The Jackson expedition, preceding and related to the siege of Jackson,The engagement is occasionally also referred to as the Second Battle of Jackson, Mississippi. Ballard, 2004, p. 396. immediately followed the Confederate surrender of Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 4, 1863, to Union Army Major General Ulysses S. Grant commanding the Union Army of the Tennessee. The Confederate Army of Mississippi at Vicksburg, under the command of Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton, had been isolated in the Vicksburg defenses by Grant's forces since May 18, 1863. The Confederates were under constant artillery bombardment, had to fight off a series of Union Army attacks and could not receive supplies of food and ammunition during the siege.Symonds, Craig L. Joseph E. Johnston: A Civil War Biography. New York: W. W. Norton, 1992. . p. 211.
On May 14, in line with Grant's plan to eliminate other Confederate forces in the area before marching on Vicksburg, a Union force of two corps under Major General William T. Sherman and Major General James B. McPherson drove the Confederates out of Jackson, Mississippi northward toward Canton, Mississippi,Symonds, 1992, p. 208. about 25 miles away. After this brief Battle of Jackson, Mississippi, McPherson's corps left immediately to rejoin Grant's force while Sherman's corps remained for another day to damage or destroy fortifications, railroad facilities and buildings and supplies of military value.
Johnston returned to Jackson on May 20. Although reinforcements were already arriving, he thought he needed time to receive more reinforcements before attempting to relieve Vicksburg. He tried unsuccessfully to convince Pemberton to abandon Vicksburg and to combine with his force to confront the Union Army while they had similar numbers of men. Johnston's delayed and cautious effort to relieve Pemberton's forces at Vicksburg in the final days of the siege was too late to attempt to lift the siege. Johnston already had concluded that his force was too small to try to relieve Pemberton's army without also being trapped by the Union Army.
When the siege of Vicksburg ended, Johnston's relief force, called by him the “Army of Relief”,Shea, William L. and Terrence J. Winschel. Vicksburg is the Key: The Struggle for the Mississippi River. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2003. . p. 167. was at the Big Black River near Vicksburg. Grant was concerned about a possible attack by Johnston's force against his army and a Confederate attempt to retake Vicksburg. Before Johnston brought his army close to Vicksburg, at Grant's order, Sherman had already deployed the recently arrived IX Corps under Major General John G. Parke and other assigned divisions in an exterior line to defend against attack from outside Vicksburg by another Confederate force. On July 4, the date of the Vicksburg surrender, Grant ordered Sherman to lead an expedition to clear Johnston's forces from the Vicksburg area and to recapture the state capital and railroad center at Jackson. Sherman's corps combined with all or part of three other corps pushed Johnston's force back to Jackson by July 10 under grueling summer conditions. After a few engagements during a brief siege of Jackson, on July 16, Johnston's concern about being trapped and having to surrender his army, caused him to abandon the city. Jackson's military and commercial facilities then were further destroyed by the Union forces. This Union victory helped ensure that Vicksburg, the Mississippi River and Jackson, would remain in the Union's possession for the rest of the war.
Background In late 1862, the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg, Mississippi was the last major fortress on the last section of the Mississippi controlled by the Confederacy.Greene, Francis Vinton. The Mississippi. Campaigns of the Civil War - VIII. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1882. Reprinted by Digital Scanning Inc. (August 16, 2004) . p. 28. After the Battle of Arkansas Post (1863) on January 11, 1863, the Confederates controlled only a 240-mile (386.2-km) stretch of the river from Vicksburg to Port Hudson, Louisiana.Carter III, Samuel. The Final Fortress: The Campaign for Vicksburg 1862–1863. New York, St. Martin's Press, 1980. . p. 122. The Confederates remained able to block Union shipping over that section of the river and to allow communications and supply between Confederate states east and west of the river, especially at the main transfer point at Vicksburg.Bearss, Edwin C. Fields of Honor: Pivotal Battles of the Civil War. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, 2006. . p. 203.Shea & Winschel, 2003, p. 16.
Several attempts to capture Vicksburg overland from Tennessee in December 1862 and by attacking the city from the impassable bayous across the river in Louisiana in early 1863 failed.Hearn, Chester G. The Civil War State by State. Devon: BlueRed Press, 2011. Maps by Mike Marino. . p. 226.McGowen, Stanley S. Vicksburg Campaign (May–July 1863) In Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History, edited by David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000. . p. 2021. Grant then devised a plan for a second campaignSymonds, 1992, p. 205, calls it his "third campaign." to capture the city by crossing the Mississippi south of Vicksburg and approaching the city from the south.Greene, 1882, pp. 108-109.Bearss, 2006, pp. 203-204Ballard, 2011, p. 138.
