Vicksburg Civil War

History Travels: Vicksburg site of Civil War battle

COMMENTARY — The idea was a long weekend vacation to visit Civil War sites within a one-day drive of Gadsden. Checking various destinations, Fort Blakely in Baldwin County was a five-hour, 316-mile trip; Savannah, Ga., was a six-hour drive, 367 miles away. We chose Vicksburg, Miss., a five-and-a-half hour drive and 344 miles away via Interstate 59 to Interstate 20, a straight shot, no turns and twists.

Mississippi became the 20th state in 1817. DeSoto explored there in 1540. It was colonized by the French in 1694 and became a British colony in 1779 before becoming a U.S. territory in 1798.

In Mississippi, Interstate 20 is named the Dixie Division Highway to honor the men and women who served in the famed 31st Infantry Division of the U.S. Army during its years of service from July 1917 to February 1968.

Upon our arrival in the city proclaimed as “The Key to the South,” our first stop was at the U.S. National Cemetery, the burial ground for more than 20,000 soldiers of both the Blue and the Gray, many never identified. It was an awesome feeling to stand among the graves — truly, hallowed ground.

History records that from the start of the Civil War, control of the Mississippi River south of Cairo, Ill., was vital to the federal government. Controlling it would let Union troops and supplies pass into the South. It would isolate Texas, Arkansas and most of Louisiana — a region crucial to the South for supplies and recruits.

To protect that lifeline, the Confederates built fortifications at strategic river points.

But federal naval and military forces fought southward from Illinois and northward from the Gulf of Mexico, capturing post after post. By late summer 1862, only Vicksburg and Port Hudson, La., blocked Union control of the Mississippi.

Vicksburg was the stronger and more important post.

Vicksburg, set atop a high bluff overlooking a bend of the Mississippi River, was protected by riverfront artillery batteries, a maze of swamps and bayous to the north and south, and a ring of forts with 172 guns guarding all land approaches.

President Abraham Lincoln called the city “the key.” He believed “the war can never be brought to a close until that key is in our pocket.”

In October 1862, Vicksburg was the focus of operations between Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, with 45,000 troops, ordered to clear the Mississippi of Confederate resistance, and Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton — with 50,000 widely scattered Confederate troops — expected to keep the river open.

This Week in the Civil War | Vicksburg Daily News

This Week in The Civil War, for week of Sunday, Aug. 7: First combat west of the Mississippi.

The village of Hampton, Va., is burned by Confederate troops Aug. 7, 1861 to impede its seizure by federal forces from Fort Monroe, the Union-held fortress used to blockade Virginia’s lower Chesapeake Bay. Confederate Col. John Bankhead Magruder ordered the burning after months of wrestling with Union foes for control of Virginia’s southeastern coastal approaches to Richmond, capital of the Confederacy. Accounts state Magruder came to believe the Union planned to quarter troops and escaped slaves in Hampton and quickly ordered fires lit. The Philadelphia Inquirer later described “a forest of bleak-sided chimneys and brick houses tottering and cooling in the wind, scorched trees and heaps of smoldering ruins.” Days later on Aug. 10, 1861, Union forces met with their second major defeat after First Bull Run – at Wilson’s Creek in Missouri. The first major battle west of the Mississippi River also killed the first Union general in combat, Nathaniel Lyon. Though Missouri had voted to stay in the Union, Gov. Claiborne Jackson continued to advocate secession. He refused a federal call to supply regiments for the Union and plotted to seize the federal arsenal at St. Louis. Learning of the plan, Lyon had most of the weapons secretly moved, futilely sought to resolve differences with Jackson and later pursued rebel forces into southwestern Missouri. Lyon’s surprise attack on Confederates at Wilson’s Creek began strongly but lost momentum amid bloody charges and countercharges as his forces finally withdrew, outnumbered. One Confederate general, N.B. Pearce, later wrote his troops under gunfire showed “no signs of wavering or retreat.” The state – prized by both sides for abundant resources and proximity to the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, saw much fighting in years to come.

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