On this current trip down the Natchez Trace we were in the Western Theater of the Civil War between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River. The battle sites we visited were The Battle of Shiloh: April 6 and April 7, 1862; The Siege & Battle of Corinth: April 29 to May 30, 1862, and October 1862; The Battle & Siege of Vicksburg: May 18 to July 4, 1863; the Battle of Brices Crossroads: June 10, 1864; and the Battle of Tupelo: July 14 to 15, 1864.
The battles that were fought in this region were well-planned and thought-out strategies to secure supplies, keep lines of military communication open, and to gain and control more ground. The idea was to put an economic stranglehold on the Confederacy, isolate it from all sources of supply and eventually cause the South to surrender. To that end, it was vital for the Union forces to control rail access and gain strategic river access to the Mississippi waterway, thereby effectively severing communication between the Confederates. Lincoln said it best, "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."
And thus the strategy was to ultimately control Vicksburg.
Shiloh (April 1862)
After Union forces captured two important forts in northwest Tennessee, the Confederate forces abandoned Kentucky and Middle Tennessee, and moved south to protect a strategic railroad hub in Corinth Mississippi to prevent a Union advance into the Mississippi valley. Union forces steamed south on the Tennessee River and disembarked at Pittsburg Landing where there was a network of roads that would facilitate overland travel. The Confederates took the initiative and moved 44,000 men north from Corinth to attack the Union army of 40,000 men, where bitter fighting ensued in the forests and fields around a small log church called Shiloh Meeting House. On the first day of fighting the Confederates pushed the Union army back towards the river, but at nightfall the Union Army of the Ohio arrived as reinforcement. The enlarged Union army counterattacked the next day, and the outnumbered Confederates resisted until they could no longer hold the position. To save their army they retreated to Corinth. The battle had cost over 23,000 casualties from both sides. |
| this diorama depicts what the battlefield would have looked like |
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| various battle sites and areas where the various regiments were stationed |
The grey bleak day added to the somber mood knowing that 23,700 men, mostly young and in the prime of life, had fought in this bloody battle.
The town of Corinth was a strategic point at the junction of two vital railroad lines, called "the vertebrae of the Confederacy." Following the retreat from Shiloh, the Confederate army spent the rest of April constructing defensive earthworks at Corinth to protect the rail junction.Siege of Corinth (April/May 1862); Battle of Corinth (October 1862)
After Shiloh the Union army of over 100,000 marched south to capture Corinth. As they advanced, they similarly built a series of consecutive offensive entrenchments by sending out skirmishers to clear the way, and then constructing a new line of earthworks to occupy. The strength of the fortifications and the size of the Union force convinced the Confederates they could not defend Corinth, and they withdrew to Tupelo, abandoning their important rail hub, but avoiding a destructive battle.
Union forces began building several batteries of artillery fortifications around Corinth, using mounded soil, baskets, timber and bales of cotton. Many of these earthworks can still be seen today. In October Confederate forces launched counter-offensives against Corinth. Some of the heaviest fighting took place around one of these Union fortifications, Battery Robinett. Although the Confederates were able to fight their way into town, they were driven out and retreated, managing to evade complete destruction. Casualties on both sides totaled about 8,000.
With President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862 and the security offered by the Union forces occupying Corinth, thousands of slaves fled plantations in the south and congregated in a tent city in Corinth. The refugees, first called “contraband of war," built a community of homes, a school, church, hospital and a cooperative farm program. Nearly 2,000 African American men who passed through the camp enlisted in the Union army. A small portion of the Corinth Contraband Camp site is preserved by the National Park.
We visited the Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center, located near the site of Battery Robinett where some of the heaviest fighting took place, and spoke with the park ranger about the still lingering effects of the Civil War and the continuing hold of the Confederate identity with many people in the south.The switchback pathway leading from the parking lot to the Interpretive Center was scattered with items of fallen soldiers. A hat here, a rifle there, a solitary boot, a button, stopwatch. Seeing these items is sobering, and makes it seem very real. These were real men, with lives cut short, fighting for a cause they believed in.
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| a crushed hat |
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| a boot |
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| a button |
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| a letter, spoon, shaving brush, among other items spilling out of a soldier's bag |
Vicksburg - May 18 to July 4, 1863
The Battle and Siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi was the culmination of a long land and naval campaign by Union forces to capture a key strategic position that had been called the Confederate "Gibraltar of the West." Capturing Vicksburg would cut the Confederacy in two and open the river to Union traffic along its entire length. The first attempts to capture Vicksburg in 1862 with prolonged Union naval bombardment from the river and ground assaults from the north were all repulsed with disproportionate losses on the Union side. Union forces even spent months attempting to dig a canal to short-cut a bend in the river south of Vicksburg which would have enabled the Union navy to bypass the city, but the heat and disease took their toll on the troops, and the effort was abandoned. Union General Grant then devised a plan to attack Vicksburg from the south and east. |
| map in the Military Park brochure of the battlefield encircling Vicksburg |
In the spring of 1863 Grant moved the Union army south on the Louisiana side of the river, and masked this movement by launching diversionary attacks by other Union forces in the north of the city, and a cavalry raid through Mississippi down to Baton Rouge. Then a Union fleet ran the gauntlet of Confederate guns firing from the Vicksburg bluff to meet Grant’s Union army south of Vicksburg and transport the entire army from the west bank on the Louisiana side to the east bank on the Mississippi side.
