Vicksburg, The Real Death Stoke Against the Confederacy

[Subdeacon Joe]

People go on about Gettysburg being the death stroke against the CSA,  but Lee withdrew in good order with 2/3 of his army. (I maintain that the real death of the Confederacy was 1st Manassas  when the Confederate army failed to pursue the federal and capture Washington.   That guaranteed a drawn out war of attrition that it could never win)

 

Vicksburg broke the back of the Confederacy. 

 

"

VICKSBURG IS THE KEY!
On July 4, 1863, Confederate General John C. Pemberton surrendered Vicksburg, Mississippi after a several month-long siege, thereby removing from the field of battle his 30,000 man army (subject to their terms of parole), 60,000 rifles, and approximately 12% of the Confederacy's cannons.

"... Vicksburg is the key! The war can never be brought to a close until that key is in our pocket...We can take all the northern ports of the Confederacy, and they can defy us from Vicksburg." -- Abraham Lincoln.

See the following images, below:

Union Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson & staff posing in front of the Balfour House, Vicksburg, Miss. (per notation on the back of the card stock), courtesy of Heritage Auctions.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca-35298/. The image also was published in Volume Two of Miller's "The Photographic History of the Civil War in Ten Volumes (1911). The best visual record of the surrender is a sketch by Theodore R. Davis which appeared in the August 1, 1863 edition of Harper's Weekly (below).

Few Vicksburg-area photographs from around the time of the siege survive. One, below, depicts the Shirley House (the only surviving period structure within the Vicksburg National Military Park) and Union bomb-proofs occupied by Logan's Division of the 45th Illinois Regiment. Those soldiers engaged in the arduous task of sapping and mining around the fort occupied by the Third Louisiana. Image courtesy of the Old Courthouse Museum, Vicksburg.

See also: https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca-35298/. The image also was published in Volume Two of Miller's "The Photographic History of the Civil War in Ten Volumes (1911).

Library of Congress LC-DIG-ppmsca-35285 (Confederate fortifications at Vicksburg); DIG-ppmsca-35297; and DIG-ppmsca-35294 (Market House in Vicksburg).

http://oldcourthouse.org/photos/civil-war-tour/
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/vicksburg-campaign-unvexing-father-waters
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/key-lincolns-pocket
https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/hh/21/hh21d4.htm
https://ashevilleoralhistoryproject.com/2012/10/10/vicksburg

By Craig Heberton IV"

 

 

[Trigger Mike]

My wife's great , great grandfather was there .  Grant couldn't handle the mass amount of prisoners so he set them free with the promise they'd go home and never fight again.  

 

He went home to Georgia, took 30 days off and they all went back fought grant in Virginia.  

 

He died after he was released when the war ended, on his way home of dysentery.   We named our third child after him.  

[Dubious Don #56333]

Very good analysis Joe. I for one, think you're spot on!

[Subdeacon Joe]

36 minutes ago, Dubious Don #56333 said:

Very good analysis Joe. I for one, think you're spot on!

 

Everything below my comment about Vicksburg breaking the back of the Confederacy is by a gentleman named Craig Heberton IV"

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

 

"The Father of Waters flows unvexed to the sea".

 

We stayed at a B&B in Vicksburg a few years back which had been Pemberton's HQ. 

 

The battlefield monuments there are very moving and impressive, second only, I think, to those at Gettysburg.

[Irish Pat]

I live just across the Mississippi River from Natchez. Natchez was full of rich union supporters. The union officers would come down to Natchez for a little R and R during the siege. I have lots stories I wish I could tell. Irish ☘️ Pat

[Henry T Harrison]

2 hours ago, Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619 said:

 

"The Father of Waters flows unvexed to the sea".

 

We stayed at a B&B in Vicksburg a few years back which had been Pemberton's HQ. 

 

The battlefield monuments there are very moving and impressive, second only, I think, to those at Gettysburg.

Enjoy the monuments while they still exist 

[Trigger Mike]

Just think if Lee had stayed in Virginia that summer and instead sent Stuart and Picket to vicksburg instead he might have beat Grant there and not had to face him in Virginia later.  

 

Grant succeeding in Vicksburg opened the door for him to command in Virginia and he was the only one who figured out how to beat Lee, file by the flank even after each defeat.  

[Trailrider #896]

The great-great uncle of my second cousin was with the 23rd Alabama when Vicksburg surrendered.  He was shipped to Chicago.  Apparently declined to go South when released at the end of the War.  Legend has it, that he was a cook, and not too good a one, for the 23rd.  He "galvanized" and cooked for the Union troops.  They didn't like his cooking either!  His son became a noted ENT doctor...without attending medical school!  One of his sons went to med school and also became an ENT doctor.  (He took out my tonsils and adenoids when I was a kid.)  

[watab kid]

i was just reading of this last week , a book on iowa troops involved in that campaign , i agree if the south could have kept the supply lines open grant could never have won that one , he just barely did so really , he starved them out by cutting off the incoming supplies , and then only by a few mistaken moves , 

 

yes gettysburg gets all the glory but at that same instant vicksburg was equally crucial and maybe more so , 

 

i cannot disagree about Manassas , that was a major lost opportunity to say the least  

[Waxahachie Kid #17017 L]

Great, and informative post. Thank you.

 

However, if some had their way, we would be encouraged not to even mention the Confederacy.

 

How much longer places like the Vicksburg battlefield, with all it's statues, and other things, will exist, is up for debate. 

