His book on the raid comes out, it is now out and you can buy a copy of it at our bookstore. Im pleased to introduce dr. Timothy smith. Thank you, i appreciate the chance to be here. I have always heard about pamplin park, and it is great here. Were going to talk about the western theater today. Vicksburg, how many of you have been to vicksburg. She o he is one of the great battlefields, listening to the civil war American Trust now, you know theyre doing a lot of work down there. They turned over nearly several hundred acres. So there is a lot going down at Champion Hill. So were going to talk about that battle in particular, the larger Vicksburg Campaign. And i do not have a power point either. Im a little old fashioned. We have a map of Champion Hill which we will talk about in just a little bit. I tend to go overboard when i go into power points and i confuse everybody, so to keep from doing that, i dont do powerpoints when i can help it. And im beginning to realize that powerpoints can be useful. You see some that are very good and they can help you along a little bit. I had a good lesson in this recently. My 12yearold has been after us to get her a puppy. She wanted a puppy, a border collie. No no, we dont need another dog. She made a powerpoint p presentation to convince us why we need a puppy. Of course now were the proud new owners of bingo the border collie. So power point presentations do work and i use them on occasion. But not today. Lets talk about vicksburg though. Little battles and big results. Obviously compared to gettysburg. Were talking 25 or 35,000 troops on this side. On the high end of a little battle if you want to call it a little battle, but it is huge results. Im not going to stay here and argue to you, some historians get into their topics too much. And they argue that the battle was won and lost. Im not going to argue where the north won the war or the south won the war, but it will defend in that case on what you think of vicksburg. Im guessing up here in the army of Northern Virginia. And the war was won and lost. And im thoroughly convinced that the civil war was lost in the west. Gutted, they were absolutely gutted while youre just a stalemate up here. Getting some feed back on that. Were not here to argue where the war was won and lost. Im not going to argue to you that Champion Hill was the and important is how much emphasis you put on the importance of vicksburg. What i will argue is that Champion Hill is the desightive point in the Vicksburg Campaign. If you think that they are the turning point, or where the confederacy is ripped open. You will probably put Champion Hill in a higher level or a category than gettgettysburg. It is the largest battle in the campai campaign. And in terms of narrowing down to Champion Hill itself. Im not going into major tactical they could get lost in the weeds and there is a good book about it if youre interested in it. Were going to keep it simple today. I want to give background and lead to Champion Hill. Just a quick overview and looking at basically the three levels of war in terms of the u. S. Army today. Anyone veterans of the u. S. Military . The army is made up of enlisted men. I mentioned officers, though, in terms of officer education and staff rides and all of that, we, one of my duties were to see to the staff rides and the military groups and so on, and i would have all kinds back 20 years ago. And i would have all kinds of groups come in, the 121st airborne would parachute in. This was right in the iraq war, and most of these guys coming in were on the way or just getting in, theyre trained in the Different Levels of war. In civil wartimes you had two levels. Today the modern military force is in the operational level of war, which they they dont know much about any level of war. But they dont know about that operation, but i want to start at the strategic level, and looking at the campaign, moving down the Mississippi River, the final, if you will, tag along, and the final this is a two progressed campaign. And im becoming more and more convinced of this. The first essential effort is to get to vicksburg. Then the second major strategic large scale effort, the plan that was the anaconda plan and all of that, the second major effort in that larger strategic area is to take vicksburg. First you have to get to vicksburg which is extremely difficult due to the delta. Due to the logistic kal chablgs and distance to the south. The only good way to get to vicksburg and approach vicksburg is from the east. And that is from confederate held territory and that is what grant took as we moved down to the operational level of it takes grant six or seven months to get to vicksburg, then you have to take vicksburg. Of course, there are two assaults involved in that and then the famous siege that we all know about. Just getting to vicksburg is one major component of the strategic level of the campaign. And then taking vicksburg. This is why if you look at the rhetoric in some of the writings of the Vicksburg Campaign, you will see they divide this into two different operations. For instance, when grant and sherman finally reach the high ground east of vicksburg, and sherman looks across the river valley there where he had attacked in december, this is like mid may, may 17th, 18th. Sherman tells them, this has been a successful campaign. Almost to say this part of the campaign is over. This has been an successful campaign. You are entitled to all the glory. I didnt want to do it. I wanted to do it a different way, but you are entitled to the glory for this and you should make a report to washington because even if we dont take vicksburg, this has been a successful campaign. This has been a successful effort. So the first part is getting vicksburg, then you have got to take vicsburg. Then Champion Hill have to watch my time here. I