The Mississippi was an important military highway that bordered ten states, roughly equally divided between Union and Confederate loyalties.
Both sides soon realised that control of the river was a crucial strategic priority. Confederate general Braxton Bragg said "The river is of more importance to us than all the country together." [1] In April 1862, the Union secured two key points, New Orleans at the mouth of the river and a double-bend on the Kentucky-Tennessee line, leaving only the middle section in Confederate hands. When the major river-ports of Memphis and Vicksburg fell (followed automatically by Port Hudson), the liberation of the Mississippi was complete, and Abraham Lincoln declared "The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea." [2]
This split the Confederacy in two, with the western half forced to operate as a separate department, the Trans-Mississippi Theater, greatly inhibiting supplies and communications, and tilting the odds decisively in favour of the Union.
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois were solidly pro-Union, despite some ‘Copperhead’ (Peace Democrat) sentiment in the last-named. [3] Missouri was a slave-state, beset with guerrilla fighting throughout the war, with a Confederate government-in-exile. [4] Kentucky, also a slave-state (and Lincoln’s birthplace), was briefly claimed by the Confederacy during a short-lived dual government, but never left the Union. [5] Slave-holding Tennessee was Confederate, though the eastern counties harboured much pro-Union sentiment. [6] Arkansas had initially stayed in the Union, but resented Lincoln’s demand for troops, and seceded. [7] Mississippi was deeply Confederate, as was Louisiana, though in the latter case, New Orleans came under a Union government within a Confederate state, following the fall of the city in April 1862.
At the outbreak of war, the Union General-in-Chief, Winfield Scott, proposed an advance down the Mississippi that would cut the Confederacy in two, though the necessary rivercraft had yet to be built. Along with the policy of blockading the entire Southern coastline, the plan was derided as the ‘Anaconda’, slowly constricting the life out of the Confederacy. [8] Most Union generals believed that the war could be won quickly by an early march on Richmond, [9] while the commander in the west, General Henry Halleck, considered the Tennessee River to be more significant than the Mississippi. [10] Also Winfield Scott would soon be retiring. Eventually, however, the strengths of the plan were increasingly recognised, and it became Union strategy.
As the Confederate Navy had to build almost its entire fleet from scratch, [11] [12] its operations on the Mississippi would be largely defensive.
The Confederates had fortified a tight double-bend in the river, with garrisons at New Madrid, Missouri, and Island Number Ten. Union Major-General John Pope arrived unexpectedly, before winter was over, easily took New Madrid, and then ordered two gunboats to run the island batteries, covering his crossing to the east (Tennessee) bank, whereupon the outnumbered enemy surrendered. [13]
Captain David Farragut of the Union Navy’s West Gulf Blockading Squadron attacked the city’s outer fortifications, Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip, at first obstructed by a defensive boom. When the boom was broken by gunboats, the fleet forced its way in, opposed by ironclads and fire-rafts, eventually enabling the infantry to occupy the city and set up a Union government for the rest of the war. [14]
The Memphis garrison had been much depleted, following the Union capture of the rail junction at Corinth, so the Union fleet was opposed only by Confederate gunboats and rams, poorly equipped, which were destroyed in two hours. One Union boat, Queen of the West, was disabled. The Union forces were able to capture and repair four Confederate craft for their own use. [15]
Confederate area commander Earl Van Dorn had been hoping to re-take Louisiana’s abandoned state capital Baton Rouge. A force under Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge attacked at dawn, killing Union commander Thomas Williams, and driving his men into defensive lines, protected by their gunboats. But a Confederate ram had broken down and it became a one-sided naval battle, forcing Breckinridge to withdraw. [16]
After several failed initiatives, including an attempt to divert the river itself, General U.S. Grant marched down the west (Louisiana) bank, accompanied by gunboats that managed to run the Vicksburg batteries and ferry his army across to the east bank. From there, he pursued the enemy into their lines and besieged them until they surrendered. [17] Vicksburg National Military Park: historic trenches and earthworks, walking trail, emplaced cannons, restored gunboat USS Cairo.
Principal actions:
General Nathaniel Banks had been ordered upstream to aid General U.S. Grant who was besieging Vicksburg. His orders were to capture Port Hudson, the only other remaining Confederate stronghold on the river, but his assault failed, and he settled into a siege - at 48 days, the longest in American history up till then. The eventual Confederate surrender completed the liberation of the river. [22] Port Hudson State Historic Site: steep riverside terraces with original artillery emplacements. Museum with displays and maps.
The siege of Vicksburg was the final major military action in the Vicksburg campaign of the American Civil War. In a series of maneuvers, Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee crossed the Mississippi River and drove the Confederate Army of Mississippi, led by Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton, into the defensive lines surrounding the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi.
The siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana, was the final engagement in the Union campaign to recapture the Mississippi River in the American Civil War.
The Battle of Fort Henry was fought on February 6, 1862, in Stewart County, Tennessee, during the American Civil War. It was the first important victory for the Union and Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in the Western Theater.