Vicksburg Campaign
Army commanders (Vicksburg campaign)
Start of the campaign On April 15 and April 22, 1863, Union gunboats, transports and supply vessels ran past the Confederate artillery batteries at Vicksburg from north to south with the loss of one gunboat, one transport with hospital stores and six barges with coal.Greene, 1882, p. 115.Bearss, 2006, p. 207.Huston, James A. The Sinews of War: Army Logistics, 1775-1953 Washington, D.C. Center of Military History, United States Army, 1997. First printed 1966. Print Book, 1988. p. 231. (Public domain.) Grant could now move his army across the river to Mississippi but the Union naval force could not silence all Confederate artillery batteries at Grand Gulf.Greene, pp. 113-114.Shea & Winschel, 2003, p. 100.Bearss, Edwin C. with J. Parker Hills. Receding Tide: Vicksburg and Gettysburg, The Campaigns That Changed the Civil War. Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2010. pp. 98-101.Arnold, James R. Grant Wins the War: Decision at Vicksburg. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1997. . p. 89-93. Grant and Acting Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter decided to move farther south and, with advice from an escaped slave, found a suitable landing at Bruinsburg, Mississippi.Bearss, 2006, p. 209. Grant's forces successfully crossed the river without Confederate opposition on the night of April 30, 1863 and into the day on May 1.Bearss, 2006, p. 210.Shea & Winschel, 2003, p. 104.
At the Battle of Port Gibson on May 1, Union forces defeated the heavily outnumbered Confederates under Brigadier General John S. Bowen, causing the abandonment of the Port Gibson defenses and securing the Union position east of the river.Miller, 2020, p. 374.Greene, 1882, p. 131. The Confederate defenses on the Mississippi at Grand Gulf, Mississippi became untenable with Bowen's defeat and the Confederates also abandoned that position on May 2.Greene, 1882, p. 133. Pemberton commanded the Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana from Jackson, Mississippi, 44 miles by railroad west of Vicksburg, from the first week of October 1862 until May 1, 1863.Bearss, 2010, p.89.Miller, Donald L. Vicksburg: Grant's Campaign That Broke the Confederacy. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2020. . First published in hardcover 2019. Pp 191-192. Major General Carter L. Stevenson, a subordinate of Pemberton's, was in command at Vicksburg, including the area between Haines Bluff and Grand Gulf.Bearss, 2010, pp. 89-91.Miller, 2020, pp. 344-345, 349, 360.Greene, 1882, pp. 117-122. After Grant's army successfully crossed the Mississippi River from Louisiana at Bruinsburg, Mississippi on April 30-May 1, Pemberton moved his headquarters and three divisions from Jackson to Vicksburg.Bearss, 2010, p. 113. On May 9, the remaining Confederate garrison of about 6,000 men at Vicksburg came under the direct command of General Joseph E. Johnston, who was in charge of the Confederate Department of the West.Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. . pp. 884-885: "A misnamed military division established 23 Nov. 1862 to include Departments No. Two, East Tennessee, and Mississippi and East Louisiana. Extended on 29 Nov. 1862 to include northern Georgia and Atlanta".
Johnston was ordered to take command of the Mississippi defenses on May 9, but was not given full authority over Pemberton, who, along with General Braxton Bragg and Trans-Mississippi commander Theophilus Holmes, reported directly to Confederate States President Jefferson Davis.Miller, 2020, p. 193. Johnston arrived at Jackson on May 13, 1863 to take charge of troops there and to carry out his orders to advise Pemberton. Johnston could only try to persuade Pemberton to act, including to accept Johnston's plan to combine forces to confront Grant in the field.Miller, 2020, p. 193."Pemberton commanded the Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana, reporting directly to the authorities in Richmond and receiving orders from them. Yet Johnston commanded both Pemberton's and Bragg's armies, without the possibility of being really in charge of either." Greene, 1882, p. 173. Confederate Secretary of War James Seddon's order to Johnston to go to Mississippi which read in pertinent part: "Proceed at once to Mississippi and take chief command of the forces, giving to those in the field, as far as practicable, the encouragement and benefit of your personal direction" (Symonds, 1992, p. 202) did not clarify the confused command structure or give Johnston any greater authority than he already had.
Grant decided not to take the narrow and rough direct route to Vicksburg but to approach from the east after moving northeast to destroy a portion of the Southern Railroad of Mississippi to prevent supplies and reinforcements moving from Jackson to Vicksburg.Shea & Winshel, 2003, pp. 117-118. Grant also wanted to defeat Pemberton's forces outside the Vicksburg defenses, if possible.Ballard, 2011, p. 153. On May 12, Union Major General McPherson's XVII Corps defeated a detached Confederate brigade near Jackson at the Battle of Raymond, despite some mismanagement of the battle.Miller, 2020, p. 385. McPherson did not pursue Brigadier General John Gregg's brigade back to Jackson.Miller, 2020, p. 387.
Battle of Jackson Grant was unsure of the size of the Confederate force at Jackson.Greene, 1882. p. 143. He decided to eliminate any threat to his army from Confederate forces at Jackson before moving against Pemberton's force.Ballard, 2011, p. 156. Three divisions led by Pemberton had taken the field to intercept Grant's supply line. Grant ordered Sherman's XV Corps to attack Jackson from the southwest and McPherson's XVII Corps to attack from the northwest. Johnston decided as soon as he arrived that he was too late to hold the city, if not to rescue Pemberton and retain Vicksburg.Miller, 2020, p. 388.Bearss, 2010, pp. 183-186/ Without waiting for the imminent arrival of reinforcements, Johnston decided to abandon Jackson with the garrison of 6,000 troops and to regroup at Canton, Mississippi, about 25 miles to the north.