July, 1863—Vicksburg and Gettysburg–the Price of Victory

by Mark Moore, His­to­ri­an and Archivist, Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

1863. The third year of the war. The music exalt­ing medal-bedecked glo­ry and the blood­less romance of a quick 90-day war had fad­ed long ago. In its place was end­less, mind­less slogging–the clean­ing of weapons, large and small, march­ing with no dis­cernible purpose—the killing and dying with an equal­ly point­less objective.

General George G. Meade, aka "the old snapping turtle."
Gen­er­al George G. Meade, aka the “Old Snap­ping Turtle.”

This proved to be the rule in the war in the west. The blood­let­ting at Fred­er­icks­burg and Anti­etam, to name two, proved ear­ly on that there would be no quick, dra­mat­ic, glit­ter­ing north­ern vic­to­ries. Chan­cel­lorsville had shown the supe­ri­or­i­ty of some south­ern com­mand­ing gen­er­als so Lin­coln would have to engage on a con­tin­u­ous revolv­ing door of com­mand for the Army of the Potomac replac­ing the use­less Major Gen­er­al Joe Hook­er with fish-eyed Penn­syl­van­ian George Meade, known to his troops as Old Snap­ping Tur­tle. Con­fed­er­ate Gen­er­al Robert E. Lee, on oth­er hand, lost his sec­ond-in-com­mand, his bold­est tac­ti­cian and archi­tect of the vic­to­ry at Chan­cel­lorsville, “Stonewall” Jack­son, to the gun­fire of his own troops in the evening twilight.

June of 1863 saw Lee side-step­ping the Fed­er­als and advanc­ing north, freez­ing the Union Forces into pro­tect­ing Wash­ing­ton D.C. until he passed, then rushed, fol­low­ing the bare­foot gray-clad troops in tat­tered uni­forms as they poured into Penn­syl­va­nia. It was the inva­sion all had feared. The cap­i­tal of the state at Har­ris­burg was a risk, and, fur­ther east, laid the cra­dle of democ­ra­cy and major sea­port of Philadelphia.

pemberton
Con­fed­er­ate gen­er­al, John Pemberton

Fur­ther east, the sto­ry was dif­fer­ent. So were the com­man­ders. Here, the major obsta­cles were the ter­rain, not the abil­i­ty of the Con­fed­er­ates or the inabil­i­ty of the Union com­man­ders. Vicks­burg, Mis­sis­sip­pi, was called the Gibral­tar of the Con­fed­er­a­cy as, from its heights at a sharp u‑turn in the Mis­sis­sip­pi, it con­trolled com­merce from the west­ern states of Arkansas, Texas and Mis­souri. It fun­neled men and materiel to the South dur­ing the first three years of the Civ­il War in a man­ner the Union block­ade of the rebel har­bors could not touch. Gen­er­al John Pem­ber­ton, a Philadel­phi­an and West Point grad­u­ate, seemed secure in his can­non-stud­ded fortress.

But Gen­er­al Ulysses Simp­son Grant was not your usual

A Vicksburg battlefield map.
A Vicks­burg bat­tle­field map.

Union com­man­der. His atti­tude toward his job could best be summed up by a con­ver­sa­tion he had with the red-haired Gen­er­al William Tecum­seh Sher­man after the first day of the Bat­tle of Shiloh a year ear­li­er. Sher­man approached Grant in his tent after the Con­fed­er­ates had over­run 90% of Grant’s troops. “A tough day” was Sherman’s com­ment. “Whip ‘em tomor­row” observed Grant. And he did.

Grant, as a bat­tle­field com­man­der, shared with Lee the qual­i­ties of per­spec­tive, respon­si­bil­i­ty, intu­ition, dar­ing and endurance. At Vicks­burg, when one idea didn’t work, he tried anoth­er. He tried attack­ing from the north, tried dig­ging across the “U” in the riv­er; final­ly, he tried cross­ing the Mis­sis­sip­pi south of Vicks­burg at Bru­ins­burg on April 30-May 1, 1863. Grant rowed across Mis­sis­sip­pi and, cul­mi­nat­ing in the Bat­tle of Cham­pi­on Hill, forced what was left of Pemberton’s army back into Vicks­burg.  Although, Grant had his gun­boats run past Vicksburg’s can­nons, sev­er­al assaults on the land side failed to breach the defens­es, and Grant set­tled down for a siege.

The North Star summarized the siege of Vicksburg on June 6, 1863:

For sev­er­al days we have received noth­ing from Vicks­burg except that the siege was still going on—nothing occur­ring that is deci­sive or cheer­ing. At this time of writ­ing (Tues­day) we have no news of the cap­ture of Vicksburg…

It is yet too ear­ly to judge as to the final result. We trust Grant will steadi­ly move for­ward until he accom­plish­es his pur­pose. But at present it looks as though the actu­al cap­ture of Vicks­burg would not take place. If any­thing more impor­tant occurs, we shall receive accounts, which shall be found in our war news column.

