Union troops led by Brigadier General John M. Thayer stormed up this hill twice to battle Confederate forces at the top. The topography of the area and Confederate fire stopped the assaults. Union forces then started to dig an approach trench to eventually place a mine under the Confederate position. Before the Union soldiers could complete the task Vicksburg surrendered.
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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