132 The American Civil Warrail; it was also the link between the
Confederate forces east and west of the river.
If Vicksburg were captured, the Confederacy
would have no chance to coordinate
operations in the region or move supplies
from Texas to the east. Throughout the
spring and summer the Union had failed to
capture the city. But with renewed vigor.
Grant decided to direct a more concerted
effort to achieve that objective.
In November 1862, Grant's army, now
designated the Army of the Tennessee, set
out overland south on a 250-mile (400km)
journey. It would require quartermasters
to perform herculean labors to keep his
40,000 soldiers fed by using the north-south
Mississippi Central railroad. The inhospitable
geography of the Yazoo Delta country,
characterized by swamps and vast stretches
of woodlands without roads, made for
frustrating campaigning. Grant had
concluded that the only feasible way to
reduce the risk to his army and to be in a
position to capture the city once the army
arrived would be to move slowly,
but steadily.
Lieutenant-General John C. Pemberton
was the Confederate commander assigned to
defend Vicksburg. As Grant advanced south,
Pemberton retreated in the face of numerical
superiority all the way to Grenada,
Mississippi. To strengthen his chances, Grant
divided his army into two movements on
Vicksburg in early December. He ordered
Sherman to return to Memphis with a
division, collect enough troops to give him
more than 20,000 men, and move down the
Mississippi River with Admiral David Dixon
Porter's gunboats. The amphibious
expedition was designed to strike at
Vicksburg from one direction while Grant
advanced from central Mississippi, hoping to
paralyze Pemberton.
Grant advanced all the way to Oxford,
Mississippi, and Sherman had made it to
Vicksburg by the time Nathan Bedford
Forrest's Confederate cavalrymen had
destroyed numerous stretches of the railroad.
Earl Van Dorn meanwhile raided Grant's
supply base at Holly Springs, Mississippi,
capturing 1.500 Federals and destroying
$1,500,000 worth of supplies. With his
communications severed and his principal
supply depot wrecked, Grant pulled back,
enabling Pemberton to swing a portion of
his army at Sherman. On 29 December, the
Confederates managed to repel both
Union forces.
Forced to live off the countryside in mid-
December, Federal troops stripped the
landscape bare of livestock, grain, and
forage. When the inhabitants begged for
enough to live on through the winter. Grant
sternly ordered them to move further south.
It was a dismal winter, although the Federals
managed to suffer less than the Southerners.The Battle of Stone's River
Some 300 miles (480km) northeast of
Vicksburg, Rosecrans replaced Buell in late
October 1862. The army became known
once again as the Army of the Cumberland.
Rosecrans's nickname, 'Old Rosy,' was an
accurate characterization of his temper.
Red-cheeked, affable, and energetic,
Rosecrans was a favorite among the soldiers.
Slovenliness infuriated him and he
impressed soldiers by purging his command
of incompetents. 'Everything for the service,
nothing for individuals,' was his motto.
Still, he was cautious and wavered at the
critical hour.
When he inherited the army it was in
Nashville, where he spent nearly two
months preparing to move against Bragg's
38,000-man army, encamped at Murfreesboro
along a swollen Stone's River. On
26 December, he set out with his 47,000 men
to hit Bragg. Having been abused by the press
and feeling political pressure for abandoning
Kentucky, Bragg was determined not to be
defeated. To the east of Stone's River he
positioned Major-General John C.
Breckinridge, and to the west of the river
Bragg deployed his main force. By
29 December, Rosecrans's army had arrived
in the vicinity of Murfreesboro, and during
the night he positioned his men along the