Fall of Vicksburg - 04 July 1863

If the Battle of Gettysburg was the proverbial nail in the Confederacy's coffin, then the fall of Vicksburg on 04 July 1863 was the first shovels of dirt into that coffin's grave. 

With the fall of this mighty citadel, the Western Theater of the war was forever lost to the Confederacy.  Though the loss of New Orleans early in the Civil War was a great loss to the Confederacy, they were still a force to be reckoned with in the west.  The battles of Shiloh and Chickamauga proved the Rebels' tenacity and they had well-placed forts and cities (such as Forts Henry and Donelson, Port Hudson and Vicksburg) with which to defend this vast region of the Confederacy.  However, ineffective (and downright incompetent generalship on the part of some) helped lead to the Confederate losses in this area.  The Union, on the other hand, led ably by Major General Ulysses S. Grant and his subordinates Generals Sherman and Thomas, had amazing and frequent successes in the Western Theater.  All of this hard work by Grant eventually led the Union Army into a siege of the town of Vicksburg, the mighty citadel of the Mississippi River. 

Beginning on 25 May 1863, Grant and his forces encircled the town.  Though earlier assaults had been beaten back, rather than continue to attempt such futile attacks, Grant settled in for a siege.  His army forces prevented breakout attempts by the Confederates (led by Lt. General John Pemberton, a northerner) though they did try and were even close to succeeding when a retreat back inside the Rebel works was inexplicably ordered.  And Federal naval forces under the command of Rear Admiral David Porter commanded the Mississippi River.  This encirclement was only possible due to a daring run past the river guns at Vicksburg which had then picked-up Grants soldiers and transported them down river nearer to the city itself.  Grant had a masterful way of somehow managing to get the Army and the Navy to work together, which produced major dividends for his campaigns.  Was these actions were complete there was nothing to do but starve out the Confederates.  For 39 days Union and Confederate troops exchanged artillery and musket fire.  Before General Pemberton and his men had had enough.  On 03 July 1863, Pemberton sent a note out to Grant asking him for surrender terms.  Grant considered unconditional surrender (terms which served him well at Fort Donelson and earned him a positive moniker) but did have the resources to feed 30,000 prisoners of war and did not want to spend time (several months at least) shipping them to Union prison camps.  Considering their dejected state, he also doubted that they would ever be healthy enough to fight again and hoped that they would carry the stigma of defeat throughout the Confederacy.  Thus Grant agreed to parole all of them. 

The surrender of the city of Vicksburg was finalized on 04 July 1863.  Though it would take the fall of Port Hudson on 09 July 1863 for the Union to have complete control of the entire Mississippi River, by all accounts Confederate control of it no more.  With Union control of the Mississippi River, the Confederacy was effectively cut in two.  Never again would they successfully challenged Federal control of the Western Theater of the war.  Old General Winfield Scott's "Anaconda Plan" was actually in effect.  Thanks to Union control of the oceanic and freshwater waterways, the Confederacy was slowly being strangled to death.