Booknotes: "The Vicksburg Campaign, 1863: Grant’s Failed Offensives"

New Arrival:

• The Vicksburg Campaign, 1863: Grant’s Failed Offensives by Chris Mackowski (Casemate, 2025).

This is the first of the Casemate Illustrated series April pairing of Vicksburg Campaign titles from Chris Mackowski. From the description: "Ulysses S. Grant, who had risen to fame as one of the North’s prominent heroes early in the war, boldly concluded that Vicksburg would be the next nut to crack in the Federal policy for control of the Mississippi River. Understanding that only a strong relationship with US Navy could ensure the success of Vicksburg’s surrender, Grant found a man as bold and daring as himself in David Dixon Porter and his Mississippi Squadron of ironclad gunboats and fleet of vessels. These two commanders and their trusted subordinates would frustrate John C. Pemberton’s attempts to defend Mississippi and eastern Louisiana for the Confederacy. A lack of experience in commanding such an important assignment, limited resources, poor staffing, and a Confederate government consumed with the war in the east ensured Pemberton’s position would be insurmountable as the Confederacy’s tenuous hold on the Mississippi River began to fall apart."

The volume begins with the initial Farragut-Williams attempt to capture Vicksburg during the seemingly vulnerable window of opportunity that followed the fall of New Orleans. The volume goes on from there to cover the inland Mississippi Central campaign, the Chickasaw Bayou operation, and Arkansas Post. From there, the book addresses a series of "experiments" (Grant's canal and the Lake Providence bypass, Yazoo Pass, and Steele's Bayou), the collective failure of which sparked a major change in strategy. It ends with the dramatic running of the Vicksburg batteries and Grierson's Raid.

The book's five original maps are mostly operational-level sketches (fitting the scale of the text presented), but there are also a number of contemporary maps included along with the usual series complement of old and new photography, biographical and event sidebars, and other illustrations.