"This army is in the finest possible health and spirits."
From the start of the Vicksburg campaign, General's Joseph Johnston and John C. Pemberton were never unified to deal with the audacity of Grant's army in Mississippi. The northerners lived off the land, they attacked and prevented two separate armies from uniting to decisively hit their forces. Every day, Lincoln intently watched to learn about the whereabouts of Grant's men that deeply frustrated the ability of the enemy to defeat the Union in this campaign.
From 1861-1862, General Henry W. Halleck advocated for the removal of Grant from his western command. While Halleck never viewed Grant as a polished officer, he realized that Grant was the main fighting figure that was needed to conquer Vicksburg. Halleck directed increased men and resources toward Grant to strengthen his position against the faltering position of Pemberton. The government realized that Grant was close to dividing the Confederacy, taking over the Mississippi River, and driving a wedge into their war effort of Jefferson Davis. Grant's army swelled to 70,000 soldiers and the newspapers that wrote awful things about Grant's character, by June 1st, began to report positive stories about his leadership qualities. Once Grant captured Jackson, Mississippi, he completely divided the enemy, as Johnston feared that Pemberton had to immediately leave, or he would be trapped by the Northern forces. Grant repeatedly pushed his army toward the Mississippi River with the intent of capturing this entire enemy army.
From the middle of May in 1863, Vicksburg became an extremely dangerous affair for the Confederates, as after Grant's victory at Champion Hill, Pemberton ordered smaller forces to slow down the Union assault while he still refused to leave Vicksburg. At the Battle of Big Black River Bridge, Grant used 10,000 soldiers to hit 5,000 Confederates who unable to slow down this Union movement. Grant continued to advocate for the need of speed and ferocity to break the will of the Confederate military and civilians to keep fighting this hopeless battle.
With additional reinforcements, Grant believed that the road to Vicksburg was "open." As Grant crossed over the Big Black River, he was in control of the strategic Walnut Hills around Vicksburg, and his men now lived better than the population base of Vicksburg.
During a failed attack by General John McClernand on May 22nd, Grant realized that a siege had to be used against these enemy inhabitants until July 4th. Grant's forces dug fortifications and trenches and Sherman was ordered to locate Johnston's army and to prevent it from helping Pemberton. Now overlooking the Mississippi River, Union soldiers opposed a defeated enemy garrison, as the Southerners were forced to eat cats, dogs, rats, rationed off water, and hide from the incessant shelling in the caves and tunnels of Vicksburg. Grant's best intelligence was learned from Confederate soldiers who were starving as they fled toward Union lines. By July 1st, letters were written to Pemberton from the residents and military of Vicksburg that all was lost, and these fortifications had to be surrendered.
On July 3rd, Pemberton presented a white flag of truce to address this precarious situation. At 3 p.m., Grant and Pemberton met under a large tree and argued over the terms of how this fort would be given to the Union. While Grant threatened a full-scale assault, as Pemberton understood that all was lost, he still stated that his men could still kill many Union soldiers if an attack was ordered. It was the opposing subordinate officers that worked out the details of the surrender that was agreed upon by Pemberton several hours later.
From the several battles that were fought before Vicksburg and the capture of this southern fort, Grant took almost 35,000 prisoners of war for the second army at this time, that he took during this war. Most of this enemy army was pardoned by Grant, as it was understood that there was not enough shipping to transport these prisoners northward toward prison camps. Grant reasoned that many of these soldiers would go home and tell southern towns that there was no chance of defeating the Union. It was 161 years ago this week that Grant's forces won this historic victory, and as Union forces entered Vicksburg, they provided food to the hungry Confederate soldiers. After this national success, Lincoln wrote Grant about his operations and admitted that he should have broken away from his base of supplies and communication, and truthfully told his fighting general, “you were right, I was wrong” in how Grant handled this entire victorious battle.