Customer Reviews

Guide to the Vicksburg Campaign (U.S. Army War College Guides to Civil War Battles)

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The Vicksburg guide moved this series from a single battle to a campaign encompassing several battles and a full siege. This is a larger book and somewhat less detailed than the single battlefield guidebooks. The title of the book reflects this saying it is a guide to the Vicksburg Campaign not the battle of Vicksburg. The tour of the siege lines is within the National Park BUT much of the other battlefields are privately owned and this is reflected in the book. Until more money for battlefield preservation is available, many of these important fields are at risk. The park driving tour will not cover what is in this book and professional guides may not be willing to drive the miles needed to cover the campaign. Once again, this is not a detailed history but an excellent guidebook. The best history is Timothy B. Smith's book on the battle of Champion Hill.
The series format is directions to a point on the field, orientation, a general lesson on what happened in your view, followed by first person accounts of the action. These guides are designed using the general staff training concept of a Staff Ride. This is when a class is taken to a historic location, discuss what happened and see how the terrain influences the event. Staff Rides are designed to be intensive "on the ground" training coupled with physical observation in the hopes students will gain experience for later use.
I am not saying this to frighten you away from this guide but to tell you this is not a walk about and look at the monuments type of guide. This guide will have several pages devoted to the action at this point. It may contain a critique of the local commander's actions with possible alternates.
My experience is that reading the book prior to my visit works best. This allows me more time observing the field and less time reading the book. Of the tour options, a professional guide is usually the best but most expensive choice. The park driving tour is the best choice for a quick trip through the field to get the kids passport stamp. This book is the best choice for a serious student of the battle looking for a detailed explanation.

Vicksburg was one of the three times when General U. S. Grant essentially took an entire army out of the Civil War (Forts Henry/Donelson and Appomattox as the other two). This work covers his initial effort to subdue Vicksburg, which turned into a debacle as a result of his supply center being destroyed by a bold Confederate cavalry attack to his series of "experiments" to try to avoid attacking Vicksburg frontally to the ulitimately successful movement.

This is a book in a series developed by the Army War College on key Civil War battles. These volumes are structured around the following aspects: provide context on a battle; list stops for those actually traversing the battlefield to understand the geography of the conflict; expose the reader to evaluations of various aspects of the battles in the words of commanders themselves from their official reports; lay out the "order of battle" (a listing of all units taking part in the battle).

The book begins with an introduction that places the Vicksburg campaign in perspective. Then, comments from commanders on the situation at the outset of the campaign. Especially interesting: the comments of the chief engineer of the Confederate forces, who describes the process of creating defensive positions; Grant's comments as he tried to go overland to attack Vicksburg, only to be thwarted by a Confederate cavalry raid on his supply depot (one of Confederate General Van Dorn's few good days on the battlefield during his tenure as a commanding officer). Then, there is an examination of some of Grant's experiments, such as trying to leave Vicksburg high and dry by digging a canal to divert the Mississippi River; the naval experiments to take backwaters to get Union troops on dry land behind Vicksburg's high ridges rising above the River; etc. None succeeded.

Then, the masterpiece. Grant sidesteps the defenses of Vicksburg, heads down the Mississippi, crosses the river and gets on dry ground on the same side of the River as Vicksburg. The descriptions of key moments in two crucial fights, at Champion Hill and Big Black, are useful. Then, the siege itself.

After the description by participants of the events of the campaign, a "Driving Tour of the Vicksburg Campaign" follows, with stops throughout, so that the visitor can see key places and visualize what had happened.

Another well done volume in this series. The use of commanders' own perceptions of the battles is always a bit dicey (they are not apt to describe their failures in any detail), but this does inject a fine element into the book's narrative. All in all, if you want to see the battle from the eyes of those involved or get a sense of the geography of the battle or even visit the site with this resource in hand, you would probably find this a worthwhile work.