![]() ![]() While the leaders of both combatants obviously conceived of military activities as serving some sort of larger plan or purpose, how to move beyond such a vague generalization remains a vexatious problem for historians. The challenge of linking theory with practice looms over the question of military strategy during the Civil War. Strategy: Definitions, Theory, and Practice Lee chose the plausible strategy of striking directly at Northern public opinion with aggressive operations waged by his own Army of Northern Virginia, but the final failure of the Confederate war effort raises fair questions about whether the Confederacy should have paid more attention to its western theater. ![]() In the case of the Confederacy, secessionist leaders faced the challenge of prioritizing different theaters in the face of their material inferiority to the Union. Grant until the end of the war to complete all these tasks. In the case of the Union, however, victory would require not only a more sophisticated conception of strategy that superseded Jomini and coordinated military operations in geographically disconnected fronts but also the practical implementation of such ideas through well-selected subordinate commanders. They also shared a general adherence to the straightforward strategic ideas of Antoine-Henri de Jomini, who emphasized the importance of concentrating one’s own military forces in opposition to dispersed opponents. Many residents-cut off from all supplies and rapidly running out of food-moved to tunnels dug from the hillsides to escape the constant bombardments.Despite the absence of a robust and well-articulated conception of strategy, American military and political leaders during the Civil War had an intuitive sense of how military operations should be coordinated with larger political ends. It was only a matter of time before Grant, with 70,000 troops, captured Vicksburg.Ĭonfederate attempts to rescue Pemberton and his force failed from both the east and west, and conditions for both military personnel and civilians in Vicksburg deteriorated rapidly. Starting on May 18, preparing for a long Siege of Vicksburg, Grant's army constructed 15 miles of trenches and enclosed Pemberton’s force of 29,000 men inside the perimeter. Grant made some attacks after bottling Vicksburg but found the Confederates well entrenched. ![]() In three weeks time, Grant’s men had marched 180 miles, won five battles and captured some 6,000 prisoners.ĭid you know? After the residents of Vicksburg dug more than 500 caves in the hills around the city and began living in them, Union soldiers started to refer to the town as a "Prairie Dog Village." Siege of Vicksburg Pemberton retreated back to Vicksburg, and Grant sealed off the city by the end of May. Pemberton at Champion Hill, one of the Confederates’ last defenses outside of Vicksburg. On May 16, Grant defeated a force under General John C. Indicated are the locations of Union forces under Sherman, McPherson, McClernand and Carr. Terrain and Confederate fortifications around Vicksburg. After defeating a Confederate force near Jackson, Grant turned his troops back to Vicksburg. Union Admiral David Porter had run his flotilla past the Vicksburg defenses in early May as Grant marched his army down the west bank of the river opposite Vicksburg, crossed over back into Mississippi and drove toward Jackson, the state capitol. Grant to take the city failed in the winter of 1862-63, he renewed his efforts in the spring. Although the first attempt by General Ulysses S. The Vicksburg campaign was one of the Union Army’s most successful endeavors in the Civil War-it was also one of the longest. Vicksburg, given its strategic location on the east bank of the Mississippi River, was “the nailhead that holds the South’s two halves together,” according to Confederate President Jefferson Davis. As the Civil War began, the South controlled the Mississippi River-a critical transportation corridor and supply line-from Cairo, Illinois, all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico. ![]()
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