The fighting
Overview and final stages
On 1 April 1863, a pleasant yet
unimpressive-looking man - medium height,
medium build with brown hair and trimmed
whiskers - cast his eyes across the Yazoo
River in Mississippi at the high ground called
Haines' Bluff. It would not work, he
concluded sadly.
For six months, Major-General Ulysses
Simpson Grant had attempted to seize the
Confederate bastion of Vicksburg, located
high up on the bluffs overlooking the
Mississippi River. He had tried scheme after
scheme to get at the Confederate forces
there, and each one failed. From this
observation point 11 miles (18km) from
Vicksburg, Grant realized that an attack here
would result in 'immense sacrifice of life, if
not defeat.' He had exhausted all options.
'This, then, closes out the last hope of
turning the enemy by the right.' he admitted
the next day to Admiral David Dixon Porter,
Commander of the Mississippi Squadron. He
must concentrate on turning the enemy kit.
Since Lieutenant-General Winfield Scott,
the Union Commanding General early in the
war, had prepared his concept for Federal
victory - derisively called the 'Anaconda
Plan' by the media - control of the
Mississippi River had been a top priority. If
the Union held the river, it would slice off
part of the Confederacy, thereby severing the
Eastern Confederacy from the bountiful
supply of cattle and horses that Texas
possessed and virtually isolating Rebel troops
there. Federal forces could move up and
down the Mississippi with impunity,
launching raids that could penetrate deeply
into rebellious states. Once more, too,
Midwestern farmers could ship their produce
downriver to New Orleans and on to
ocean-going vessels for distant markets,
providing a cheaper transportation
alternative to expensive railroads.
Despite Grant's frustration over Vicksburg,
the Union war effort in the west had
achieved significant results after two years of
fighting. And at the heart of those successes
had been that fellow Grant.
After Confederate gunners had fired on
Fort Sumter, Federal President Abraham
Lincoln called out the militia to put down
the rebellion. Virginia, North Carolina,
Tennessee, and Arkansas used that as their
cue to secede from the Union and join fellow
slaveholding states of South Carolina, Florida,
Georgia. Alabama. Mississippi, Louisiana, and
Texas in the Confederate States of America.
They would resist by force of arms any
attempt by the old Union to enforce its laws
or maintain control of its property.
Four other slaveholding states did not
officially join the Confederacy. Delaware,
with a tiny slave population, remained
solidly pro-Union. The other three, however,
were more problematic. Lincoln employed
legal and illegal means to keep Maryland
from seceding. Missouri erupted in a nasty
civil war of its own, and even though the
Federals gained dominance there, guerrilla
lighting plagued its population for years. The
last one, Kentucky, was the worst
combination of the other two. The situation
in Kentucky was as complicated as Missouri,
and its handling required even more delicacy
than Maryland.
Early on, Kentucky declared its neutrality.
While a majority of the people in that
commonwealth probably preferred to remain
in the Union, Kentuckians feared that their
homes would become the battleground if
they declared themselves for either side.
Lincoln, who was born in Kentucky, knew
just how valuable it was to the Union. He
reportedly told someone that, while he
hoped to have God on his side, he must
have Kentucky. With its large number of