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American Civil War

The land war > The war in the west in 1863 > Arkansas and Vicksburg
Map/Still:The main area of the western and Carolinas campaigns, 1861–65.
The main area of the western and Carolinas campaigns, 1861–65.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

In Arkansas, Federal troops under Frederick Steele moved upon the Confederates and defeated them at Prairie Grove, near Fayetteville, on December 7, 1862—a victory that paved the way for Steele's eventual capture of Little Rock the next September.

More importantly, Grant, back in good graces following his undistinguished performance at Shiloh, was authorized to move against the Confederate “Gibraltar of the West”—Vicksburg, Mississippi. This bastion was difficult to approach: Admiral David G. Farragut, Grant, and Sherman had failed to capture it in 1862. In the early months of 1863, in the so-called Bayou Expeditions, Grant was again frustrated in his efforts to get at Vicksburg from the north. Finally, escorted by Admiral David Dixon Porter's gunboats, which ran the Confederate batteries at Vicksburg, Grant landed his army to the south at Bruinsburg, Mississippi, on April 30, 1863, and pressed northeastward. He won small but sharp actions at Port Gibson, Raymond, and Jackson, while the circumspect Confederate defender of Vicksburg, John C. Pemberton, was unable to link up with a smaller Southern force under Joseph E. Johnston near Jackson.

Photograph:James Shirley house with Union “bomb-proofs” covering the surrounding hillside, …
James Shirley house with Union “bomb-proofs” covering the surrounding hillside, …
Old Courthouse Museum, Vicksburg, Mississippi

Turning due westward toward the rear of Vicksburg's defenses, Grant smashed Pemberton's army at Champion's Hill and the Big Black River and invested the fortress. During his 47-day siege, Grant eventually had an army of 71,000; Pemberton's command numbered 31,000, of whom 18,500 were effectives. After a courageous stand, the outnumbered Confederates were forced to capitulate on July 4. Five days later, 6,000 Confederates yielded to Nathaniel P. Banks at Port Hudson, Louisiana, to the south of Vicksburg, and Lincoln could say, in relief, “The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea.”

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