1863
Siege of Vicksburg
The setting
Vicksburg, Warren County, Mississippi, United States
Fortified bluffs and hills overlooking the Mississippi River, with ravines and entrenchments
Reveal the outcome
Recorded sideConfederate States
Recorded resultdefeat (surrendered)
Decisive Union victory; Pemberton surrendered the city and its garrison on July 4, 1863
How the atlas explains it
Grant's bold campaign of maneuver crossed the Mississippi, cut loose from his supply base, defeated Confederate forces in detail, and bottled Pemberton's army inside Vicksburg; a tightening siege supported by Union naval control of the river starved the garrison into surrender.
What followed
Surrendered the day after Gettysburg, Vicksburg gave the Union full control of the Mississippi River, splitting the Confederacy in two and cutting off its western states. It confirmed Grant as the Union's foremost general.