The fighting 2 47John A. McClernand. a politician from Illinois before the
war commanded a division at Forts Henry and
Donelson and again at Shiloh. He raised troops that
helped him capture Arkansas Post. McClernand
commanded a corps in the Vicksburg campaign, fighting
at Raymond. Champion Hill, and the assaults on
Vicksburg. Quick to claim glory, he failed to gain the trust
of Grant or Sherman and was removed. Later he led a
corps under Banks in the disastrous Red River campaign.
(Library of Congress)tried bypassing it, and seeking waterways that
could position his army on the bluffs to the
northeast of the city. 'Heretofore I have had
nothing to do but fight the enemy,' a
dejected Grant commented to his wife. 'This
time I have to overcome obsticles to reach
him.' When the last effort to turn Vicksburg
on the right failed, Grant, Sherman, and
Porter reconnoitered to select the best places
to land troops.
But on that April Fool's Day, as he gazed
across the Yazoo at the opposite slopes, he
realized just how costly an attack here would
be, and with no assurance of success. Lately,
he had contemplated an unconventional
movement that would take his army around
to the enemy left flank. It was a risky
proposition, but in a very different way
from the frontal attack against Confederates
occupying high ground. As he stood
there, mulling it over in his mind. Grant
determined that it was worth a try.
Grant began the campaign by asking the
ever game Porter to run gunboats and barges
past the Vicksburg batteries. For deception,
Grant sent a cavalryman named Colonel
Benjamin Grierson to launch a raid through
the interior of Mississippi and come out at
the Union army around Port Hudson, and he
called on Sherman to feign an attack at
Haines' Bluff. Meanwhile, the other two
corps would march along the western side of
the Mississippi River and Porter's people
would shuttle them across the river to
Bruinsburg, below Vicksburg. Eventually,
Sherman's men would follow.
Once on the eastern side, Grant launched
one of the most brilliant campaigns in
American military history. By rapid marches,
he continually confused his enemy. His army
pounded the Confederate forces protecting
Vicksburg, and then moved quickly to the
northeast, where they hammered a Rebel
command accumulating near the capital
city of Jackson under General Joseph E.
Johnston. Grant then turned back on
Vicksburg, and had McClernand not attacked
prematurely, he might have interposed
Sherman's corps between Vicksburg and its
defending columns. All told, the Union army
fought five battles, and even though there
were more Confederates in the campaign
than Federals, Grant placed superior
numbers on each battlefield and won every
one of them. By mid-May, he was laying
siege against Vicksburg.
The Confederate commander at
Vicksburg, Pemberton, had a chance to
escape. Johnston urged him to do so, but
Pemberton had also received explicit
instructions front President Davis to hold the
city at all costs. After a council of war,
Pemberton chose to hunker down and await
succor from Johnston. It would never arrive.
Shortly after he besieged Vicksburg, Grant
attempted to storm the Rebel works twice
and was repulsed on both occasions. He also
removed McClernand from command for
violating a War Department directive and for
general incompetence. Otherwise, he
supervised a traditional siege that slowly
strangled Pemberton's army. By early July, it
became apparent to the Confederate general
that his cause was lost. On 4 July, Pemberton