Page 379 - American Stories, A History of the United States

In the West, however, a major Union triumph was taking shape. For more than a
15.1 year, General Ulysses S. Grant had been trying to capture Vicksburg, Mississippi, the
almost inaccessible Confederate bastion that stood between the North and control of
the Mississippi River. Finally, in late March 1863, he crossed to the west bank north
15.2 of the city and moved his forces to south of it, where he joined up with naval forces
that had run the Confederate batteries mounted on Vicksburg’s high bluffs. In one of
the boldest campaigns of the war, Grant crossed the river, deliberately cutting himself

15.3 off from his sources of supply, and marched into the interior of Mississippi. Living
off the land and out of communication with an anxious and perplexed Lincoln, his
troops defeated two Confederate armies and advanced on Vicksburg from the east.
After unsuccessfully assaulting the city, Grant settled down for a siege on May 22.
15.4
Meanwhile, President Davis approved Lee’s plan to invade the Northeast. Although
this would not relieve Vicksburg, it might win a victory that would more than com-
pensate for the probable loss of the Mississippi stronghold. Lee’s army crossed the
Potomac in June and kept going until it reached Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. There Lee
confronted a Union army that had taken up defensive positions on Cemetery Ridge
and Culp’s Hill.
On July 2, Confederate attacks failed to dislodge Union troops from the high ground
they occupied. The following day, Lee decided to attack the strongest part of the Union line.
The resulting charge on Cemetery Ridge was disastrous; Confederate soldiers dropped like
flies under Union fire. The few who made it to the Union lines were killed or captured. Lee
withdrew his battered troops, but because the Union army did not pursue him vigorously,
Quick Check he escaped again. Vicksburg fell to Grant on July 4, the same day Lee began his retreat.
How did the tide turn against the Northerners rejoiced that on Independence Day, the Union had secured control of the
Confederate army in the middle Mississippi and had finally won a major battle in the East. But Lincoln’s joy turned to
of 1863? frustration when he learned his generals had missed the chance to end the war.

Last Stages of the Conflict

In 1863, the North also finally gained control of the middle South, where indeci-
sive fighting had been going on since the conflict began. The main Union target was
Chattanooga, “the gateway to the Southeast.” In September, Union troops managed to
maneuver the Confederates out of the city but were in turn surrounded and besieged
there by southern forces. Grant arrived from Vicksburg to break the encirclement with
assaults on the Confederate positions on Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge.
The North was now poised to invade Georgia.
Grant’s victories in the West earned him promotion to general in chief of the
Union armies. In March 1864, he ordered a multipronged offensive to finish off the
Confederacy. Its main movements were a thrust on Richmond under Grant’s personal
command and another by the western armies, under General William Tecumseh
Sherman, toward Atlanta and the heart of Georgia.
In May and June, Grant and Lee fought a series of bloody battles in northern
Virginia that tended to follow a set pattern. Lee would take up an entrenched position
in the path of the invading force, and Grant would attack it, sustaining heavy losses but
also inflicting casualties the Confederate army could ill afford. When his direct assault
had failed, Grant would move to his left, hoping in vain to maneuver Lee into a less
defensible position. In the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor,
the Union lost about 60,000 men—more than twice the number of Confederate casu-
alties—without opening the road to Richmond. After losing thousands of soldiers in
three days at Cold Harbor, Grant moved his army south of Richmond. There he drew
up before Petersburg, a rail center that linked Richmond to the rest of the Confederacy;
after failing to take it by assault, he settled down for another siege.
The siege of Petersburg was a drawn-out affair, and northern morale plummeted
during the summer of 1864. Lincoln was facing reelection, and his failure to end the war
dimmed his prospects. Although nominated with ease in June—with Andrew Johnson, a
pro-administration Democrat from Tennessee, as his running mate— Lincoln confronted
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