Numerous deep ravines cut the high ground on the landward side of Vicksburg, and the slopes of the hills surrounding the town were so sharp and covered with fallen timber that an unarmed man would have the greatest difficulty climbing them, let alone a soldier under fire, burdened with the gear of war. On May 23, Grant decided, as he put it, to ‘out-camp the enemy and dig into Vicksburg. While the land approach to Vicksburg presented many problems, a riverborne Union assault on the city was also out of the question because Southern batteries on the bluff commanded the horseshoe bend in the Mississippi above the town. With Federal confidence soaring, Grant ordered assaults on May 19 and 22, but the Confederates handily turned back both attacks. The Union forces had arrived outside Vicksburg on May 18. To reach Vicksburg, the Yankees had executed a brilliant campaign during which they won five battles, seized the Mississippi state capital at Jackson, captured more than 6,000 Rebels, killed and wounded as many more, and ravaged the Mississippi countryside virtually unchecked. Grant’s Army of the Tennessee was sprawled across the rough ground that ringed the landward side of the city, which was defended by 20,000 Confederates under Lieutenant General John C. In the spring of 1863, however, Major General Ulysses S. Perched on a steep bluff that loomed over the eastern bank of the Mississippi River at a sharp bend in that watercourse, the city of Vicksburg sat high and defiant above the brown water that flowed to the Gulf of Mexico. America's Civil War: Digging to Victory at Vicksburg Close
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