Download Rocky Mountain Civil War Round Table 2013 Study Group The

Rocky Mountain Civil War Round Table
2013 Study Group
The Vicksburg Campaign
Thanks to Gary Mitchell for putting this material together.
February 21 Campaign Overview – Ian Duncanson
(a) Why Vicksburg was important to the north and to the south.
(b) Union thoughts on taking Vicksburg, 1861 to July, 1862 – naval bombardment; the
Williams Canal.
(c) Confederate defensive plans at Vicksburg, 1861 to July, 1862.
March 21 First Efforts – Ray Polster
(a) Fall, 1862 – Halleck tells Grant to move downriver to Vicksburg
(b) Command structure of Confederate forces
(c) Grant’s initial plan to attack Vicksburg using two prongs
(1) One moving south via the Mississippi Railroad into the state
(2) Another with Sherman moving down the Mississippi River
(d) Failures of both forces and why, winter 1862
(1) Holly Springs
(2) Chickasaw Bayou
April 18 Naval Operations, January-March 1863 – Open
(a) Union naval forces on the Mississippi Rover, 1863New Orleans and up the
Mississippi River.
(b) Union operations – January to March1863.
(1) Arkansas post.
(2) Grant’s bayou operations.
(i) Lake Providence operations
(ii) Yazoo Pass operation
(iii) Steele’s bayou operation
(iv) Duckport canal
May 16 Spring 1863, Union Plans – Frank Atwood
(a) Down the west bank of the Mississippi River
(1) Union troops create roads
(2) Pemberton responds
(b) Naval ships move south past Vicksburg
(c) Sherman attacks at Snyder’s Bluff, Mississippi
(d) Grierson’s raid
(e) Grant lands troops at Bruinsburg
June 20 and July 18 Grant's Overland Campaigns, April 29-May 18 – Jim Roos and Don
Hallstrom. This section covers six battles and each will be divided between the two meetings as
importance dictates.
(a) Port Gibson
(b) Grand Gulf
(c) Raymond
(d) Jackson
(e) Champion Hill
(f) Big Black River Bridge
August 15
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Grant's Arrival at Vicksburg, Siege, Surrender of the Town – Gary Mitchell
Confederate defensive positions
Assault on May 19
Assault on May 22
Siege
(1) Union forces available
(2) Confederate defensive forces
(3) Sappers’ work, May and June
(4) Third Louisiana redan blast and Battle, June 25
(5) Second mine explosion, July 1
(e) Surrender of Vicksburg
(1) Terms of surrender
(2) Confederate forces surrendered and what happened to them
(3) After effects of the Union victory
(i) Port Hudson falls
(ii) Confederacy is split and effects
September 19 -- Wrap-up and Planning Session and Date Selection of Trip
This may be done earlier if the previous sessions go faster than expected.
Study Group Contact List
Frank Atwood
Linda Lee Babcock
Ian Duncanson
Ned Grauel
Don Hallstrom
Paul Jeffrey
Mike Lang
Luke Lemke
Tony Lux
Gary Mitchell
Hal Moulton
Jim Powers
Jim Roos
Gary Smith
Dave Townsend
Chuck Wheeler
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720-260-1493
303-968-7010
303-694-6369
303-350-0700
720-269-4511
720-840-1416
970-531-6341
303-683-3023
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Bibliography
War on the Mississippi: Grant’s Vicksburg Campaign (Time-Life Civil War series) – Jerry Korn
Ninety-Eight Days: A Geographer’s View of the Civil War – Warren E. Grabau
The Campaign for Vicksburg (very expensive three-volume set): Volume I, Vicksburg Is the
Key; Volume II, Grant Strikes a Fatal Blow; Volume III, Unvexed on the Sea – Edwin C. Bearss
Vicksburg Is the Key: The Struggle for the Mississippi River (Great Campaigns of the Civil War)
– William L. Shea and Terrence J. Winshel
Vicksburg: Fall of the Confederate Gibraltar – Terrence J. Winchel
The Final Fortress: The Campaign for Vicksburg 1862-1863 – Samuel Carter III
Vicksburg: The Campaign That Opened the Mississippi – Michael B .Ballard
The Vicksburg Campaign, April 1862-July 1863 – David Martin and Albert A. Nofi
The Beleaguered City: The Vicksburg Campaign, December 1862-July 1863 – Shelby Foote
Vicksburg 1863: Grant Clears the Mississippi – Alan Hankinson
Struggle for Vicksburg: The Battles and Siege That Decided the Civil War – Robert H. Fowler,
editor
Seven Story Mountain: The Union Campaign at Vicksburg – Philip M. Thienel
Guide to the Vicksburg Campaign (U. S. Army War College Guides to the Civil War) – Leonard
Fullenkamp, Jay Luvaas and Stephen Bowman
Record of the Organizations Engaged in the Campaign, Siege, and Defense of Vicksburg (1901)
– John S. Kountz
The Web of Victory: Grant at Vicksburg by Earl Schenck Miers
Books of Interest Regarding Vicksburg
Holly Springs, Van Dorn, the CSS Alabama, and the Raid That Saved Vicksburg – Brandon H.
Beck
Westerners in Gray, The Men and Missions of the Elite Fifth Missouri Infantry Regiment – Philip
T. Tucker
The South’s Finest, The First Missouri Confederate Brigade from Pea Ridge to Vicksburg –
Philip T. Tucker
The Dearest and the Best, the Biography of Private Daniel McKnight, Co. C, Fifth Missouri
Confederate Infantry – Gary D. Truman
Champion Hill, Decisive Battle for Vicksburg – Timothy B. Smith
The Forgotten Stonewall of the West, Major General John Stevens Bowen – Philip T. Tucker
The Confederacy’s Fighting Chaplain, Father John B. Bannon – Philip T. Tucker
Memoirs, Historical and Personal, Including the Campaigns of the First Missouri, Missouri
Confederate Brigade – Ephraim McDowell Anderson
History of the First and Second Missouri Confederate Brigades, 1861-1865: and, from
Wakarusa to Appomattox, A Military Anagraph – R. S. Bevier
The Siege of Vicksburg and Other Western Battles, 1861-1865 – Robert O’Neill