1. Vicksburg
Strategic Setting

2. Background Strategic Situation
Importance of Vicksburg and the Mississippi River
Lincoln’s Assessment
Scott’s Anaconda Plan
Confederate supply lines
Two halves of the Confederacy

3. Strategic Situation

4. Importance of Mississippi River and Vicksburg
At  the time of the Civil War, the Mississippi River was the single most important economic feature of the continent
Confederate forces closed the river to navigation, which threatened to strangle northern commercial interests

5. Lincoln’s Assessment
“See what a lot of land these fellows hold, of which Vicksburg is the key! The war can never be brought to a close until that key is in our pocket.... We can take all the northern ports of the Confederacy, and they can defy us from Vicksburg…. I am acquainted with that region and know what I am talking about, and as valuable as New Orleans will be to us, Vicksburg will be more so.”

6. Scott’s Anaconda Plan
Blockade the Southern ports and stop all imports and exports.
The blockade would stop the sale of agriculture goods drying up the money supply and the blockade would stop the receiving of war martial from foreign nations.
Recapture the Mississippi River. 
By recapturing the Mississippi River the South would be cut in half making communications difficult between the two sections.
After the wearing down of the peoples’ resolve to make and sustain a war march to and capture the Confederate capital.
Although initially rejected, Scott’s plan became the de facto Federal strategy in execution

7. Trans Mississippi Confederacy as a Supply Source
Texas led the nation in cattle, with an estimated three and a half million head
Virginia and Georgia, the next largest Confederate cattle-producing states, counted slightly more than one million each.
Texas ranked behind only Tennessee in the number of horses and mules, fourth in the number of sheep, and seventh in the production of swine.
Texas was a significant source of livestock for armies in the west, but that could only remain the case so long as those animals could cross the river safely.
Federal success at Vicksburg would deny the eastern Confederacy access to these and other supplies

8. Key Railroad from Monroe, LA through Vicksburg to Jackson and points east

9. Splitting the South in Two
Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas (as well as the Indian Territory) accounted for almost half of the Confederacy’s total land mass
Federal control of the Mississippi River would isolate the western and eastern halves of the Confederacy
So Grant’s mission is to seize Vicksburg in order to control the Mississippi River and separate the Confederacy in two

10. Terrain
Vicksburg was part of a line of bluffs that extended from Columbus, KY to Baton Rouge, LA
Formed an escarpment
that greatly favored the
defense both on land
and on water

11. Vicksburg Bluff Line

12. Fortifications on the MississippiKY MO
Columbus N
New Madrid
Is. No. 10 TN
Ft. Pillow
Memphis AR MS AL LA
Vicksburg
Grand Gulf
Port Hudson
New Orleans
200
Miles
Ft. St. Philip
Ft. Jackson

13. River-Bluff Interface: Grand Gulf

14. Terrain What is going to make that difficult for Grant is the terrain
Northeast of Vicksburg was the Delta
Flat, periodically flooded area coursed by streams of various navigability
Steele’s Bayou, Tallahatchie River, Yazoo River, etc
Steep banked creeks, uncleared swamplands
West of Vicksburg was Louisiana
Even flatter and swampier
Would require much corduroying of roads

15. Vicksburg and the Mississippi
As Union forces moved south toward Vicksburg in late 1862, the winter and the wet season began.
This ended all possibilities of moving forces by land.
Grant is forced to find an alternative route to reach Vicksburg.
Makes several failed attempts from December 1862 through April 1863

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Basic Military Doctrine