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Vicksburg

Grant's Campaign That Broke the Confederacy

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Vicksburg

By: Donald L. Miller
Narrated by: Rick Adamson
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About this listen

Winner of the Civil War Round Table of New York’s Fletcher Pratt Literary Award
Winner of the Austin Civil War Round Table’s Daniel M. & Marilyn W. Laney Book Prize
Winner of an Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Writing Award

“A superb account” (The Wall Street Journal) of the longest and most decisive military campaign of the Civil War in Vicksburg, Mississippi, which opened the Mississippi River, split the Confederacy, freed tens of thousands of slaves, and made Ulysses S. Grant the most important general of the war.

Vicksburg, Mississippi, was the last stronghold of the Confederacy on the Mississippi River. It prevented the Union from using the river for shipping between the Union-controlled Midwest and New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. The Union navy tried to take Vicksburg, which sat on a high bluff overlooking the river, but couldn’t do it. It took Grant’s army and Admiral David Porter’s navy to successfully invade Mississippi and lay siege to Vicksburg, forcing the city to surrender.

In this “elegant…enlightening…well-researched and well-told” (Publishers Weekly) work, Donald L. Miller tells the full story of this year-long campaign to win the city “with probing intelligence and irresistible passion” (Booklist). He brings to life all the drama, characters, and significance of Vicksburg, a historic moment that rivals any war story in history. In the course of the campaign, tens of thousands of slaves fled to the Union lines, where more than twenty thousand became soldiers, while others seized the plantations they had been forced to work on, destroying the economy of a large part of Mississippi and creating a social revolution. With Vicksburg “Miller has produced a model work that ties together military and social history” (Civil War Times).

Vicksburg solidified Grant’s reputation as the Union’s most capable general. Today no general would ever be permitted to fail as often as Grant did, but ultimately he succeeded in what he himself called the most important battle of the war—the one that all but sealed the fate of the Confederacy.
Americas Military State & Local United States War Civil War Mississippi

Critic Reviews

"Miller makes a strong case for the capture of Vicksburg being the turning point of the Civil War—more important than the almost simultaneous Battle of Gettysburg. . . . Narrator Rick Adamson keeps track of quotations with subtle shifts in tone and avoids a confusing multiplicity of accents. He gives us a saga of military brilliance and incompetence linked to the struggle of emancipation."
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Beautifully written book about the greatest campaign in the civil war led by the greatest American to ever grave this planet, Ulysses S. Grant.

The civil war's greatest campaign

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The author has done a lot of well documented research and has particularly done specific research regarding Vicksburg. The book has a great account of the civil war battle and is very compelling.

Very good

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