Copyright © 2012 Bob R Bogle
I made all my reservations yesterday. The route hasn't changed, but some of the details have. For example, I'll be spending two days in and around Vicksburg instead of just one, so some of my routes around this area will likely end up embellished from what's presented here.
Joseph Judiah Gardner's (he was my grandmother's grandfather) two older brothers fell sick and died along with hundreds of other Union soldiers on the banks of the Mississippi River in Arkansas before Grant led the army in his encircling maneuver below and around the city. Gardner and his fellow veterans from Pea Ridge were assigned to Sherman's XV Corps, which ended up at the northern end of the encirclement around the city, and he was wounded in the first attempt to storm the fortifications. XV was dug in at the point called Thayer's Approach in the maps below.
These maps put both the Siege of Vicksburg and the major thrust of my road trip into better perspective, perhaps. You may notice that my route tracks that of XV Corps as much as possible.
The northernmost leg of the trip shows Grant's abortive inland movement toward Vicksburg by way of Oxford. That irritating Earl Van Dorn won his 15 minutes of fame by successfully cutting Grant's supply line, which left Sherman unsupported in his attack on Chickasaw Bluff (see below). Soon however Van Dorn would be shot in the back of the head by a jealous husband and be buried in his hometown of Port Gibson, 25 miles south of Vicksburg.
Here we see McClernand's (and Sherman's) sideways thrust to capture Fort Hindman (now underwater) at Arkansas Post. The Yazoo Pass Expedition was another of Grant's failed attempts to get to Vicksburg from the north.
Both older Gardner brothers fell sick, with so many others, at Young's Point. One of the two died there; the other made it home to Iowa before he died. The dead were buried in the levee at the time. Some of the bodies were eventually interred in the National Cemetery in Vicksburg, but many were not and have been lost to time.
Grant's Canal is one of Grant's more famous schemes for trying to isolate Vicksburg by finishing an earlier attempt to divert the Mississippi River into a new course which would have allowed Union vessels to pass by unthreatened by the guns above the river. It became evident from an engineering point of view early on that the canal was not tenable.
XV Corps participated in the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou: maneuvering an army through a tangle of swampland and deep bayous to face an entrenched enemy whose guns pointed down from fortified bluffs overhead. Gardner was with Thayer's line (note also pin indicating Thayer's Approach, where Gardner would be wounded much later once the Federals had finally laid siege to the city: so close, and yet so far). Grant was to have attacked simultaneously from the rear, but after Van Dorn cut off his supply lines Grant was compelled to retreat, leaving Sherman unwittingly unsupported. Note that since the Yazoo and Mississippi River courses have changed substantially in the last 150 years, this entire battlefield is no longer recognizable.
More detailed maps of later events leading up to the siege. The Union Army marched from Milliken's Bend (the blue oval) south through the swamps to come at Vicksburg from the south. Pemberton, the Confederate commander, brought his army out of the city to the east to try to meet Grant, but had a hard time finding him. XV Corps participated in the capture of Jackson and so missed the battles at Champion Hill and the Big Black River Bridge; you can see how they moved north of this action, crossing the Big Black River at Bridgeport, and so finally deployed at the north end of Vicksburg.
Grant's Army followed the old Natchez Trace after crossing the river as far as Raymond.
I made all my reservations yesterday. The route hasn't changed, but some of the details have. For example, I'll be spending two days in and around Vicksburg instead of just one, so some of my routes around this area will likely end up embellished from what's presented here.
Joseph Judiah Gardner's (he was my grandmother's grandfather) two older brothers fell sick and died along with hundreds of other Union soldiers on the banks of the Mississippi River in Arkansas before Grant led the army in his encircling maneuver below and around the city. Gardner and his fellow veterans from Pea Ridge were assigned to Sherman's XV Corps, which ended up at the northern end of the encirclement around the city, and he was wounded in the first attempt to storm the fortifications. XV was dug in at the point called Thayer's Approach in the maps below.
These maps put both the Siege of Vicksburg and the major thrust of my road trip into better perspective, perhaps. You may notice that my route tracks that of XV Corps as much as possible.
The northernmost leg of the trip shows Grant's abortive inland movement toward Vicksburg by way of Oxford. That irritating Earl Van Dorn won his 15 minutes of fame by successfully cutting Grant's supply line, which left Sherman unsupported in his attack on Chickasaw Bluff (see below). Soon however Van Dorn would be shot in the back of the head by a jealous husband and be buried in his hometown of Port Gibson, 25 miles south of Vicksburg.
Here we see McClernand's (and Sherman's) sideways thrust to capture Fort Hindman (now underwater) at Arkansas Post. The Yazoo Pass Expedition was another of Grant's failed attempts to get to Vicksburg from the north.
Both older Gardner brothers fell sick, with so many others, at Young's Point. One of the two died there; the other made it home to Iowa before he died. The dead were buried in the levee at the time. Some of the bodies were eventually interred in the National Cemetery in Vicksburg, but many were not and have been lost to time.
Grant's Canal is one of Grant's more famous schemes for trying to isolate Vicksburg by finishing an earlier attempt to divert the Mississippi River into a new course which would have allowed Union vessels to pass by unthreatened by the guns above the river. It became evident from an engineering point of view early on that the canal was not tenable.
XV Corps participated in the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou: maneuvering an army through a tangle of swampland and deep bayous to face an entrenched enemy whose guns pointed down from fortified bluffs overhead. Gardner was with Thayer's line (note also pin indicating Thayer's Approach, where Gardner would be wounded much later once the Federals had finally laid siege to the city: so close, and yet so far). Grant was to have attacked simultaneously from the rear, but after Van Dorn cut off his supply lines Grant was compelled to retreat, leaving Sherman unwittingly unsupported. Note that since the Yazoo and Mississippi River courses have changed substantially in the last 150 years, this entire battlefield is no longer recognizable.
More detailed maps of later events leading up to the siege. The Union Army marched from Milliken's Bend (the blue oval) south through the swamps to come at Vicksburg from the south. Pemberton, the Confederate commander, brought his army out of the city to the east to try to meet Grant, but had a hard time finding him. XV Corps participated in the capture of Jackson and so missed the battles at Champion Hill and the Big Black River Bridge; you can see how they moved north of this action, crossing the Big Black River at Bridgeport, and so finally deployed at the north end of Vicksburg.
Grant's Army followed the old Natchez Trace after crossing the river as far as Raymond.
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