1.) Grant was able to capture Vicksburg by sending a cavalry brigade to destroy rail lines in central Mississippi and draw attention away from the port city. When the Confederate forces were distracted, Grant was able to land infantry south of Vicksburg. Eighteen days later, Union forces defeated several rebel units and sacked Jackson, their capital. Gaining confidence, Grant and his troops rushed to Vicksburg. When two frontal assaults on the city failed, Grant set up a steady barrage of artillery for several hours every day, and was able to cut the city off from supplies. Finally, after almost 2 months of siege, food supplies ran terribly low and the Confederate commander of Vicksburg asked Grant for terms of surrender. About 30,000 southern soldiers surrendered and the north captured over 50,000 weapons and many cannon.
Source: McDougal Littell, The Americans
On On April 16, 1863, after several weeks of attempts to get by the Confederate batteries at Vicksburg, Union gunboats and troop transport boats ran the batteries at Vicksburg by hugging the near shore so closely that the confederate guns could not be pointed downward far enough to hit them and met up with Grant's men who had marched overland in Louisiana. On April 29 and April 30, 1863, Grant's army crossed the Mississippi and landed at Bruinsburg, Mississippi. An elaborate series of demonstrations and diversions fooled the Confederates and the landings occurred without opposition. Over the next 17 days, Grant maneuvered his army inland and won five battles, captured the state capital of Jackson, Mississippi, and assaulted and laid siege to Vicksburg. Grant attempted two assaults to break through the strong Confederate fieldworks: May 19 and May 22. The latter assault initially achieved some success but it was repulsed with 3,200 casualties. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston (who had been overall command of Confederate forces in the region) ordered Lt. Gen. Pemberton (the Confederate commander in Vicksburg) to evacuate the city and save his army, but Pemberton thought it impossible to withdraw safely. Johnston planned to attack Grant and relieve Pemberton but was unable to arrange it in time. On July 4, after six weeks in which the soldiers and civilians of Vicksburg had no food supplies and were bombarded constantly, Pemberton surrendered the city and his army.
By crossing the river downstream, while the commander of the Vicksburg garrison (Pemberton) was distracted by the Grierson Raid - a totally successful cavalry operation led by a music teacher who was frightened of horses!
The unlucky Pemberton was also at the mercy of conflicting orders by the local commander, Joe Johnston, and the Confederate president Jefferson Davis.
Since Vicksburg, on its high cliffs, was impossible to attack from the river, he needed to march downstream and get his troops across to the East bank. If the garrison commander, Pemberton, knew of this, he would be able to catch the Union army at its most vulnerable, during the crossing.
So Grant ordered a cavalry raid down through the whole state of Mississippi, to distract and confuse Pemberton.
For once, a military operation went entirely 'according to plan'. The raid was a stunning success, not only as a deception tactic, but as a campaign of destruction, wrecking many railroads and bridges, at almost nil casualties.
Grant was also helped by poor leadership on the other side, with Pemberton receiving conflicting orders that enabled Grant to drive him back into his lines, where he was besieged till the surrender on the Fourth of July 1863.
Vicksburg.
a siege
Ulysses S. Grant won the siege of Vicksburg.
U.S. Grant led the U.S. forces at the Siege of Vicksburg.
The Union did: Grant at Vicksburg, Meade at Gettysburg.
Grant
Vicksburg
Grant took Vicksburg on July 4, 1863.
Shiloh, then Vicksburg. IMPROVEMENT Shiloh, Champion Hill, Vicksburg.
The Union used multiple types of tactics against the city fortress of Vicksburg, Mississippi. The first assaults began in 1862 and Union gunboats tried to disable the city by using gunboat fire. This did not work. Another tactic was to try and divert the flow of the Mississippi River and thereby enable Union forces to place artillery in a better position to bombard Vicksburg. This proved to be to difficult to accomplish and was abandoned. Finally, the successful tactic was the siege of Vicksburg. Running low on food and hit with diseases, Vicksburg was captured by US Grant's siege of the city. Vicksburg surrendered on July 4, 1863.
Grant accepted Pemberton's surrender to end the Siege of Vicksburg.
Vicksburg =]