***

The North Star itself headlined the vital standing of Vicksburg on June 6, 1963 and quoted from a Confederate paper:

VICKSBURGITS IMPORTANCE

At the time of writ­ing we know not whether the Fed­er­al Forces have suc­ceed­ed in tak­ing Vicks­burg. But whether they have or not, it is evi­dent there is a mighty strug­gle on both sides either to retain or cap­ture it. It is viewed as a point of great impor­tance. The Jack­son (Miss.) Appeal says of Vicks­burg “Our hold on the Mis­sis­sip­pi, once wrest­ed from us, is gone from us, at least, so long as the war lasts which would iso­late the Con­fed­er­ate Gov­ern­ment from the West, cut off all but remorse, and place us at a dis­ad­van­tage when we shall enter upon the terms of lease. A great deal has been said about guar­an­tee­ing the free nav­i­ga­tion of the riv­er in the North­west but with what plau­si­bil­i­ty could our gov­ern­ment come for­ward with such a propo­si­tion when the entire riv­er with all its for­ti­fi­ca­tions, erect­ed by the Con­fed­er­a­cy is already in their pos­ses­sion? Of course they would laugh at such a propo­si­tion, com­ing from us under such cir­cum­stances and hence it is of the first impor­tance that our present posi­tion on the riv­er be per­ma­nent­ly held. Far bet­ter it would be to sac­ri­fice Rich­mond, Charleston, Savan­nah or Mobile than to yield the riv­er by which the Con­fed­er­a­cy will be rent in twain, the West hope­less­ly cut off from the East and a vast sec­tion of the coun­ty sub­ject to the depre­da­tions and spo­li­a­tions of the ene­my. The very thought of such a result is excruciating.”

Such is the Con­fed­er­ate view of the impor­tance of Vicks­burg. Its val­ue can­not be over esti­mat­ed. It is of such great impor­tance to the Con­fed­er­ates. It is still more so to the Fed­er­als. The ene­my will con­test its cap­ture with a ter­ri­ble tenac­i­ty and sac­ri­fice to main­tain con­trol of the Mississippi.

***

In the same issue The North Star reported

LEE’S ARMY IN MOTION

New York-May 29 The Herald’s Head­quar­ters at the Army of the Potomac, dis­patch­es dat­ed May 28 say the rebel army is evi­dent­ly mov­ing. Gen. Lee has issued an order which was read to the troops a few nights since, con­grat­u­lat­ing them on their achieve­ments and fore­shad­ow­ing a raid into Mary­land. He tells them they are to have long and rapid march­es through a coun­try with­out rail­heads and calls upon every man to be pre­pared for the sever­est hard­ships. Won­der­ful vic­to­ries are, of course, promised them and the over­throw of our army pre­dict­ed as an inevitable event. The trains of the rebels have been seen for sev­er­al days mov­ing from depots of sup­plies below Fred­er­icks­burg and bal­loon recon­nais­sance have dis­cov­ered a large col­umn push­ing rapid­ly in the direc­tion of Culpepper.

***

The news that everyone in the North longed to hear about the battle which occurred at the town of Gettysburg and was published in the North Star on July 11, 1863:

THE GREAT VICTORY

What the loy­al peo­ple of the Nation have been look­ing for has come to pass. The Fed­er­al army has gained a great vic­to­ry in the field. The details of the awful strug­gle dur­ing the three days of last week will be read with intense interest.

The whole coun­try is jubi­lant at the suc­cess of the Union arms. Praise of Meade are on every tongue, and thanks to the Almighty God are fer­vent­ly uttered…The N.Y. Time sug­gests that the Army of the Potomac will now, more than ever receive the admi­ra­tion of the country..its hero­ic strug­gle dur­ing the first three days of July will for­ev­er adorn the annals of war.

***

So, the mythol­o­gy of Get­tys­burg began.  Also pub­lished the same day:

TO THE HON, GIDEON WELLS, SECRETARY OF THE NAVY

Sir‑I have to hon­or to inform you that Vicks­burg has sur­ren­dered to the Unit­ed States forces on this 4th of July.

D.D. Porte

Act­ing Rear Admiral

Lat­er unof­fi­cial reports con­firm the fall of Vicks­burg. Gen. Pem­ber­ton sent a flag of truce on the morn­ing of the 4th, and offered to sur­ren­der if his men were allowed to march out. Gen Grant is report­ed to have replied that no men should leave except as pris­on­ers of war. Gen Pem­ber­ton then, after con­sul­ta­tion with his offi­cers uncon­di­tion­al­ly sur­ren­dered. The news is per­fect­ly reliable.

The fall of Vicks­burg has caused great pub­lic rejoic­ing through­out the vil­lages and cities of the North.

***

 

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