Apr 06, 2025

The fall of Vicksburg, Mississippi, on July 4, 1863, proved a crucial turning point of the Civil War, although it took Union forces nearly seven months to capture the city.

Dr. Chris Mackowski, professor of Communication, chronicles that effort in a pair of new books, "The Vicksburg Campaign, 1863: Grant’s Failed Offensives" and "The Vicksburg Campaign, 1863: The Inland Battles, Siege, and Surrender."

Part of the Casemate Illustrated Series, the full-color paperbacks offer reader-friendly overviews of the campaign that split the Confederacy in two, reopened America’s most important waterway, and set the stage for Grant’s promotion to general in chief of all Union forces, paving the way for Northern victory.