Vickers Limited

Early in the 18th century the French built Ft. St. Peter near the site of Vicksburg, and on Jan. 2, 1730, its garrison was massacred by the Yazoo Indians. In 1783 the Spaniards erected Ft. Nogales, which was taken by U.S. troops in 1798 and renamed McHenry. The first permanent settlement was made about 1811 by the Rev. Newitt Vick (d. 1819), a Methodist preacher, and in accordance with his will a town was laid out in 1824. It was incorporated in 1825 and chartered as a city in 1836.

The Campaign of 1862 to 1863.

Vicksburg is historically famous as being the centre of interest of one of the most im portant campaigns of the American Civil War. The command of the Mississippi, which would imply the severance of the Con federacy into two halves, and also the reopening of free commer cial navigation from St. Louis to the sea, was one of the principal objects of the Western armies of the Union from the time that they began their southward advance from Illinois, Missouri and Kentucky in Feb. 1862. A series of victories in the spring and summer carried them as far as the line Memphis–Corinth, but in the autumn they came to a standstill and were called upon to repulse the counter-advance of the Southern armies. The Fed erals were accompanied by a flotilla of thinly armoured but power ful gunboats which had been built on the upper Mississippi in the autumn of 1861, and had co-operated with the army at Fort Donelson, Shiloh and Island No. Io, besides winning a victory on the water at Memphis.

At the same time a squadron of sea-going vessels under Flag officer Farragut had forced the defences of New Orleans (q.v.) and, accompanied by a very small military force, had steamed up the great river. On reaching Vicksburg the heavy vessels again forced their way past the batteries, but they had to deal, no longer with low-sited fortifications, but with inconspicuous earthworks on bluffs far above the river-level, and they failed to make any impression. Farragut then returned to New Orleans. From Helena to Port Hudson the Confederates maintained complete control of the Mississippi, the improvised fortresses of Vicksburg, Port Hudson and Arkansas Post (near the mouth of Arkansas river) being the framework of the defence. It was to be the task of Grant's army around Corinth and the flotilla at Memphis to break up this system of defences, and, by joining hands with Farragut and clearing the whole course of the Mississippi, to cut the Confederacy in half.

The long and painful operations by which this was achieved group themselves into four episodes: (a) the Grenada expedition of Grant's force, (b) the river column under McClernand and Sherman, (c) the operations in the bayoux, and (d) the final "overland" campaign from Grand Gulf. The country in which

these operations took place divides itself sharply into two zones; the upland east of the Mississippi below Vicksburg and east of the Yazoo above, and the levels west of this line, which are a maze of bayoux, backwaters and side channels, the intervening land being kept dry near the river itself by artificial banks (levees) but elsewhere swampy. At Vicksburg, it is important to observe, the bluffs trend away from the Mississippi to follow the course of the Yazoo, rejoining the great river at Memphis. Thus there are two obvious lines of advance for the Northern army, on the upland (Memphis and Grand Junction on Grenada– Jackson), and downstream through the bayou country (Memphis Helena–Vicksburg). The main army of the defenders, who were commanded by General Pemberton, between Vicksburg and Jack son and Grenada, could front either north against an advance by Grenada or west along the bluffs above and below Vicksburg.

The first advance was made at the end of Nov. 1862 by two columns from Grand Junction and Memphis on Grenada. The Confederates in the field, greatly outnumbered, fell back without fighting. But Grant's line of supply was one long single-line, ill equipped railway through Grand Junction to Columbus, and the opposing cavalry under Van Dorn swept round his flank and, by destroying one of his principal magazines (at Holly Springs), without further effort compelled the abandonment of the advance.

Grant then sent Sherman with the flotilla and some 30,00o men to attack Vicksburg from the water-side, while he himself should deal with the Confederate field army on the high ground. But the scheme broke down completely when Van Dorn cut Grant's line of supply, and the Confederate army was free to turn on Sherman. The latter, ignorant of Grant's retreat, attacked the Yazoo bluffs above Vicksburg (battle of Chickasaw Bayou) on Dec. 29; but a large portion of Pemberton's field army had arrived to help the Vicksburg garrison, and the Federals were easily repulsed with a loss of 2,000 men. General McClernand now appeared and took the command out of Sherman's hands, informing him at the same time of Grant's retreat. Sherman thereupon proposed, before attempting fresh operations against Vicksburg, to clear the country behind them by destroying the Confederate garrison at Arkansas Post. This expedition was completely successful : at a cost of about 1,000 men the fort and its 5,000 defenders were captured on Jan. II, 1863.