Category Vicksburg
What if Robert E. Lee had Sent Troops to Vicksburg?
This article comes from the Fall 2021 issue of America’s Civil War magazine. “That question was certainly on the mind of Confederate Secretary of War James Seddon that season. By default, then, it was also on Lee’s. Anchored on bluffs lining the Mississippi River, Vicksburg was the key to success in the West for either […]
The War for the Union: The Organized War 1863-1864
This book by Allan Nevins is the penultimate volume in his series, The Ordeal of the Union. “From the outset,” Professor Nevins writes, “the antagonists had been aware of a fundamental difference in position. The North had to fight for a decisive victory in the field; for the destruction or hopeless crippling of the Confederate […]
This Union Officer Escaped a Confederate Prison and Became Grant’s Most Trusted Gunner
This article is from the Winter 2024 issue of Civil War Times magazine. “Tour Stop One at Vicksburg National Military Park is the location of ‘Battery DeGolyer.’ Named after its commanding officer, Captain Samuel DeGolyer, the position had the heaviest concentration of guns on the Union lines during the 47-day Siege of Vicksburg—22 in all. […]
Target Vicksburg: The Union Challenge of Taking the City on the Hill
This article by Professor John Marszalek comes from the December 2021 issue of America’s Civil War magazine. “In the fall of 1862, Union forces began yet another forward movement toward Vicksburg, Miss. Both the United States and the Confederacy realized that Federal forces had to take complete control of Vicksburg and the Mississippi River to win the […]
Siege of Vicksburg 1863
In this video from the Emerging Civil War Summer Symposium, historian Timothy B. Smith gives us an excellent presentation on the Vicksburg campaign of 1863. The video’s description reads, “Historian Timothy Smith discussed the Vicksburg Campaign, which ended with the Confederate surrender on July 4, 1863. Union control of the Mississippi River split the Confederacy […]
Gettysburg and Vicksburg as Turning Points
Here’s Matt Atkinson giving a pretty good presentation on Gettysburg and Vicksburg, though he doesn’t really answer his question until the end. In this case he would have been well served to cut down on the jokes a little and spend some more time in the body of his talk with the substance. The video’s […]
How a Grad Student Uncovered the Largest Known Slave Auction in the U.S.
I found this article about a grad student who made an important discovery in the history of slavery and of the United States. “Lauren Davila scoured digitized old newspapers for slave auction ads. A graduate history student at the College of Charleston, she logged them on a spreadsheet for an internship assignment. It was often […]
An Ohio English Teacher Went to Fight in the Civil War and Got His First True Taste of Battle
To break through the formidable Southern defenses during the Vicksburg siege, mines were dug beneath several redans and packed with explosives. Depicted here is the June 25 Union attack through the crater left by one of those explosions at Fort Hill. Now we have this article from Civil War Times magazine. “On May 20, 1863, […]
VICKSBURG: WHERE GRANT LEARNED HOW TO WIN THE WAR
This article contains an interview with Donald Miller concerning his book on the Vicksburg campaign. Regarding his research, Miller says, “I visited 62 archives and uncovered well over 1,000 letters from soldiers who were not abolitionists but were eager to liberate slaves in order to destroy the Confederacy’s military economy and punish the South for […]
Grant Rises in the West
This book is a reissue of what had been Volume Four of Kenneth P. Williams’s Lincoln Finds a General. That multivolume work had been planned for seven volumes, but Williams only completed five volumes. This particular edition has a perceptive and highly useful introduction penned by Professor Brooks Simpson. Professor Simpson tells us [This was […]
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