246 The American Civil WarThe Vicksburg campaign
For several months afterward, Grant did little
but combat raiding parties and guerrilla
bands. After Halleck bad scattered his
mammoth army, Grant lacked sufficient
force to launch another offensive. Runaway
slaves, cotton trading, guerrillas, Confederate
raids, and offended civilians absorbed his
time and energy. Campaigning, it seemed,
had taken a back seat to occupying
secessionist territory.
But by late October 1862, pressure for a
campaign against Vicksburg had begun to
build. Nestled on a 200ft (61m) bluff
overlooking the Mississippi River, Vicksburg
dominated passage along the waterway. In
Confederate hands, some cleverly positioned
cannon could block Union transit. For the
Federals, Vicksburg and Port Hudson,
Louisiana, represented the last two Rebel
strongholds along the Mississippi River. Once
Vicksburg fell to Union forces, Port Hudson
would become untenable. Then the Federals
would control the entire length of the river
and would slice off and isolate the
Trans-Mississippi Confederacy.
A politician turned general, John A.
McClernand, had received authority
from Lincoln to raise a command to
capture Vicksburg. Grant, who knew
McClernand well, had serious doubts about
McClernand's ability and temperament to
lead such an expedition, judging him
'unmanageable and incompetent,' and at
the urging of Halleck he decided to preempt
McClernand's Vicksburg campaign by
attempting it himself.
Grant's plan called for two separate forces
to advance simultaneously and without
communication, a risky proposition at best.
While Grant personally led an army south
along the Mississippi Central Railroad toward
Jackson, hoping to draw Confederate forces
out for a fight, Sherman would slip down the
Mississippi River on transports and land near
Chickasaw Bluffs, just north of Vicksburg.
Sherman's troops then would brush aside
the light Confederate opposition and seize
the city. But the scheme quickly fell awry.
Two Rebel cavalry raids severed Grant's
supply line, and he fell back under the
misapprehension that his feint had
succeeded and Sherman had captured
Vicksburg. The Confederates at Vicksburg,
however, did not budge from their works,
and when Sherman tried to storm the bluffs
in late December, Confederate shells and
balls cut bluecoats down by the hundreds.
The new year brought a blend of
headaches and hope for Grant and Sherman.
On 2 January 1863, McClernand arrived by
transport north of Vicksburg with his newly
created army. Commissioned a major-general
of volunteers that ranked him above
Sherman, McClernand took command of all
forces there. They had no prospects of
capturing Vicksburg from below Chickasaw
Bluffs. Sherman, therefore, proposed a joint
army-navy operation against Fort Hindman,
often called Arkansas Post, on the Arkansas
River, from which Confederates had
launched raids against Federal transit along
the Mississippi River. McClernand endorsed
the concept so warmly that he eventually
claimed the idea as his, while Admiral David
Dixon Porter needed coaxing from Sherman.
Porter had all the confidence in the world in
Sherman and none in McClernand, and as a
result he extracted a promise from
McClernand that Sherman would run the
operation. On 9 January, the Federal
expedition reached the vicinity of Arkansas
Post, and within two days, Porter's
bombardment had compelled the
defenders to raise up the white flag. Nearly
5,000 prisoners fell into Union hands.
Grant, meanwhile, had resolved some
important questions in his own mind about
the upcoming Vicksburg campaign. Since
McClernand lacked the fitness to
command, he would direct operations
personally. McClernand, Sherman, and a
Grant protege named James B. McPherson,
a personable engineer officer who graduated
first in the West Point class of 1853, would
command corps.
The overland advance along the Mississippi
Central Railroad had failed, so Grant explored
a variety of options to get at Vicksburg. He