Earlier today Vicksburg was sieged by the Union. They finally took over the city after a long battle of about 44 days. The Confederates held out till they eventually ran out of food and supplies and had to eventually give up. The Union surrounded the Confederates, and after many attempts, the Union finally got into the city, then eventually took it over. The confederates suffered heavy casualties after the siege. It was a soaring success for general Grant, who is the new general for the Union army. This is a generals’ Grant first battle and also is first victory. John C. Pemberton was the general for the Confederate army. It was a massive success for the Union. However they suffered 10,142 casualties total. But the Confederates suffered a massive 9,091. There were almost 29,425 Confederate captives. Which is a huge blow to the Confederacy. Which in turn completely demoralized the entire Confederate army.
This was a failure on the Confederates part because Pemberton was told by Michael Ballard in this letter “Pemberton, trying to please Jefferson Davis, who insisted that Vicksburg and Port Hudson must be held, and to please Johnston, who thought both places worthless militarily, had been caught in the middle, a victim of a convoluted command system and his own indecisiveness. Too dispirited to think clearly, he chose to back his bedraggled army into Vicksburg rather than evacuate the city and head north where he might have escaped to campaign again. When he chose to take his army into Vicksburg, Pemberton sealed the fate of his troops and the city he had been determined to defend.” This I presume is the turning point of the Civil War. The Confederate army is entirely destroyed. General Grant recently said “ The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving on.” This has