Download or read book Confederate Defense Of Vicksburg A Case Study Of The Principle Of The Offensive In The Defense written by Major Robert Timothy Howard and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2014-08-15 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study concerns an analysis of the Confederate defense of Vicksburg with respect to one of the nine principles of war, the principle of the offensive. The loss of Vicksburg in the American Civil War was a mortal blow to the Confederacy in that it split the south in two and resulted in the opening of the Mississippi River to the Union forces. During the Campaign for Vicksburg General Grant, leading a Union army engaged General Pemberton, commanding a Confederate army, and proceeded to win one of the most brilliant military successes in history. A distinct contrast in aggressiveness appeared to exist between Grant and Pemberton during this campaign; because once Grant landed his army in Confederate territory, he retained the initiative and kept Pemberton at his mercy. Pemberton was unable to overcome the difficulties he experienced and received little help from outside his command. Finally, because of despair among his men, he surrendered Vicksburg to the Union on July 4, 1863...Certain "actions" that can be taken by a commander relative to the principle of the offensive in the defense and certain "factors" which may prevent his taking these actions are identified and employed in the analysis. Among the more important conclusions of the thesis are: 1.) The Confederate commander at Vicksburg applied the principle of the offensive against Grant’s initial probes into Mississippi and against Federal cavalry raids into Vicksburg area. 2.) The Confederate commander at Vicksburg did not apply the principle of the offensive against Grant’s army during the final Union thrust for Vicksburg (May 1 to July 4, 1863). Several of General Pemberton’s subordinate commanders, however, did apply the principle during this same period. 3.) The primary reasons for Pemberton’s failures with respect to the application of the principle of the offensive were his lack of intelligence resulting from his lack of cavalry and interference with his command decisions from higher authority.
Download or read book The Confederate Defense of Vicksburg written by U S Army Command and General Staff Coll and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2015-04-18 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study concerns an analysis of the Confederate defense of Vicksburg with respect to one of the nine principles of war, the principle of the offensive. The problem in the study was to determine if Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton ever applied tho principle of the offensive during his defense of Vicksburg and to determine why he failed to gain any freedom of action during the Vicksburg Campaign. The important conclusions are: 1. Pemberton applied the principle prior to May 1, 1863. 2. He did not apply the principle during the final Union thrust for Vicksburg, mainly because of the lack of cavalry and of intelligence.
Download or read book The Operational Level of War written by and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Shiloh A Case Study In Surprise written by Major William J. McCaffrey and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 79 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The commander must remain ever vigilant against surprise, for attacks born of the unexpected have the potential to alter quickly and irreversibly the relative combat power of opposing forces. A commander is better prepared to meet this threat when he is familiar with those factors which have contributed to surprise during past conflicts. This thesis investigates the surprise phenomenon through a case study of the battle at Shiloh Church. General Ulysses S. Grant, during the American Civil War, bivouacked his army near Shiloh Church on the Tennessee River’s west bank while he awaited General Don Carlos Buell and the Army of the Ohio. On Buell’s arrival the combined armies were to attack Corinth, Mississippi, where the Confederate forces under General Albert Sidney Johnston were known to be entrenched. Realizing the combined strength of the two Union armies would eventually prove overwhelming, Johnston decided to attack Grant’s position before Buell could reinforce. He therefore attacked early Sunday morning, 6 April 1862. Apparently unaware that an attack was imminent, Grant had encamped his army with little regard for defense. The Confederates enjoyed success and forced the Union army against the Tennessee River. However, Buell reinforced Grant that evening, and on the following day the Union armies counterattacked and drove the Confederates back toward Corinth. Thus, the battle ended on a rather indecisive note. Among the more important conclusions of the thesis are: 1. Although the Union forces below division level anticipated the Confederate attack. Grant and his command echelon were completely surprised. 2. Surprise was achieved because the Union had violated several principles of war, chiefly: objective, offensive, maneuver, unity of command, and security. 3. The Confederates were not without fault, for, had certain mistakes been avoided, their army might have won a total victory.