I would not hold out much hope for having some things moved to, so called, "private property".  When you get right down to it, there is no such thing anymore. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

[Ozark Huckleberry]

8 hours ago, Trailrider #896 said:

The great-great uncle of my second cousin was with the 23rd Alabama when Vicksburg surrendered.  He was shipped to Chicago.  Apparently declined to go South when released at the end of the War.  Legend has it, that he was a cook, and not too good a one, for the 23rd.  He "galvanized" and cooked for the Union troops.  They didn't like his cooking either!  His son became a noted ENT doctor...without attending medical school!  One of his sons went to med school and also became an ENT doctor.  (He took out my tonsils and adenoids when I was a kid.)  

If he wasn’t a very good cook, there’s a distinct possibility he did the Confederacy more good by cooking for the Union. 
 

[DeaconKC]

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

The capture of Vicksburg was one of the key objectives of the Anaconda Plan. The plan was developed by Winfield Scott at the start of the war which laid out the overall strategy of closing all major CSA ports for exports and imports. When Vicksburg fell, the North already controlled the Atlantic and Gulf seaboards and it’s fall completed the noose by giving them control of the Mississippi River. The inability to export cotton in meaningful quantities to England and Europe was devastating to the South’s ability to raise cash. 

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

20 hours ago, Henry T Harrison said:

Enjoy the monuments while they still exist 

 

The Illinois Memorial at Vicksburg is extraordinary among Civil War monuments. Really amazing to visit. Its design is based on the Pantheon in Rome, and the construction cost was 20% of the Illinois state budget in 1904.

There were 36,000 Illinois soldiers at Vicksburg.

[J-BAR #18287]

Grant was tenacious.  If Vicksburg had not fallen when it did, it would have fallen the next day, or the next month, or in six months.  Grant had the advantage of numbers.  He could afford to lose men and equipment, which the north could, and would replace.  The Confederates did not have that option.  
 

Vicksburg was captured when Grant decided it had to go.

[Subdeacon Joe]

6 minutes ago, J-BAR #18287 said:

Grant had the advantage of numbers.  He could afford to lose men and equipment, which the north could, and would replace

 

Repla:"Grant " with  "The North. "  Hence my comment in the starter post about the Confederacy having lost the war at First Manassas. 

[J-BAR #18287]

23 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

Repla:"Grant " with  "The North. "  Hence my comment in the starter post about the Confederacy having lost the war at First Manassas. 

Well, all those other northern generals had the same resources at their disposal as Grant.  They just didn’t use  them.  Mr. Lincoln was correct.  Grant chose to pursue southern armies rather than trying to occupy captured territory.  “I can’t spare him; he fights.”

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

The genius of Grant was his recognition that if the Army and Navy combined forces, they could effect a powerful and effective strategy. Up to that time, the Navy and Army were rival services that had never cooperated in a cohesive way. Grant and Farragut were the forerunners of the war department. 
 

A great read is Lincoln and His Admirals. https://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-His-Admirals-Craig-Symonds/dp/0199751579

[Subdeacon Joe]

24 minutes ago, J-BAR #18287 said:

Well, all those other northern generals had the same resources at their disposal as Grant.  They just didn’t use  them.  Mr. Lincoln was correct.  Grant chose to pursue southern armies rather than trying to occupy captured territory.  “I can’t spare him; he fights.”

 

Even Little Mac would have eventually won given the resources of the federals, as long as he could have kept the Confederacy from taking Washington.  Grant realized that he had the resources to keep throwing into the fire to overwhelm the South and the will to do it.

[J-BAR #18287]

I’m grateful the fate of the Union did not ultimately depend upon Little Mac.

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

Remember that while the war was going on, the US was sending locomotives over the isthmus of Panama and working on the transcontinental railroad. In short, as Shelby Foote said, it was fighting the war with one hand tied behind its back. The resources of the Union guaranteed victory, as long as the will was there.

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

There were times when the will faltered. There were those in the North, especially the press, who felt the War wasn't worth the effort. Grant complained bitterly in his autobiography that he had to fight the Northern press as well as on the battlefield.

[Subdeacon Joe]

54 minutes ago, Abilene Slim SASS 81783 said:

were those in the North, especially the press, who felt the War wasn't worth the effort

 

But enough were galvanized by the loss at Manassas (We aren't going to stand for a bunch of backwoods yokels beating us!) that the naysayers were bound to lose. 

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

On 7/5/2021 at 2:43 PM, Irish-Pat said:

I live just across the Mississippi River from Natchez. Natchez was full of rich union supporters. The union officers would come down to Natchez for a little R and R during the siege. I have lots stories I wish I could tell. Irish ☘️ Pat

 

Natchez is a fascinating place to visit. We did a couple of decades back, and stayed at a B&B there before going on to Vicksburg. The ante-bellum houses there, well-preserved, are unique in many ways. Many stories there....

[Ozark Huckleberry]

7 hours ago, Abilene Slim SASS 81783 said:

There were times when the will faltered. There were those in the North, especially the press, who felt the War wasn't worth the effort. Grant complained bitterly in his autobiography that he had to fight the Northern press as well as on the battlefield.

Lincoln's re-election in 1864 wasn't a done deal -- as late as the summer of 1864, Lincoln was just about certain he was going to lose to McClellan, in significant part because a portion of McClellan's platform included ending the war and coming to terms with the South.

 

Sherman's success in Georgia helped strengthen the North's will to continue the fight and boosted Lincoln's popularity. When McClellan recognized the shift in public opinion he abandoned his pledge for an immediate end to the war, which cost him support from within his party. That gave Lincoln a landslide win for re-election.

[Trigger Mike]

In the end, it is good the south lost.  We could not be the great country we are today if we had remained divided.  A house divided can not stand.  I hope everyone remembers that when they promote another civil war today.  Nobody wins being divided.