Ulysses S. Grant's Union army captured Vicksburg, Mississippi, on 4 July 1863 after a six-week siege2. The surrender gave the Union control of the entire Mississippi River and split the Confederacy in two. Coming the day after the Union victory at Gettysburg, it marked a turning point of the American Civil War and cemented Grant's reputation.
In the summer of 1863 the fate of the Mississippi, and of the Confederacy, hung on one fortress city. After a brilliant campaign of manoeuvre, Ulysses S. Grant pinned the Confederate army inside Vicksburg and starved it into surrender, splitting the South in two.
Part of The greatest battles of the Civil War · Before: The Battle of Gettysburg · Next: The Second Battle of Fort Wagner
The key to the Mississippi
Perched on bluffs above a bend in the river, Vicksburg was the Confederacy's great stronghold on the Mississippi, linking its eastern and western halves and blocking Union traffic on the river. President Lincoln called it the key, and said the war could never be finished until it was in Union hands1.
Grant's campaign of manoeuvre
After months of failed approaches through the swamps, Grant marched his army down the far bank, crossed the river below the city3, and cut loose from his supply line. In a rapid campaign he beat Confederate forces in a series of battles, drove John C. Pemberton's army back into Vicksburg, and sealed it off.
The siege
Grant's assaults on the strong defences were bloodily repulsed1, so he settled into a siege. For six weeks Union guns and warships pounded the city while its soldiers and civilians, sheltering in caves, were slowly starved1. With no relief coming and his men exhausted, Pemberton opened talks.
Surrender on the Fourth of July
On 4 July 1863 Vicksburg surrendered, and about 29,000 Confederate soldiers were taken4. The date, American Independence Day, was not lost on either side. Within days the whole Mississippi was open from source to sea, as the last Confederate strongpoint on the river at Port Hudson5 surrendered soon after, and days earlier the Confederate invasion of the North had been turned back at Gettysburg.
Why Vicksburg mattered
Vicksburg split the Confederacy, severing Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana from the rest6, and gave the Union the Mississippi. Together with Gettysburg it is seen as the turning point of the war, and it carried Ulysses S. Grant toward overall command of the Union armies.