The Vicksburg campaign was a series of maneuvers and battles in the Western Theater of the American Civil War directed against Vicksburg, Mississippi, a fortress city that dominated the last Confederate-controlled section of the Mississippi River. The Union Army of the Tennessee under Major General Ulysses S. Grant gained control of the river by capturing this stronghold and defeating Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton's forces stationed there.
USS Tyler was originally a merchant ship named A. O. Tyler, a commercial side-wheel steamboat with twin stacks and covered paddles positioned aft. Constructed in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1857, it was acquired by the United States Navy, 5 June 1861 for service in the American Civil War and converted into the gunboat USS Tyler on 5 June 1861. She was commissioned in September 1861. She was protected with thick wooden bulwarks.
The third USS Lexington was a timberclad gunboat in the United States Navy during the American Civil War.
There is widespread disagreement among historians about the turning point of the American Civil War. A turning point in this context is an event that occurred during the conflict after which most modern scholars would agree that the eventual outcome was inevitable. While the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863 is the event most widely cited as the military climax of the American Civil War, there were several other decisive battles and events throughout the war which have been proposed as turning points. These events are presented here in chronological order. Only the positive arguments for each are given.
Lieutenant-General Richard Scott "Dick" Taylor was an American planter, politician, military historian, and Confederate general. Following the outbreak of the American Civil War, Taylor joined the Confederate States Army, serving first as a brigade commander in Virginia, and later as an army commander in the Trans-Mississippi Theater. Taylor commanded the District of West Louisiana and was responsible for successfully opposing U.S. Federal Government troops invading upper northwest Louisiana during the Red River Campaign of 1864. He was the only son of Zachary Taylor, the 12th president of the United States. After the war and Reconstruction, Taylor published a memoir about his experiences.
The Battle of Milliken's Bend was fought on June 7, 1863, as part of the Vicksburg Campaign during the American Civil War. Major General Ulysses S. Grant of the Union Army had placed the strategic Mississippi River city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, under siege in mid-1863. Confederate leadership erroneously believed that Grant's supply line still ran through Milliken's Bend in Louisiana, and Major General Richard Taylor was tasked with disrupting it to aid the defense of Vicksburg. Taylor sent Brigadier General Henry E. McCulloch with a brigade of Texans to attack Milliken's Bend, which was held by a brigade of newly-recruited African American soldiers. McCulloch's attack struck early on the morning of June 7, and was initially successful in close-quarters fighting. Fire from the Union gunboat USS Choctaw halted the Confederate attack, and McCulloch later withdrew after the arrival of a second gunboat. The attempt to relieve Vicksburg was unsuccessful. One of the first actions in which African American soldiers fought, Milliken's Bend demonstrated the value of African American soldiers as part of the Union Army.
The following engagements took place in the year 1863 during the American Civil War. During the year, Union forces captured the Confederate cities of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, giving them complete control over the Mississippi River, while forcing Confederates out of the North following the Battle of Gettysburg.
Laurent Millaudon was a wooden side-wheel river steamboat launched at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1856 operating in the New Orleans, Louisiana, area, and captained by W. S. Whann. At the beginning of the American Civil War she was taken into service by the Confederate Navy as CSS General Sterling Price. On 6 June 1862, she was sunk at the Battle of Memphis. She was raised and repaired by the Union army, and on 16 June 1862 was moved into Union service as USS General Price and served until the end of the war.
The Western Theater of the American Civil War encompassed major military operations in the states of Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Kentucky, South Carolina and Tennessee, as well as Louisiana east of the Mississippi River. Operations on the coasts of these states, except for Mobile Bay, are considered part of the Lower Seaboard Theater. Most other operations east of the Appalachian Mountains are part of the Eastern Theater. Operations west of the Mississippi River took place in the Trans-Mississippi Theater.
The lower seaboard theater of the American Civil War encompassed major military and naval operations that occurred near the coastal areas of the Southeastern United States: in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas) as well as southern part of the Mississippi River.
The Battle of Baton Rouge was a ground and naval battle in the American Civil War fought in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, on August 5, 1862. The Union victory halted Confederate attempts to recapture the capital city of Louisiana.
The Mississippi River campaigns, within the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War, were a series of military actions by the Union Army during which Union troops, helped by Union Navy gunboats and river ironclads, took control of the Cumberland River, the Tennessee River, and the Mississippi River, a main north-south avenue of transport.
Franklin Kitchell Gardner was a Confederate major general in the American Civil War, noted for his service at the Siege of Port Hudson on the Mississippi River. Gardner built extensive fortifications at this important garrison, 16,000 strong at its peak. At the mercy of conflicting orders, he found himself besieged and greatly outnumbered. His achievement at holding out for 47 days and inflicting severe losses on the enemy before surrendering has been praised by military historians.
USS St. Clair was a steamer purchased by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
USS Reindeer was a steamer purchased by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
USS Juliet was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as a gunboat in support of the Union Navy blockade of Confederate waterways.
USS Alfred Robb was a stern wheel steamer captured by the Union Navy during the American Civil War.
| Origins | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Combatants | |||
| Campaigns | |||
| Battles | |||
Involvement (by city or town) | |||
| Leaders |
| ||
| Aftermath | |||
| Related topics | |||
