Siege of Vicksburg

Monday, May 18, 1863 to Saturday, July 4, 1863

Kurz & Allison portrait of the Siege of Vicksburg. Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.

In command of the Army of the Tennessee, Major General Ulysses S. Grant leads Union forces against the Confederate fortified city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. View a C-Span video of a lecture about the Vicksburg Campaign, filmed at the Kansas City Public Library. The successful capture of Vicksburg gives the Union control of the Mississippi River, dividing the Confederacy down the middle and strengthening Grant's reputation in the North.