It wasn't a quick fight. It was a grind. When people ask who won the battle of Vicksburg, the short answer is Major General Ulysses S. Grant and the Union Army of the Tennessee. But just saying "the North won" feels like a massive understatement. It was a forty-seven-day nightmare of hunger, mud, and explosives that basically broke the back of the Confederacy.
The siege ended on July 4, 1863. That’s a date most Americans know for fireworks and hot dogs, but for the people of Vicksburg, Mississippi, it was the day they surrendered after eating their own horses and hiding in caves to avoid falling shells. It was so bitter that the city famously didn't celebrate the Fourth of July for decades. Honestly, looking at the tactical brilliance and the sheer desperation involved, it’s easy to see why.
The Man Who Refused to Quit
Ulysses S. Grant was a gambler. Not the poker-table kind, but the kind who risked entire armies on gut feelings and relentless pressure. By the time 1863 rolled around, Vicksburg was the "Gibraltar of the Confederacy." It sat on high bluffs overlooking a hairpin turn in the Mississippi River. If you controlled Vicksburg, you controlled the river. If you controlled the river, you split the South in half.
Abraham Lincoln knew it. Jefferson Davis knew it.
Grant had tried a bunch of weird ways to take the city before the main battle even started. He tried digging canals. He tried navigating swampy bayous. Everything failed. Most generals would have retreated to Memphis and waited for better weather or more troops. Grant didn't. Instead, he made one of the boldest moves in military history. He cut his own supply lines, marched his men down the west side of the river, and had the Navy run a gauntlet of Confederate cannons to ferry them across. It was a "do or die" moment. If he lost a single major battle after crossing, his army would have been wiped out with nowhere to run.
Why the Confederates Lost the River
Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton was the man tasked with holding the city. He was in a terrible spot. Born in Pennsylvania but fighting for the South, he was constantly under fire from his own side's politics. He had to deal with General Joseph E. Johnston, who was technically his boss but gave him incredibly vague and often conflicting orders.
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The Union victory wasn't just about Grant being aggressive; it was about Pemberton being trapped.
After a series of fast-paced battles at places like Champion Hill and Big Black River Bridge, Pemberton’s forces were pushed back behind the heavy fortifications of Vicksburg. Grant tried two massive, direct assaults on May 19 and May 22. They were bloodbaths. The Union lost thousands of men in hours. Grant realized then that he couldn't take the city by force. He had to starve it out.
Life Inside the "Caves of Vicksburg"
Imagine living in a hole in the ground for seven weeks. That was the reality for civilians and soldiers alike. Because the Union Navy was constantly lobbing shells into the city from the river, and Grant's artillery was firing from the land, the hillsides became honeycombed with man-made caves. People moved their furniture into these damp, dark holes just to stay alive.
Food ran out fast.
First, the beef went. Then the pork. Eventually, the soldiers were eating "pea bread," which was a nasty concoction made of ground-up dried peas that caused terrible digestive issues. Then came the horses and mules. Toward the very end, there were reports of people resorting to eating rats. It sounds like a horror movie, but for the residents of Vicksburg, it was just Tuesday. The psychological toll was arguably worse than the physical hunger. You could hear the digging. Union soldiers were literally tunneling under Confederate lines to plant massive mines. On June 25, they blew one. The explosion created a massive crater, but the Union troops who rushed in were slaughtered in the resulting chaos. It was a mess.
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The Significance of July 4, 1863
When Pemberton finally realized no help was coming from Johnston’s army to the east, he met with Grant. He chose July 4 to surrender, hoping to get better terms from the Union on their national holiday. Grant, who earned the nickname "Unconditional Surrender" at Fort Donelson, actually showed some leniency this time. He paroled the Confederate prisoners—meaning he let them go home if they promised not to fight again—instead of sending 30,000 men to Northern prison camps. He knew his own supply lines couldn't feed that many prisoners anyway.
The timing was incredible. Just one day earlier, on July 3, Robert E. Lee had been defeated at Gettysburg.
In the span of 24 hours, the Confederacy lost its "high water mark" in the North and its grip on the Mississippi River. The Union now had a clear path from the Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico. As Lincoln famously put it, "The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea."
Common Misconceptions About the Battle
A lot of people think Vicksburg was just one big shootout. It wasn't. It was an engineering war. It was about who could dig faster, who could shoot more accurately with long-range Parrott rifles, and who could survive the humidity and disease of a Mississippi summer.
Another mistake is thinking Pemberton was incompetent. While he made mistakes, he was facing a superior force and received almost no help from the Confederate government. The real failure was the lack of coordination between the various Southern armies. While Grant and William T. Sherman worked together like a well-oiled machine, the Confederate leadership was a tangled web of ego and bad communication.
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The Human Cost
We talk about "who won the battle of Vicksburg" in terms of maps and territory, but the numbers are haunting.
- Union Casualties: Around 4,800.
- Confederate Casualties: Around 3,300 (killed and wounded), plus nearly 30,000 surrendered.
- Civilian Impact: Uncounted numbers died from disease and malnutrition in the caves.
The environmental impact was also huge. The landscape was stripped of trees for miles to build fortifications and provide fuel. The soil was scarred by miles of trenches that stayed visible for decades.
How to Explore Vicksburg History Today
If you really want to understand the scale of this thing, you have to go to the Vicksburg National Military Park. It’s one of the most well-preserved battlefields in the world. You can drive the sixteen-mile tour road that follows the Union and Confederate lines. Seeing the terrain—the deep ravines and the steep bluffs—makes you realize how insane it was for soldiers to try and charge those positions.
Make sure to see the USS Cairo. It was an ironclad gunboat that was sunk by a "torpedo" (what we’d call a sea mine) during the campaign. It was raised from the bottom of the Yazoo River in the 1960s and is now on display. It’s like a time capsule of 1860s naval life. You can still see the sailors' personal effects and the massive cannons that were supposed to defend the river.
Practical Insights for History Buffs
If you're researching this for a project or just because you’re a nerd for the Civil War (gual as charged), here is how to get the most out of the story:
- Read Grant’s Memoirs: Honestly, they are some of the best-written military accounts ever. He explains his thought process at Vicksburg with startling clarity. He doesn't sugarcoat his failures, which makes the victory feel more earned.
- Look at the Maps: Don't just look at a map of the city. Look at the map of the whole Mississippi River. When you see the "V" shape of the river at the city, you’ll understand why the Navy was so vulnerable to those bluffs.
- Visit the Old Court House Museum: The National Park is great for the military side, but the museum in town gives you the civilian perspective. Seeing the letters written by people living in caves puts the "victory" into a much grimmer context.
- Follow the Vicksburg Campaign Trail: The battle didn't just happen at the city. Follow the path from Bruinsburg to Port Gibson, Raymond, and Jackson. Seeing the route Grant took to "circle the prey" is fascinating.
The victory at Vicksburg essentially turned the American Civil War into a war of attrition that the South couldn't win. It proved that Grant was the general Lincoln had been looking for all along—the one who would keep moving forward, no matter the cost. It wasn't just a win on a map; it was the moment the tide officially turned for good.