Siege of Vicksburg.

On May 18, 1863, Ulysses S. Grant and his veteran army of nearly 70,000 completely surrounded the fortress of Vicksburg perched high atop bluffs commanding a strategic bend in the Mississippi River. For seven months, Grant had meandered around the bayous in Louisiana and Mississippi, attempting to approach the city with little success. Union gunboats had also failed to reduce the Confederate batteries looking down on the channel. Confederate General John C. Pemberton, with barely 30,000 men, resisted Grant’s movements and attempted to stop him from crossing the river. The next spring, Confederate forces could not halt the advance that came across the river south of the city, and then over land from the east. Their defenses repulsed the first two frontal assaults on the entrenched city. Grant then coordinated a siege with his artillery pounding from land and Admiral David D. Porter’s gunboats shelling from the river. Grant’s troops tightened their grip, ensuring that no food or war supplies were allowed into the besieged city. The Union also tunneled under Confederate positions and set off explosive charges followed by assaults that achieved limited success. After several long weeks passed, Pemberton recognized the desperate situation of his troops, who were starving, and he surrendered. General Grant achieved a major Union war objective that would enhance his reputation as a military commander.