After initial assaults on the city were rebuffed, Grant settled his army in for a long siege by May 29. On May 16, the most decisive military engagement of the campaign took place at Champion Hill, in which the Federal army forced Pemberton’s army to withdraw to Vicksburg and prepare to defend the city at all costs. These victories would prevent the small Confederate force led by General Joseph Johnston from linking up with their comrades at Vicksburg, commanded by General John C. Grant began quickly moving his army northeast, taking Port Gibson on May 2, Grand Gulf on May 3 and Jackson, the state capital, on May 14. READ MORE: The American Civil War: Causes, Dates, Battles The landing would stand as the largest amphibious operation in American military history until the Allied invasion of Normandy during World War II. The infantrymen of the 24th and 46th Indiana Regiments were the first troops to land, followed by the remainder of the XIII Union Army Corps and portions of the XVII Corps (17,000 men in all). Meanwhile, a Union flotilla commanded by Rear Admiral David Porter ran past the Vicksburg defenses in mid-April, managing to slip by despite being hit hard by Confederate batteries and rendezvous with Grant at Hard Times.Īfter a thwarted initial crossing at Grand Gulf on April 29, Grant continued southward and was able to make the crossing on April 30-May 1 at Bruinsburg, Mississippi. On March 29, some 40,000 of Grant’s men began marching from Milliken’s Bend to Hard Times, Louisiana. Grant conceived a bold new plan: By marching his Army of the Tennessee down the Mississippi River on its western bank, he could cross the river and approach Vicksburg from the south, giving his troops a more favorable position. In the spring of 1863, General Ulysses S. That winter, Union forces made an unsuccessful attempt to take Vicksburg by land from the north. Its first phase began with a naval bombardment on May 18, 1862, which failed due to the fierce resistance of the Confederate batteries guarding the city. The Union campaign against Vicksburg, in its entirety, would be the longest of the Civil War.
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