Download or read book Military Review written by and published by . This book was released on 1972 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Quarterly Review of Military Literature written by and published by . This book was released on 1972 with total page 758 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Professional Journal of the United States Army written by and published by . This book was released on 1972-07 with total page 760 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Staff Ride Handbook For The Vicksburg Campaign December 1862 July 1863 Illustrated Edition written by Dr. Christopher Gabel and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes over 30 maps and Illustrations The Staff Ride Handbook for the Vicksburg Campaign, December 1862-July 1863, provides a systematic approach to the analysis of this key Civil War campaign. Part I describes the organization of the Union and Confederate Armies, detailing their weapons, tactics, and logistical, engineer, communications, and medical support. It also includes a description of the U.S. Navy elements that featured so prominently in the campaign. Part II consists of a campaign overview that establishes the context for the individual actions to be studied in the field. Part III consists of a suggested itinerary of sites to visit in order to obtain a concrete view of the campaign in its several phases. For each site, or “stand,” there is a set of travel directions, a discussion of the action that occurred there, and vignettes by participants in the campaign that further explain the action and which also allow the student to sense the human “face of battle.” Part IV provides practical information on conducting a Staff Ride in the Vicksburg area, including sources of assistance and logistical considerations. Appendix A outlines the order of battle for the significant actions in the campaign. Appendix B provides biographical sketches of key participants. Appendix C provides an overview of Medal of Honor conferral in the campaign. An annotated bibliography suggests sources for preliminary study.
Download or read book Record of the Organizations Engaged in the Campaign Siege and Defense of Vicksburg written by John S. Kountz and published by Univ Tennessee Press. This book was released on 2011-10-07 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Large numbers of Civil War veterans remembered and reminisced about their war experiences, but only a relative few dedicated the rest of their lives to the task of commemorating their long-ago deeds. John S. Kountz was one of this latter group. Kountz joined the Thirty-seventh Ohio Infantry in September 1861 as a fifteen-year-old drummer boy and later, under General William T. Sherman, endured the long siege at Vicksburg before helping to win control of the city in July 1863. In 1899 the War Department appointed Kountz as the official historian at the newly designated Vicksburg National Military Park. As part of his duties, he produced two major works, an organizational chronicle of the armies that fought at Vicksburg and an unpublished narrative of the campaign and siege. This welcome volume presents both of these extremely rare documents together for the first time, providing a valuable resource for a new generation of scholars and enthusiasts. Record of the Organizations Engaged in the Campaign, Siege, and Defense of Vicksburg was published in a limited edition by the Government Printing Office in 1901 and offered visitors and historians a detailed examination of the various commands that fought at Vicksburg. The record has long been an essential but hard-to-find source for historians. Kountz’s impressive 116-page campaign overview is rarer still. Because of turnover at the park and Kountz’s death in 1909, the manuscript never saw publication and has, until now, lain buried in the archives at Vicksburg. Offering an unbiased account of both sides of the battle, it delves into the minds of the commanders, examines their decision-making processes, and articulates several opinions that have sparked debate ever since. With a new introduction by noted historian Timothy B. Smith, this significant work makes widely available an important history by a participant in the action and opens a fascinating window into the history of Civil War scholarship.
Download or read book Operational Raids Cavalry In The Vicksburg Campaign 1862 1863 written by Captain Paul C. Jussel and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study is a historical analysis of the cavalry raids led by Confederate Major Generals Earl Van Dorn and Nathan Bedford Forrest in December 1862 and Union Colonel Benjamin Grierson in April 1863. Each raid is examined in detail based on the historical data available and focuses on the operational concerns and considerations of Union and Confederate commanders. Some of the conclusions that can be drawn from this investigation are: the use of cavalry had evolved to large, independent units for separate operations; the operational benefit of cavalry was demonstrated first by the Confederacy, then refined and used by the Federals during the Vicksburg Campaign; the synchronization and orchestration of units from different commands against a common target produced significant benefits; and sufficiently strong units, capable of self-sustainment, can be detached from the main body of an army to operate behind enemy lines to destroy the enemy Infrastructure. The study concludes that operational raids can be a significant economical operation to attack an enemy center of gravity without using the bulk of the army. The historical examples from the Vicksburg Campaign can be compared to today’s force structure to show that capability is limited for the modem commander.