fully realize im the only thing standing between you and lunch. Champion hill will be the larger process of getting to vicksburg, adding to a place where you can take the city. As we move down the operational level of the war, within the process of the first effort, getting to vicksburg, thats when we get into these major six efforts in this Operational Campaign level movement. Grant first starts southward from tennessee down to mississippi, central railroad, through polysprings, oxford, down close to the river, water valley mississippi. He is turned back, of course, by those confederate cavalry raids. One famous raid that tears up grants forward supply base. Probably the more important raid is by Nathan Bedford forest in tennessee, where he breaks the railroad. That shuts down grants ability to bring new supplies in. You tear up his forward supply base and any possibility of getting new supplies in, and grant gets stalled and he turned back. He later says i should have learned that i can live off the land and i will file that in file 13 and use that later on. But he will withdraw at that point. So that doesnt work. Thats the first effort. Then grant will send sherman as part of a twopronged movement in november and december of 1862 down to chickasaw, where sherman says i landed, i was defeated and i got back on the boat and took off. Those first two efforts to even get to vicksburg did not work. By that time, around 1863, everything is wet and sloppy and muddy. All of the creeks have risen. They are full of water. Grant doesnt have much of a choice of what to do next, so he starts waterborne operations. He tries to dig a canal, a third attempt to bypass vicksburg, or get around vicksburg. Canal around. That doesnt work. He tries to go around Lake Providence. That doesnt work. The yazoo pass expedition, moving through moon lake and the coldwater river, into the tal a talahatchie river, that operation six major attempts over the course of the doesnt work. First six months of the Vicksburg Campaign all fail. The operational level of war. What does succeed is grants seventh attempt, but this time he is out of options. It is late march, april, into may 1863. You cant turn around and go back. Sherman is saying lets go back to memphis, go down the railroad like we should have to begin with, like we tried to in the mississippi central campaign. Sure, we got turned back, but lets try that again and actually move forward this time. Thats the way you should do it, by the book. Thats the way that Henry Halleck is saying to do it, by the book. Of course, halleck wrote the book in 1830, 1849, Something Like that. Halleck is saying do it by the book. You have got a secure line of everybody has the two major napoleonic theories, its been translated into english and these guys are studying that at west point. That is supply lines, maneuver, pure halleck, sherman. Grant doesnt know anything about it, but as i like to say, you know barbara mandrel, she was country when country wasnt cool. Right . Grant is going to go after the enemy, fight the battles. Who cares about the supply lines . We are going to move forward, fight the enemy and get there. The evidence of that well see as we move forward. He is on pretty thin ice in terms of newspaper editors talking about how drunk he is all the time. Politicians, even lincoln, theyre calling on lincoln to get rid of grant. We know his statement, of course, i cant spare this man. He fights. Still, theyre calling for his removal. Lincoln says, i think ill try him just a little while longer, but the rope is getting pretty short. The leash is getting pretty short for grant. He has got to do something. He cant go back, as far forward toward vicksburg as he can get and none of these different approaches are working, to the west, to the north, to any other direction. What is grant going to do . This seventh attempt this operational level attempt, will he move down the west side of the Mississippi River, cross south of vicksburg and come up in the rear on the east. There are plenty of problems with that, obviously. Lengthening supply lines, confederates who come out of the fortress and vicksburg and fight you, without supplies and so on, that could be very problematic, distance involved. There are a lot of problems with this. Certainly not doing it by the book. This is breaking every rule in the book. And i love what grant said later on. Hes talking to newspaper editors, talking about the Vicksburg Campaign. He knows that this will not be received very fondly in washington by halleck, stanton and others. Once he crosses the river, gets into mississippi and he starts towarding the days i can see him counting on his fingers. He goes back across the river, up to youngs point, headquarters by boat up to memphis and cairo and by telegraph to washington. It will take how many days to get it then come back, he says i have got about a week. He says you can do a lot in eight days. And so he breaks every rule in the book and he takes off toward vicksburg. And lo and behold, the seventh attempt will succeed. Grant reaches vicksburg. Still got to take it, he reaches vicksburg and thats where we get to the tactical level, we talked about the strategic and operational. We get down to the tactical. Thats where you get into the battles themselves. He first fights, creating a bridgehead if, you will, or a landing point. We mentioned normandy earlier. The battle of ft. Gibson on may 1st will be where he really secures a holding inland. Then hell move northward, fighting the battle of raymond on the 12th, jackson, mississippi, on the 14th. Then he will turn westward toward vicksburg and fight the battle of Champion Hill, the climactic battle, on may 16th. And a followup battle the next day. Moving to the tactical level, we Start Talking about Champion Hill. What has the confederate commander been doing all