The American Civil War - This Mighty Scourge of War

The fighting 131

advanced to Corinth and battled Roseerans
for two days, on 3-4 October, but failed to
defeat him. Fresh from victory, Roseerans
replaced Buell.
With Price and Van Dorn checked by
Grant's forces in northern Mississippi, and
now with Bragg retiring back to Tennessee,
the Confederates would never again be
poised to redeem either Kentucky or

Northern-born John C. Pemberton resigned his
commission in 1861 to offer his services in the
Confederate army. In 1862. he was promoted to
lieutenant-general and sent to guard Vicksburg and
Port Hudson on the Mississippi River. By the summer
of 1863, the Union army had enveloped his command,
forcing it into Vicksburg. The Federals laid siege to
the town, forcing it to capitulate on 4 July.
(Ann Ronan Picture Library)

Tennessee. The Southern populace would

have more to worry about than the sacrifice

of their plantations and church bells. The

Union army was bearing down on the

South's wealthiest cotton and agricultural

regions, where slaves were most numerous.

The Vicksburg campaign

Having survived the Confederate attack at

Corinth, Grant now focused his attention on

the Mississippi River citadel of Vicksburg,

located 300 miles (480km) south of Memphis

on a hairpin turn high above the river. The

city's small size, however, belied its military

importance. Not only was it a prosperous

and strategically significant city linked by