They marched inland and clashed with Confederates at Port Gibson at a cost of several hundred men on both sides, and then continued on to the state capital, Jackson MS. The Confederate garrison at Jackson was too small to defend against the large approaching Union army, and therefore withdrew, leaving their cannons and city to the Union, who burned most of the town.
The Confederates in Vicksburg sent most of their troops out in an attempt to cut the supply lines to the Union army. This force encountered the westbound Union army at Champion Hill, resulting in one of the bloodiest battles of the campaign with over 7,000 total casualties from both sides. The diminished Confederate army retreated back to fortified Vicksburg.
The strong defensive works around Vicksburg convinced Union General Grant to take the town by siege. For several weeks the Union forces dug zig-zag trenches bringing them closer to Confederate positions. They tunneled under a defensive position and detonated barrels of black powder blasting a hole in the works.
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| a portrayal of cave living during the siege of Vicksburg |
Finally, with all hope lost, the Confederates surrendered the city on July 4, 1863, the day after the Confederate surrender at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The several battles and siege of Vicksburg had taken over 6 months at a cost of over 48,000 casualties. The town of Vicksburg refused to celebrate the Fourth of July for the next 81 years.
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| archway marking the entrance to the battlefield |
Across the park, more than 1,300 monuments and markers have been placed to memorialize the soldiers and sailors who fell, and to remind future generations of the cost and toll of taking up arms against one another.
As interesting as it is to study the various defense lines and learn about how the battles were waged, I found the experience to be not only sad but also depressing. All those cannons marking battle lines, and all the imposing monuments and sculptures may be markers of honor, sacrifice, and valor. But it leaves one uneasy, with the question of whether there could have been a way to resolve the divide between the North and South other than through loss of 620 thousand lives. It is a sad and brutal chapter of history. And one that affected everyone, soldier and civilian.
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| cannons along the Union lines |
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| General Grant of Union forces |
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| Confederate defensive lines |
We stopped at the USS Cairo (pronounced Kay-roh) gunboat exhibit. These Union iron-clads were employed in the Vicksburg campaign. In December 1862 the USS Cairo was clearing mines for the attack when it was sunk by a mine remotely detonated by hand. It sank quickly, and the mud of the river eventually filled it, preserving the ship and its contents for over 100 years. It was raised from the river in 1966 revealing over 1000 artifacts which are now on display in a museum with the restored remains of the ship. |
| the original Cairo salvaged and rebuilt with support timbers |
While we were in Vicksburg, we stayed at the Ameristar Casino RV Park, situated across the street from the Mississippi River. Directly across the road, situated on the high bluff, were more Civil War battle sites and encampments. Today, there are casinos and hotels, homes and various other businesses lining the bluff high above the river, but interspersed throughout are the red Confederate plaques commemorating the soldier encampments. We walked across the road to the Louisiana Circle one morning, and saw where cannons fired on Union vessels, sinking one. But on April 16th 1863, the Union flotilla successfully floated past this point after a year of several failed attempts. Union transports were on their way to ferry the army across the river as part of Grant's plan to attack Vicksburg from the east. 
A little further along there was another site, South Fort, where more companies were located. Across the street in another direction were busts of generals with more of these red company plaques. It is quite evident that the Civil War reminders are still very much a part of Vicksburg.
The Changing Mississippi: On April 26, 1876, the Mississippi River accomplished what the Union army could not accomplish 13 years prior – the flooding river cut across DeSoto peninsula and left the river port of Vicksburg with no river. The economic effect on the city was devastating. The Corps of Engineers undertook a massive 25-year project to divert the Yazoo River south through the former bed of the Mississippi River. In 1903, the city of Vicksburg officially opened the diversion canal and became a river city once again, now on the Yazoo River, no longer on the Mississippi.
Battle of Brices Crossroads - June 10, 1864
In March 1864, Union General Sherman’s goal was to destroy the main Confederate Army of Tennessee, and seize the key city of Atlanta, a critical transportation hub carrying supplies to Confederate forces. But as the Union army advanced, their supply lines grew longer, stretching back to Nashville, TN. To defend against a possible Confederate attack against the supply lines, a Union force of infantry and cavalry from Memphis moved into northern Mississippi where they met a smaller Confederate cavalry force at Brices Crossroads. The strong Confederate force pushed the Union force back. Late in the battle the Confederates launched an attack at a bridge over the Tishomingo Creek in the rear of the Union lines, resulting in a panicked Union retreat. The Confederates inflicted heavy casualties on the Federal force and captured more than 1,600 prisoners of war, 18 artillery pieces, and wagons loaded with supplies.We drove to the crossroads, read the plaque and walked around the site, seeing the slope down the hill to the Tishomingo bridge where the rout occurred. We also walked through the small cemetery at the site.
Battle of Tupelo - July 14 to 15, 1864
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| a little fuzzy in the fading light but you get the picture |
It’s commonly known today as the “Battle of Tupelo” because Harrisburg was burned during the battle, and Tupelo grew and overtook what was left of the town after the Civil War. Much of the battlefield today is underneath the Walmart there and in residential neighborhoods. A small lot is all that remains as a National Park with a few monuments and a couple of cannons. We parked at a garage across the street, walked around the small park and read the plaques.While this may not have been the most uplifting part of our Natchez Trace trip, it was enlightening and certainly made the western campaign more real. I may not have the same appreciation that Michael gained for the various tactical decisions and battles fought by each side, but I did come away with a deeper appreciation for what was at stake and that the conflict, as brutal as it was, is what ultimately led to the emergence of the United States as a nation. It has not, however, completely healed some of the issues, the one of race and equality in particular. But it did unify the states under one flag.