FIRST WE'RE GOING TO CUT IT OFF. Vicksburg, Mississippi, which I visited a month ago (during that first false hint of summer, is it really snowing in Dixie today?) was the last rebel strong point on the Mississippi River. The mind boggles at the thought of the square-riggers of the New Orleans blockading squadron making their way upriver (even on their steam propellors) past Baton Rouge to take on Vicksburg, but they did, only to be frustrated. General Grant's intended to avoid dealing with the fortifications by digging a shortcut for the river. Some traces of it remain just south of the interstate on the Louisiana bank of the river.


The embankment in the background is the current Mississippi River levee. Soldiers and contraband laborers dug a canal, but the river decided it was a good place to deposit silt it had scoured elsewhere.

Instead, the army went further south intending to isolate Vicksburg first from the south and then from the east. A small fleet of gunboats and transports ran past the Vicksburg fortifications to support the landing. The Grand Gulf Military Park is on the site of a rebel fortification that diverted but ultimately didn't prevent the Army of the Tennessee from crossing the Mississippi River and isolating Vicksburg.


There are still traces of the parapet at Fort Cobun. The river has changed course since the battle.


The fort sites, which are also home to a collection of regional history, are worth the $3 fee to visit the grounds. Many more pictures here. Among the inventions deployed during the Rebellion is an armored train. This model is inside the visitor center and museum.


The Army of the Tennessee made a relatively unopposed crossing near Port Gibson and maneuvered to secure its rear before isolating Vicksburg. Coordination between Rebel general John C. Pemberton at Vicksburg and Joseph Johnston inland left much to be desired, with Johnston never quite committed either to reinforcing Vicksburg or to providing a corridor for Pemberton to retreat. An aggressive rebel commander took on the entire XVII Corps southwest of Raymond. Although the rebel unit was driven back, Grant and Sherman opted to go as far east as Jackson to secure their rear before turning to Vicksburg. There is now a walking trail around the battlefield. The right of way of an Illinois Central branch is approximately the route of approach from Port Gibson to Raymond.


In Raymond, a classic courthouse and Confederate monument.


I'll take up the siege of Vicksburg in a subsequent post. My focus tonight is on cutting off the garrison at Vicksburg. Naval operations on tributaries of the Mississippi were crucial to the preparations. Another invention of the rebels was the maritime improvised explosive device (later called a sea mine), one of which sank USS Cairo on the Yazoo River. Some years later, preservationists raised her, and this part-original, part-reconstructed (although the reconstructed parts do not place any load on the original parts) is in the Vicksburg Battlefield Park proper, and cleverly placed where the road turns back from traversing the outer, attacking lines, to the inner, defensive lines.


There's at least one other Civil War ironclad that might be a candidate for recovery. CSS Tennessee is submerged in shallow water near Savannah.