Chronology of Grant's Final Campaign and Siege of Vicksburg

March 29 - July 4th, 1863




Bibliography of Sources on the Vicksburg Campaigns

These chronologies were prepared from many sources. The basic reference works for the entire Chronologies project are the following:

  • Civil War Day by Day, by E. B. Long;

  • The Historical Times Encyclopedia of the Civil War, Patricia Faust, editor;

  • The Official Records (Guild Press CD version).

Other works specific to Vicksburg include:

  • Grant Moves South, by Bruce Catton;

  • The Mississippi, by F.V. Greene (this is the volume in the famous Scribner's Campaigns of the Civil War series);

  • Grant Rises in the West, by K.P. Williams, originally published as Volume 4 of Lincoln Finds a General;

  • War on the Mississippi, by Jerry Korn (this is the Vicksburg volume in the Time-Life "gray book" series from the 1980's);

  • The Vicksburg Campaign (three volumes), by Ed Bearss.

  • Vicksburg: The Campaign That Opened the Mississippi, by Michael Ballard

  • Grant at Vicksburg: The General and the Siege, also by Ballard
  • Ninety-Eight Days: A Geographers View of the Vicksburg Campaign, by Warren Grabau

  • The Decision Was Always My Own: Ulysses S. Grant and the Vicksburg Campaign, by Timothy B. Smith

  • Miller

  • `Winschel

Chronology entries in blue refer to Union operations; those in gray to Confederate operations; those in red to actual combat.



Date: Event:
March 29-30 McClernand (XIII Corps) begins moving down the west side of the river, to New Carthage.

Maj. Gen. John McClernand
April 16 First set of gunboats and transports runs past the Vicksburg batteries.
April 17 Col. Benjamin Grierson sets out from LaGrange, Tennessee, to raid the interior of Mississippi.

Col. Benjamin Grierson
April 22 Second set of transports runs past the batteries.
April 24 Grierson breaks railroad between Jackson and Meridian at Newton Station.
April 29 Sherman demonstrates north of Vicksburg.

Fleet fails to reduce Grand Gulf.

Maj. Gen. W.T. Sherman
April 30 Sherman continues his demonstration.

XIII (McClernand) and XVII Corps (McPherson) begin crossing the Mississippi at Bruinsburg.

Sherman ordered to join Grant.
May 1
Battle of Port Gibson; McClernand and McPherson defeat Brig. Gen. John Bowen. 

Estimated casualties are:  USA--861, CSA--767.

Grierson crosses the Amite River on his way to Baton Rouge.

Brig. Gen. John Bowen
May 2 Grierson's raiders reach safety at Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
May 3
 Confederates abandon Grand Gulf.
May 5-7 McPherson feints north at Vicksburg from Hankinson's Ferry on the Big Black River.

Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson
May 8 XV Corps (Sherman) joins Grant.

Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn murdered by a jealous husband.

Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn
May 9 Johnston ordered to go from Tullahoma to Mississippi and take command in the field.

Gen. Joseph E. Johnston
May 12 Battle of Raymond; McPherson defeats Brig. Gen. John Gregg's force.   

Estimated casualties are:  USA--446, CSA--515.

Brig. Gen. John Gregg
May 13 Joe Johnston arrives at Jackson to take command, wires Richmond, "I am too late."
May 14
Battle of Jackson; Sherman and McPherson defeat Johnston and occupy the city.

Estimated casualties are:  USA--300, CSA--845.
May 16
Battle of Champion Hill.  Grant defeats Pemberton's main body.  Loring's division is separated from Pemberton's army, eventually joins Johnston.

Estimated casualties are:  USA--2,457, CSA--3,840.

Maj. Gen. William Loring
May 17
Battle of Big Black River Bridge.  Grant's troops (Lawler's brigade of XIII Corps) eliminate the Confederate rear guard.
Estimated casualties are:  USA--273, CSA--1751, the vast majority of which are prisoners.

Brig. Gen. Michael Lawler
May 18 Vicksburg (partially) invested; four Confederate divisions (Stevenson, Bowen, Forney, and Smith) are trapped inside the lines.
May 19 First assault.

Estimated casualties are:  USA--942, CSA--70.
May 22 Second assault.

Estimated casualties are:  USA--3,199, CSA--500.
June 3 Kimball's Provisional Division arrives.
June 6-7 Grant's Satartia trip.
June 7 Battle of Milliken's Bend; Confederates under Maj. Gen. John G. Walker attack Grant's base on the west bank of the Mississippi, and are repulsed.  Although the defensive force---mostly barely trained USCT, supported by an Iowa regiment---are forced back to the levee, they fight valiantly and the Rebels are driven off, with the help of naval gunfire from the ironclad Choctaw.

Estimated casualties are:  USA--652, CSA--185.  There were reports that some of the USCT who were captured were subsequently executed.

Maj. Gen. John G. Walker


USS Choctaw



June 11 Maj. Gen. F.J. Herron's division arrives from Arkansas.
June 12 1/XVI (W.S. Smith) arrives.
June 14 Two divisions of IX Corps begin to arrive from Kentucky.
June 18 McClernand relieved of command.
June 22 Sherman's expeditionary force formed to protect the rear of the Federal lines.
June 25-28 Mine exploded under 3rd Louisiana Redan; active combat rages for two days before the Federals withdraw.
June 28 Anonymous soldiers warn Pemberton the garrison is close to mutiny over rations.
July 1
Another mine exploded under 3rd Louisiana Redan, but no follow-up attack is made.

Pemberton asks his division commanders for their views of the situation.
July 2 Capt. Comstock issues guidelines for proposed July 6 assault.
July 3 Flag of truce appears between the lines, and discussions begin between Grant and Pemberton as to the surrender of the city and its garrison.
July 4 Pemberton surrenders the city and its garrison to General Grant.

Maj. Gen. U.S. Grant
Casualties (est.):

USA: 4,910

CSA: 32,363 (29,495 were surrendered on July 4)