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The Civil War #12
War on the Mississippi: Grant's Vicksburg Campaign
Recounts Union attempts to control the Mississippi
175 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 2, 2021
This account of the war on the Mississippi and Vicksburg campaign is thoroughly examined in this short book. The layout, the photographs, and maps about the battle of Vicksburg are very good. The maps detail how the Union push capitalized on their victory over the Confederate army.
I felt a lot of information was presented in this book but clearly presented without detail overkill. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the American Civil War. Thanks!
I felt a lot of information was presented in this book but clearly presented without detail overkill. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the American Civil War. Thanks!
August 30, 2011
Grant follows Lincoln's plan to split the Confederacy into several parts, thus dividing and conquering. The first step was to get control of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Vicksburg was the last holdout.
October 12, 2018
For only being allowed so much of a word count, and for being heavily illustrated, this volume of the magisterial Time-Life Civil War series stands as an excellent, single volume overview of the epic campaign to control the length of the Mississippi and the city of Vicksburg.
It all started with a failed naval sortie under Admiral David Farragut to take the city not long after the seizure of New Orleans.
Joint Federal Army and Navy operations down the Mississippi towards Memphis and aiming at Corinth secured the northern approaches, while Henry Halleck, commander of the Federal's Western Department, dispersed the previously concentrated Federal forces following the bloodbath at Shiloh and the mostly bloodless seizure of Corinth.
This breather allowed the Rebels to set up a defense of both the Mississippi and Vicksburg.
One of the most exciting sections of the book was the saga (nay, ballad) of the Confederate ironclad ram the CSS Arkansas and it's heroic exploits against the US Navy. For all of it's remarkable efforts, it was only one ship, and the Federals were equally as plucky and courageous as their Southern foes.
The main Rebel forces in northern Mississippi were under the commands of Major Generals Van Dorn and Price. Grant hatched a plan to remove Price from the chess board, and to prepare the ground for an overland march on Vicksburg, by a pincer movement upon Price's position.
However, Price sniffed the trap, and knocked on their heels at Iuka one of the arms of the encirclement under Rosecrans, allowing him to escape the trap and unite with Van Dorn.
Van Dorn, however, tossed this operational success aside by launching an ill advised offensive against Rosecrans ensconced at Corinth. In early October, 1862, the two day Battle of Corinth secured the northern part of the state for the Yankees, and cleared the way for Grant to prepare for a combined arms offensive against Vicksburg.
Grant planned a double envelopement of the city and it's defenders.
Grant would march south, overland, with the majority of the Army of the Tennessee while Sherman's Corps would steam south on the River to take the city by behind.
The Rebels put paid, however, to both schemes.
Van Dorn redeemed himself, somewhat (ok, not really, he genuinely may have been the worst Confederate commander of the war) by launching a brilliantly conceived and executed cavalry raid behind Grant's lines that sacked his supply depot at Holly Springs. Concurrently, Sherman was bloodily repulsed in an easy Rebel triumph at the one sided Battle of Chickasaw Bluffs.
These late 1862 Union defeats forced Grant to rethink his plans.
The book does a credible job describing the imaginative Union attempts to bypass the stout Rebel river defenses above the city, and Southern General Pemberton's skillful responses to them. For a book that can only go into so much detail, this section is very well done. And the writing is crisp enough that you can actually feel the Union frustration as all of Grant's attempts are embarrassed by both Pemberton and mother nature.
Then Grant decides to throw caution to the wind, steam his army past the heavy Rebel river batteries, and come up to Vicksburg from well below the city. It was the decisive moment of the campaign, and brilliantly done by the Federals who were aided by an astounding cavalry raid of their own under Benjamin Grierson.
The book does an excellent job describing Grant's march northwards that defeats several smaller Confederate garrisons and mobile field forces, clears the state capitol of Jackson, and then wins the bloody Battle of Champion Hill in May 1863. At Champion Hill Pemberton, heretofore brilliantly turning back Grant with his engineering skill, is hopelessly outmatched as a field commander. And although his army fights splendidly (especially a brigade of Missourians under Crocker who nearly turned the tide of battle with a rightfully celebrated counterattack), the Rebels are trounced and Grant all but wins the campaign.
Although Grant's two assaults on the cities fortifications themselves are rather easily repelled by the Rebel defenders, the siege was basically a foregone conclusion.
The author doesn't forget the presence of Joe Johnston and his forces at Jackson, or the political infighting amongst the Federal high command.
The siege of the city itself is well covered, the citizens themselves have their voices heard, and the horror of civilians caught in a war zone, and the spectre of starvation on a massed scale, is well described.
The very end of the book is a very brief, pictorial essay on the concurrent Siege of Port Hudson Louisiana. The fall of both Vicksburg and Port Hudson unite the mighty Mississippi under Union control, and was a major step in the road to ultimate Federal victory in the war as a whole.
This book can stand both as a very good single volume primer on the topic, as well as a superb addition to the series.
Very highly recommended.
