Vicksburg

Confederate Forces

The Confederate Departmental System

• The Confederacy had a vast amount of territory that needed to be somehow organized militarily– But the South’s strong adherence to the principle of states’ rights

impeded efforts of form an efficient, centralized command system

• The result was a departmental organization of regional commands– Divided the Confederacy up based on geography

• Most operational decisions were left to the departmental commanders, theoretically allowing the Confederate government to focus on only the most important strategic decisions

• The reality was that departmental commanders tended to operate in isolation from each other with only limited unity of effort

Confederate Forces: Army

• John Pemberton– Five divisions totaling 43,000 effectives

• Pemberton fell under Joe Johnston’s Department of the West– But Pemberton was allowed to report directly to Richmond,

bypassing Johnston

• The Trans-Mississippi Department was commanded by Edmund Kirby Smith– The geographically based Confederate departmental system

would often inhibit unity of effort among commands

John Pemberton

• Promoted to brigadier general on 17 June 1861.

• In February, 1862, Pemberton was appointed major general in command of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

• Six months later he was made lieutenant general and given command over Mississippi and Tennessee.

                                                                                                                                                          

John Pemberton

• Honest and dedicated, but ill-suited for the leadership demands of Vicksburg– Served under William Worth, an inflexible and

irascible commander, in Mexico– Previous Civil War service had focused on

fortifications and batteries to defend against naval attack

– Virtually no experience in leading an army in the field

– An example of the “Peter Principle”

John Pemberton

• Personal disadvantages– A northerner (born in Pennsylvania) whose

association with the South was by marriage• Caused suspicion

• Lacked the appropriate personality– “Wanting in polish he was too positive and

domineering in manner to suit the sensitive and polite people among who he had been thrown.” (Alfred Roman)

– “A poor jerk”

John Pemberton

• Unpopular– Many brother officers were

jealous of his rapid rise in rank

– Doesn’t have a close lieutenant like Grant has in Sherman

– Largely vilified throughout the South after the loss of Vicksburg

• Reduced in rank to lieutenant colonel, but proved his loyalty to the South by continuing to serve in backwater assignments in various locations

Trans-Mississippi Department

• Edmund Kirby Smith commanded the Trans-Mississippi Department from Mar 1863 to Apr 1865

• Pemberton told him, “You can contribute materially to the defense of Vicksburg and the navigation of the Mississippi River by a movement upon the line of communications of the enemy on the western side of the river....To break this would render a most important service.”– The Confederate departmental system would

hamstring any such cooperation.• The loss of Vicksburg would isolate Smith’s

command and the Trans-Mississippi Confederacy would become known as “Kirby Smithdom”

Unity of Effort

• Pemberton was responsible for one side of the Federal high-speed avenue of approach (the Mississippi) and Smith was responsible for the other

• Violates unity of effort • “Each enemy avenue

of approach is assigned to only one subordinate unit.”– FM 3-21.21

Joseph Johnston

• One of the Confederacy’s senior generals– Precedes Lee as commander of the Army of

Northern Virginia• Became commander of the Department of the

West in Nov 1862– Considers the department too large for

coordinated movements– Upset that his two immediate subordinates

(Pemberton and Bragg) have direct access to Richmond

• Doesn’t get along well with Davis– Personality conflict as well as strategic

disagreement over the significance of the western theater

• Has a propensity for defensive warfare• “Joe Johnston was not in a positive frame of

mind as the Vicksburg campaign developed.”– Michael Ballard, Vicksburg, NPS, p. 13

Jefferson Davis• West Point class of 1828, hero of

the battle of Buena Vista in Mexico, excellent Secretary of War under Franklin Pierce– Appears to have all the qualities

necessary to be a great commander-in-chief

– Perhaps because of overconfidence stemming from these superior qualifications, Davis micromanages and does not effectively use his staff in directing the war effort

• Poor relationship with Johnston and direct line of communication to Pemberton will result in his giving orders to Pemberton that conflict with Johnston’s guidance to Pemberton

Confederate Secretaries of War

Leroy Pope Walker 1861Judah Benjamin 1861-1862George Randolph 1862Gustavus Smith 1862 (acting)James Seddon 1862-1865John Breckinridge 1865

Davis went through six secretaries of war

John Bowen

• West Point class of 1853• Pemberton’s best combat general

– “Had Pemberton had a few more Bowens to send into the field, the Vicksburg campaign might have turned out differently.”