this time . Between twidling his thumbs and chasing. John pemberton has moved out of vicksburg and made some big blunders already. It is like baseball, youve got a nationals fan here. I was in washington, i dont know, a month or so ago in september and wore my braves shirt and all of that. I have never been harassed like i was in washington in Early September by all the nats fans. You get harassed . Well, it was interesting. I very loudly proclaimed how yeah, its really tough being in first place in the division and all that. But the nats are getting the last laugh now. I am not loudly proclaiming anything anymore. At any rate, where was i going . Why are we talking about baseball . I had the thought, it just zoomed right out of there. At any rate there was a good point to this. I dont know why were doing pemberton. Pemberton, yeah. Pemberton. At any rate, pemberton makes some pretty big blunders here. Thats what it is. You never want to give the opponent an extra out or extra strike or whatever. Pemberton gives grant several extra outs. By errors and walks and all that kind of stuff. He comes out to vicksburg and gets out. He then crosses the Big Black River moving east toward grant, toward jackson. He should have used Big Black River as the shield. To defend vicksburg. Then he moves across the creek, bakers creek. That is Champion Hill battlefield, of course. Either one of those, he could have used to defend on the western side and force grant to move across creeks and rivers, but each time, grant will meet pemberton on the east side of these watersheds, on the east side of these rivers and creeks, which is completely opposite. Pemberton, of course, is breaking every rule in the book as well. Its not working out there for pemberton. We talk about Champion Hill and the tactical action and so on. I am becoming more convinced, i just finished a book on the vicksburg assault and now i am working on the siege, but reading all those letters and diaries, tons of them i would say probably way over the hundreds, probably into the thousands of letters and diaries. I am becoming more convinced that even more than the tactical action at Champion Hill nrkts d hill, in the days of may 16th, 17th, 18th, grants army is reaching a critical stage here in terms of supplies. We all know that grants supply line, he writes in his memoirs two times i cut my supply line. How do you cut your supply line . He gets mixed up there. Supplies landing there moving forward by wagon trips. He has got wagon trains moving forward basically by brigade or division elements of his army. As his reinforcements are coming and crossing the river, he will move forward with division anyway, so send a wagon train with them. These are reaching the army. They are living off the land a good bit, as much as they can. Theyre getting, you know, the geese, chicken, hogs off these farmers plantations. What is one critical component to an army that does not grow on a plantation . Mini balls. You cant pick those off the vine. You have to have ammunition going forward. What i have found in these letters and diaries is that by the time the army moves northward, fight these battles, yeah, ammunition is coming and some food. By the time you start to move westward toward vicksburg from jackson on the 14th, 15th and into the 16th, 17th and surely the 18th, you are slowing down when an army that is large in one area is starting to consume everything. These guys are starting to run out of food. What happens im the last thing between you and lunch. If i get to 12 05, youre going to say, wheres our lunch . These guys are going to were three days without much to eat. That starts affecting your body and it could start affecting their fighting ability and potentially, if pemberton could have failed on the west side, maybe even bakers creek, force grant to slow down even more, take a day or two and fight another battle, could that have potentially been a game changer . We dont know, obviously, but pemberton will meet grant on the east side of each of these water courses. We get into that critical moment. Here we are getting into the battle of Champion Hill on the 16th, 17th and 18th. Champion hill occurs on the 16th. May 16th, moving from jackson westward toward vicksburg. When i first wrote the book 20 years ago well, it came out, i guess, 15 years ago. When i did the book, published it, i thought ill start getting invitations to talk, so ive got to come up with a good talk for Champion Hill. How am i going to do this . I dont know if powerpoint even existed in those days, who knows . I certainly didnt do a powerpoint presentation, but i didnt want to do a bunch of maps, get into the nittygritty of brigades and regiments and divisions and all that. I thought, i will organize the talk around you know, ill come up with three reasons the battle of Champion Hill turned out the way it did. My dad is a minister. We talked about Southern Baptist ministers last night. My dad is a minister. The joke about Southern Baptist ministers in mississippi as you can always tell a baptist sermon because it has got three points and a point. You ever heard of that joke . Three points to the sermon and a poem at the end. Thats a baptist preachers sermon. I thought ill come up with three points. Why did the battle of Champion Hill turn out the way it did . That got blown out of the water because i couldnt come up with three reasons why the battle of Champion Hill turned out the way it did. I thought, surely it has to do with terrain. I am convinced one battle hinges on terrain. Other battles. Missionary ridge is maybe a little bit of a proving the negative. You would think the confederates have the advantage but the federals swoop right over Champion Hill and the adjoining ridges. It turns out terrain is not the deciding factor. Then i thought it was superior numbers, you know, like nash