Winner of the Civil War Round Table of New York's Fletcher Pratt
Literary Award
Winner of the Austin Civil War Round Table's Daniel M. & Marilyn W.
Laney Book Prize
Winner of an Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Writing Award
"A superb account" (The Wall Street Journal) of the longest and most
decisive military campaign of the Civil War in Vicksburg, Mississippi,
which opened the Mississippi River, split the Confederacy, freed tens of
thousands of slaves, and made Ulysses S. Grant the most important
general of the war.
Vicksburg, Mississippi, was the last stronghold of the Confederacy on
the Mississippi River. It prevented the Union from using the river for
shipping between the Union-controlled Midwest and New Orleans and the
Gulf of Mexico. The Union navy tried to take Vicksburg, which sat on a
high bluff overlooking the river, but couldn't do it. It took Grant's
army and Admiral David Porter's navy to successfully invade Mississippi
and lay siege to Vicksburg, forcing the city to surrender.
In this "elegant...enlightening...well-researched and well-told"
(Publishers Weekly) work, Donald L. Miller tells the full story of
this year-long campaign to win the city "with probing intelligence and
irresistible passion" (Booklist). He brings to life all the drama,
characters, and significance of Vicksburg, a historic moment that rivals
any war story in history. In the course of the campaign, tens of
thousands of slaves fled to the Union lines, where more than twenty
thousand became soldiers, while others seized the plantations they had
been forced to work on, destroying the economy of a large part of
Mississippi and creating a social revolution. With *Vicksburg "*Miller
has produced a model work that ties together military and social
history" (Civil War Times).
Vicksburg solidified Grant's reputation as the Union's most capable
general. Today no general would ever be permitted to fail as often as
Grant did, but ultimately he succeeded in what he himself called the
most important battle of the war--the one that all but sealed the fate
of the Confederacy.