It all started with a failed naval sortie under Admiral David Farragut to take the city not long after the seizure of New Orleans.
Joint Federal Army and Navy operations down the Mississippi towards Memphis and aiming at Corinth secured the northern approaches, while Henry Halleck, commander of the Federal's Western Department, dispersed the previously concentrated Federal forces following the bloodbath at Shiloh and the mostly bloodless seizure of Corinth.
This breather allowed the Rebels to set up a defense of both the Mississippi and Vicksburg.
One of the most exciting sections of the book was the saga (nay, ballad) of the Confederate ironclad ram the CSS Arkansas and it's heroic exploits against the US Navy. For all of it's remarkable efforts, it was only one ship, and the Federals were equally as plucky and courageous as their Southern foes.
The main Rebel forces in northern Mississippi were under the commands of Major Generals Van Dorn and Price. Grant hatched a plan to remove Price from the chess board, and to prepare the ground for an overland march on Vicksburg, by a pincer movement upon Price's position.
However, Price sniffed the trap, and knocked on their heels at Iuka one of the arms of the encirclement under Rosecrans, allowing him to escape the trap and unite with Van Dorn.
Van Dorn, however, tossed this operational success aside by launching an ill advised offensive against Rosecrans ensconced at Corinth. In early October, 1862, the two day Battle of Corinth secured the northern part of the state for the Yankees, and cleared the way for Grant to prepare for a combined arms offensive against Vicksburg.
Grant planned a double envelopement of the city and it's defenders.
Grant would march south, overland, with the majority of the Army of the Tennessee while Sherman's Corps would steam south on the River to take the city by behind.
The Rebels put paid, however, to both schemes.
Van Dorn redeemed himself, somewhat (ok, not really, he genuinely may have been the worst Confederate commander of the war) by launching a brilliantly conceived and executed cavalry raid behind Grant's lines that sacked his supply depot at Holly Springs. Concurrently, Sherman was bloodily repulsed in an easy Rebel triumph at the one sided Battle of Chickasaw Bluffs.
These late 1862 Union defeats forced Grant to rethink his plans.
The book does a credible job describing the imaginative Union attempts to bypass the stout Rebel river defenses above the city, and Southern General Pemberton's skillful responses to them. For a book that can only go into so much detail, this section is very well done. And the writing is crisp enough that you can actually feel the Union frustration as all of Grant's attempts are embarrassed by both Pemberton and mother nature.
Then Grant decides to throw caution to the wind, steam his army past the heavy Rebel river batteries, and come up to Vicksburg from well below the city. It was the decisive moment of the campaign, and brilliantly done by the Federals who were aided by an astounding cavalry raid of their own under Benjamin Grierson.
The book does an excellent job describing Grant's march northwards that defeats several smaller Confederate garrisons and mobile field forces, clears the state capitol of Jackson, and then wins the bloody Battle of Champion Hill in May 1863. At Champion Hill Pemberton, heretofore brilliantly turning back Grant with his engineering skill, is hopelessly outmatched as a field commander. And although his army fights splendidly (especially a brigade of Missourians under Crocker who nearly turned the tide of battle with a rightfully celebrated counterattack), the Rebels are trounced and Grant all but wins the campaign.
Although Grant's two assaults on the cities fortifications themselves are rather easily repelled by the Rebel defenders, the siege was basically a foregone conclusion.
The author doesn't forget the presence of Joe Johnston and his forces at Jackson, or the political infighting amongst the Federal high command.
The siege of the city itself is well covered, the citizens themselves have their voices heard, and the horror of civilians caught in a war zone, and the spectre of starvation on a massed scale, is well described.
The very end of the book is a very brief, pictorial essay on the concurrent Siege of Port Hudson Louisiana. The fall of both Vicksburg and Port Hudson unite the mighty Mississippi under Union control, and was a major step in the road to ultimate Federal victory in the war as a whole.
This book can stand both as a very good single volume primer on the topic, as well as a superb addition to the series.
Very highly recommended.
January 30, 2022
Good introduction to Grant’s Vicksburg campaign. The book covers early attempts by Flag Officer David Farragut and Grant’s early attempts to get at Vicksburg from the North. The book finishes with the running of the guns by Union ships that allowed Grant to land troops to the south of Vicksburg, the battles of Raymond, Jackson, Champion Hill, and Big Black River, and the final siege.
March 12, 2021
A solid if basic account of the Vicksburg Campaign. Just what you would expect from a Time-Life book.
July 27, 2024
Like other books in the Time-Life Civil War series, this book gives a pretty good overview of this section of the war but without going into a lot of detail. It covers not only the Vicksburg Campaign but also the Iuka-Corinth Campaign. It includes plenty of illustrations, including several period photos taking up two full pages each but not all of them seem to make much sense; for example, six paintings of the pre-war Mississippi from the 1840s are included, although I fail to see how they help with understanding the Civil War. The book has only two maps for the ten month period it covers (Champion's Hill and the two May assaults on the Confederate defenses of Vicksburg).
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews