unlikely to attack him. The Confederate general was yet another of Grant's West Point classmates, a northerner from Philadelphia, who, at the behest of his southern bride, had joined the Confederate Army. The General was John Pemperton, who like so many military men of the Civil War feared engaging his troops, unless absolutely sure of victory. As such, Grant knew Pemberton would not be a threat to the Union rearguard. Grant was right. the city of Jackson was taken in a matter of days. Thus, with no threat from behind, Grant could attack Vicksburg with impunity.Beginning on May 20, he had Porter's Big Guns fire on Vicksburg relentlessly, to soften up the target. This 24-hour barrage went on for about a month. Even so, when Grant's army did attack, Confederate forces put up an incredible defensive fight, that took several weeks, and still wouldn't yield. Having cut off Vicksburg's supply line, Grant ordered a seige, beginning on May 25, hoping to starve them out. After holding out for more than 40 days, with their supplies nearly gone, the garrison at Vicksburg surrendered on July 4. Combined with Robert E. Lee's defeat at Gettysburg the previous day, this was the war's turning point. It cut off the Trans-Mississippi Department, from the rest of the Confederate States, effectively splitting the Confederacy in two for the rest of the war.Grant'a dominance in the western theater of the Civil War, compelled Lincoln to make him supreme commander of all Union armies . Grant was brought in not only to direct the entire Union war effort, but to do something no prior Union General had been able to do--defeat Robert E. Lee. Heaven knows, It wasn't easy, but Grant did indeed defeat Lee. In doing so, Lee surrendered his army, giving Grant a total of three Confederate armies to have surrendered to "Unconditional Surrender Grant."

Great read, fast paced, very balanced portrait of U.S. Grant. Begins with Grant's attack on Belmont, Fort Donelson, and Shiloh. Covers Grant's mistakes and learning process as a general. Weighs in on Grant's drinking problem. Provides an outstanding review of the aborted moves leading up to the actual attack on Vicksburg from the southeast. A must read.

I have been reading books on the Civil War for more than 30 years.This telling of the Vicksburg was very comprehensive. I learned a lot.The only caveat is that a little too much attention was given to Grant's occasionally bouts of drinking. John Rawlins pretty much kept him in check. Begin separated from his wife is when most often faltered. But all in all I am pleased that I took the time to read this History.

Donald Miller has written a very readable account of, what I think, is the most important campaign of the Civil War. It was important because it cut the Confederacy in half and opened the Mississippi to northern trade all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. In addition, Miller argues that Union operations in this key cotton state created a social revolution that destroyed plantation slavery.As he narrates Ulysses S. Grant’s campaign from beginning to end, Miller paints a picture of a very complicated operation in which Union forces fought the terrain as much of the rebels, and sometimes the terrain was an even more difficult opponent. Without repeating the details of Miller’s book, he reviews actions from the initial attempts against the rebels’ northern flank, attempts to get around Vicksburg by building a canal, and additional routine probes in the north. He goes into riverboat operations and Army-Navy cooperation that was key to the Union’s eventual victory. It also follows Grant’s decision-making processes and the pressures he had; you realize that Grant was a great general. All this is known to anyone familiar with the Vicksburg campaign.Miller’s biggest contribution is how he addresses Union moves that led to the freedom of thousands of slaves either because soldiers freed them directly or because the ex-slaves crossed into Union lines or followed marching soldiers. At the same time, the Union began organizing African American regiments which began protecting Union supply lines and providing engineering labor and organizing slave communities behind the lines. He argues all this led directly to the permanent destruction of the state’s slave economy and destroyed Mississippi’s plantation society.All in all, a very good book. Even if you’re familiar with the overall events of the Vicksburg campaign this will add to your knowledge.

Donald L. Miller knows how to take the dry facts of history and turn them into a compelling narrative that brings history to life. As a writer and researcher, I'm astonished and awed at the depth of research that went into this work. That Miller also has the ability to craft a sense of place and time, and pace it like a thriller is a marvel. I could hardly put the book down during the entire read and I learned so much fascinating detail about the Civil War's most important campaign that I didn't previously know.It is not hyperbole to call this a masterpiece. Few historians can create a work that defines an event but I suspect this book will be one that lasts in the literature surrounding Vicksburg. Well done, sir.