• Michael Ballard, Vicksburg, NPS, p. 11

• Wounded at Shiloh• Fought a rear-guard action that

saved Van Dorn’s army at Corinth– Later brought charges against Van

Dorn who was eventually cleared by court-martial

• Little patience with incompetent subordinates or superiors

William Loring

• Lost his arm in Mexico• Commands a division in the Vicksburg

Campaign• Has a history of disputes with his

superiors– Argument with Stonewall Jackson over

troop placements in Romney, Va in 1862• Defense of Fort Pemberton repels

Grant’s Yazoo Pass expedition in May 1863– Requests reinforcements which

Pemberton doesn’t have to give and isn’t sure Loring could effectively use anyway

– Leads to an open rift between the two, especially on Loring’s part

Lloyd Tilghman

• West Point class of 1836 but very limited military experience

• Surrenders Fort Henry which leads to the fall of Fort Donelson in 1862

• Once a friend of Pemberton’s, but the two have a falling out over an incident involving unauthorized destruction of army property– Tilghman is arrested and later

cleared, but the tensions between the two remain

• Will be killed covering the Confederate withdrawal at Champion Hill

John Gregg

• Commands a brigade at Vicksburg

• Background in law, politics, and journalism– Lack of military training

will manifest itself at Raymond when he grossly underestimates McPherson’s strength

Earl Van Dorn

• West Point class of 1842• Veteran of Mexico and Seminole

fighting• Defeated as an independent

commander at Pea Ridge and Corinth

• Finds his calling as Pemberton’s cavalry commander

• Dec 1862 raid against Grant’s Holly Springs depot will cause Grant to restructure his campaign in order to minimize his logistical vulnerability

Nathan Bedford Forrest

• Self-made millionaire• No formal military education but

an instinctive tactical genius– “Get there first with the most”

• Refuses to surrender at Fort Donelson and leads 4,000 Confederates to escape

• His raid against Jackson, TN will combine with Van Dorn’s raid against Holly Springs to seriously disrupt Grant’s logistics

Confederate Forces: Navy

• By 1863 the Confederate “River Defense Fleet” had been virtually destroyed in fighting below New Orleans and above Memphis– Only five of twenty-five gunboats survived into 1863,

mostly by hiding upstream in such tributaries as the Red, Arkansas, White, and Yazoo Rivers

– The last ironclad, The Arkansas, was scuttled by own crew in August 1862 after her steam engines failed

• Thus, at the time of the Vicksburg campaign, there were no Confederate ironclads and only a handful of gunboats on the western rivers

Confederate Forces: Navy• The greatest potential threat to the U.S. Navy during the

Vicksburg campaign was from its own vessels falling into Confederate hands– In February 1863, the ram Queen of the West and the ironclad

Indianola ran downstream past the Vicksburg batteries– Confederates captured the Queen of the West when she ran

aground and then used her to disable the Indianola– The Queen of the West was later destroyed in action on the

Atchafalaya River

Confederate Forces: Navy

• The Confederates scuttled the Indianola in February when a Union “monitor” ran the Vicksburg batteries, as if on its way to recapture the Indianola – This “monitor” was in fact

an unmanned, unpowered barge rigged out to resemble an ironclad

Confederate Forces: Counter-riverine

• In the absence of a navy of their own, the Confederates made skillful use of mine torpedoes and shore-based snipers to harass the Federal Navy– Some 40 Federal

vessels were hit by mines

Next

• Joint Operations