Download or read book Engineering Victory written by Justin S. Solonick and published by SIU Press. This book was released on 2015-04-07 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On May 25, 1863, after driving the Confederate army into defensive lines surrounding Vicksburg, Mississippi, Union major general Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee laid siege to the fortress city. With no reinforcements and dwindling supplies, the Army of Vicksburg finally surrendered on July 4, yielding command of the Mississippi River to Union forces and effectively severing the Confederacy. In this illuminating volume, Justin S. Solonick offers the first detailed study of how Grant’s midwesterners serving in the Army of the Tennessee engineered the siege of Vicksburg, placing the event within the broader context of U.S. and European military history and nineteenth-century applied science in trench warfare and field fortifications. In doing so, he shatters the Lost Cause myth that Vicksburg’s Confederate garrison surrendered due to lack of provisions. Instead of being starved out, Solonick explains, the Confederates were dug out. After opening with a sophisticated examination of nineteenth-century military engineering and the history of siege craft, Solonick discusses the stages of the Vicksburg siege and the implements and tactics Grant’s soldiers used to achieve victory. As Solonick shows, though Grant lacked sufficient professional engineers to organize a traditional siege—an offensive tactic characterized by cutting the enemy’s communication lines and digging forward-moving approach trenches—the few engineers available, when possible, gave Union troops a crash course in military engineering. Ingenious midwestern soldiers, in turn, creatively applied engineering maxims to the situation at Vicksburg, demonstrating a remarkable ability to adapt in the face of adversity. When instruction and oversight were not possible, the common soldiers improvised. Solonick concludes with a description of the surrender of Vicksburg, an analysis of the siege’s effect on the outcome of the Civil War, and a discussion of its significance in western military history. Solonick’s study of the Vicksburg siege focuses on how the American Civil War was a transitional one with its own distinct nature, not the last Napoleonic war or the herald of modern warfare. At Vicksburg, he reveals, a melding of traditional siege craft with the soldiers’ own inventiveness resulted in Union victory during the largest, most successful siege in American history.
Download or read book Vicksburg Besieged written by Steven E. Woodworth and published by SIU Press. This book was released on 2020-06-11 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A detailed analysis of the end of the Vicksburg Campaign and the forty-day siege Vicksburg, Mississippi, held strong through a bitter, hard-fought, months-long Civil War campaign, but General Ulysses S. Grant’s forty-day siege ended the stalemate and, on July 4, 1863, destroyed Confederate control of the Mississippi River. In the first anthology to examine the Vicksburg Campaign’s final phase, nine prominent historians and emerging scholars provide in-depth analysis of previously unexamined aspects of the historic siege. Ranging in scope from military to social history, the contributors’ invitingly written essays examine the role of Grant’s staff, the critical contributions of African American troops to the Union Army of the Tennessee, both sides’ use of sharpshooters and soldiers’ opinions about them, unusual nighttime activities between the Union siege lines and Confederate defensive positions, the use of West Point siege theory and the ingenuity of Midwestern soldiers in mining tunnels under the city’s defenses, the horrific experiences of civilians trapped in Vicksburg, the failure of Louisiana soldiers’ defense at the subsequent siege of Jackson, and the effect of the campaign on Confederate soldiers from the Trans-Mississippi region. The contributors explore how the Confederate Army of Mississippi and residents of Vicksburg faced food and supply shortages as well as constant danger from Union cannons and sharpshooters. Rebel troops under the leadership of General John C. Pemberton sought to stave off the Union soldiers, and though their morale plummeted, the besieged soldiers held their ground until starvation set in. Their surrender meant that Grant’s forces succeeded in splitting in half the Confederate States of America. Editors Steven E. Woodworth and Charles D. Grear, along with their contributors—Andrew S. Bledsoe, John J. Gaines, Martin J. Hershock, Richard H. Holloway, Justin S. Solonick, Scott L. Stabler, and Jonathan M. Steplyk—give a rare glimpse into the often overlooked operations at the end of the most important campaign of the Civil War.
Download or read book Government Reports Index written by and published by . This book was released on 1972 with total page 1164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Government Reports Annual Index written by and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 1368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Government Reports Announcements written by and published by . This book was released on 1972 with total page 902 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Government Reports Announcements Index written by and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 684 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Siege of Vicksburg written by Richard Wheeler and published by Thomas Y. Crowell. This book was released on 1978 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
