Admiral Porter’s gunboats run past the Vicksburg’s batteries

“The Assault of Vicksburg”

In mid April of 1863, Confederate Gen. John Pemberton and his army of 30,000 were still in the fortress city of Vicksburg. Gen. Grant and his army of 50,000 were still unable to even make a legitimate assault on the city much less capture it. But now Grant had a plan he believed in and he was ready to move on his plan.

First, Ulysses convinced Rear Admiral David D. Porter to run his gunboats and transports past the gauntlet that was Vicksburg. Porter was a brave man and a good officer and it took little to get him to see Grant’s way. On April 16th and 22nd the navy ran her ships past the guns on to bluff in a spectacle of cannon fire that turned the nights into day. Amazingly the Confederates fired 916 cannon balls during the two nights that Admiral Porter’s ships ran the gauntlet and only sank two ships and damaged only a few others.

Gen. Grant now moved 27,000 of his troops down a circuitous route on the western side of the Mississippi River to Coffee Point, Arkansas. On the last day of April they were ferried across the river and landed on the Bruinsburg plantation in Mississippi.Ulysses wanted to get any from the swampy areas along the river as soon as possible and onto high ground. General Grant didn’t like the looks of the ground he saw but at least he was on the same side as the river as Vicksburg. He would start the drive inland the same day they landed.

Grant’s Army crosses the Mississippi to the East bank.

No time was to be wasted for troops from Vicksburg were surely on the way to contest the landing and the Federals needed to keep moving because they had no food with them and had to live of the land. If Gen. Grant’s forces stopped for only a day they would not be able to secure enough food from the surrounding plantations.

The Union forces moved east at first away from the river. On May 1st Grant’s forward troops clashed with the Confederates at Port Gibson, a relatively strong position thirty miles south of Vicksburg and easily captured the garrison. Then instead of moving north towards Vicksburg as the Confederates expected Ulysses continued east. Gen. Sherman’s Corp had now crossed the river and had swollen Grant’s army to 43,000 men and over 60 cannon.

Gen Pemberton is confused by Grant’s maneuvering and refuses to believe the Union forces are not going to turn north at the next possible road and attack Vicksburg. Pemberton will not commit troops to slow Grant’s eastern movement. Ulysses and his men defeat smaller Confederate forces at Raymond and take the Mississippi capitol of Jackson with only a small fight.

Ulysses’ oldest son Fred was with him on this entire campaign under the watchful eye of Col. Adam Badeau. At Jackson the large Confederate flag atop the capital building caught the younger Grant’s eye and he convinced the Colonel that it would make a fine prize to present to the General. So the 12 year old Fred and his ‘baby sitter’ set off to capture the flag before the city was cleared of Confederates. As the two trophy hunters reached the roof of the capitol they met a Union cavalry officer coming down with the flag folded under his arm. Not the Colonel or the son of the General could convince the cavalryman to give up his prize. Empty handed the two returned to the General’s campbut on the way Fred was slightly wounded in the leg by a Confederate rifle ball. When Ulysses heard the story of the attempt to ‘liberate’ the flag and saw his son’s wound he told Fred, “Your mother need not hear of this!”

Union forces advance at Champion Hill.

The Union forces now turned west and started towards the city of Vicksburg; Ulysses’ eyes had always been on that prize and now his plan was beginning to reach its climax. Confederate Gen. Pemberton was the only man that could foil his plan and he was now ready to try. Pemberton brought his army out of the fortified city of Vicksburg and formed a strong defensive position at Champion Hill. The Union forces stuck the defenses at sunrise of May 16th, 1863. The battle raged all day. The Confederates foughtfuriously but by dusk the Confederates were in a fairly organized retreat to another strong position behind the Big Black River.

As Gen. Grant rode toward the new Confederate line he was overtaken by a hard riding courier. The message he carried was from Ulysses’ superior, General Henry Halleck, and dated May 11th. Halleck ordered Grant to return south to GrandGulf and cooperate with Gen. Banks against Port Hudson before moving on Vicksburg. The officer that had brought the message insisted the order must be carried out immediately. An army courier carries not his rank but the rank of the author of the message. It is the courier’s duty to see that the order is obeyed. Everyone present understood their duty, but General Grant replied that the order had come too late and said he would continue his plan as he had designed it.

The courier left to carry the message that General Grant was ignoring a direct order but because conditions in the field warranted this breach of military chain of command. Ulysses was always able to see a step ahead of most of his contemporaries. This allowed him to drive always forward but still make adjustments as needed. This was another style of command that Gen. Grant brought to the U.S. Army; the ability of a field commander to adjust his orders to fit the situation but of course the officer accepts the responsibility for that change. This is a concept that few other armies in the world permit even today.