This photo was taken from the Union fortification line of Battery DeGolyer, named after Captain Samuel DeGolyer who died while directing fire from here during the siege of Vicksburg. In the background would have been the nonextant Great Redoubt, a Confederate fort used to guard the Jackson Road entrance into Vicksburg. Trenches and craters were created and mines were used here by Union and Confederate forces. Union forces tried to capture the Great Redoubt from this position but they were unsuccessful.
The 1800-acre Vicksburg National Military Park is the site of the the Civil War campaign, siege and defense of Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1863. The Park was established by Congress in 1899. We followed the 16 mile tour road in the Park.
The Battle of Vicksburg, also called the Siege of Vicksburg, was about the Union forces trying to control the Mississippi River. Vicksburg was one of the last Confederacy strongholds of the River. A Union victory at Vicksburg would have given control of the Mississippi River to the Union and would have split the Confederacy in half; states west of the Mississippi River (Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana) would have been isolated from the rest of the Confederacy. On July 4, 1863, after a long land and naval campaign at Vicksburg, Lieutenant General John Pemberton's Confederate forces surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant’s Union forces. After the battle, the Union forces controlled the Mississippi River which was a critical turning point of the Civil War. Vicksburg would not celebrate the July 4 holiday for another 81 years.
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