Civil War In Mississippi

When growing political tension forced the smoldering issue between union and secession into open conflict, Mississippi left the Union on a split decision. The older families in the State, hesitant to trust their wealth to a fledgling government, were joined in their support of the Union by the poorer class, who feared the possibility of war. It was the ambitious middle class who pushed for separation from the Union, and through brilliant oratorical campaigns and their sheer number, they swept the others with them into secession. At an emotional meeting of the state convention on January 9, 1861, Mississippi became the second southern state to secede from the Union on an 84-15 vote.

On January 21, Jefferson Davis resigned his seat in the United States Senate, and on February 9, was elected President of the Confederate States of America. The election of a Mississippian to the Confederacy's highest office drew the State particularly close to the new government, and with the capture of Fort Sumter, any lingering doubts were lost in the roar of cannon fire.

The people of the North dubbed the Civil War "The War of the Rebellion," while Southerners referred to the conflict as "The War for Southern Independence."

Slavery may have taken center stage as the catalyst issue, but the average soldier was neither slaveholder nor abolitionist. "Billy Yank" fought to preserve the Union; "Johnny Reb" to ensure states' rights. The Civil War was not an action of conquest, but a conflict of principles. Union or Confederate, the volunteers who marched into battle in 1861 believed their cause was just.

During the first year of the Civil War thousands of Mississippi volunteers fought in the Army of Northern Virginia, but there was no combat on Mississippi soil with the exception of the Union occupation of Fort Massachusetts on Ship Island.

The majority of the War's opening year was spent training volunteers and gathering supplies. The first military invasion of Mississippi came in April of 1862, after the fierce and bloody Battle of Shiloh raged near the Mississippi-Tennessee state line. The Union victory at Shiloh forced the Confederates to retreat into Mississippi, and the northeastern section of the state was rendered a battleground for the remainder of the War.

Hard fighting took place at Corinth and Iuka before General Ulysses S. Grant, commanding a Union army, began his first attempt to capture Vicksburg and gain control of the Mississippi River by marching southward through north Mississippi. Defeats at Coffeeville and Holly Springs, as well as Sherman's failure to carry the Confederate positions at Chickasaw Bayou in the Yazoo River above Vicksburg, forced Grant to try other approaches. These included the construction of Grant's Canal, an attempt to divert the Mississippi away from Vicksburg; and the Bayou campaign, an attempt to come at Vicksburg through the rivers and bayous of the Mississippi Delta. Both failed. Grant then decided to make another approach to the bluff city - an attempt known to history as the Vicksburg Campaign.

The Campaign for Vicksburg is considered by many historians to be the most ingenious military action in American history, with the prolonged quest for the city transforming central Mississippi into a bloody battleground. From Bruinsburg Grant launched his relentless march toward the "Gibraltar of the Confederacy," carving a triangular arena of destruction The Union forces moved northeast toward Jackson, capturing Port Gibson and Raymond en route to the capital city and scattering Confederate forces encountered along the way. With the Stars and Stripes reinstated over the Capitol's dome, the Union troops fought their way west, and after a major battle at Champion Hill, forced the Confederates defending the path to Vicksburg back inside the fortified city. When attempts to take the city by force failed, Grant laid siege to Vicksburg.

Cut off from the rest of the Confederacy and without food, water or medical supplies, the city was forced to surrender on July 4, 1863. The Union victory at Vicksburg, and the subsequent surrender of Port Hudson in Louisiana, gave the Federals control of the Mississippi River, and coupled with the Union victory at Gettysburg, crushed the hopes of the dying Confederacy.

After the city's fall, the greatest portion of Confederate forces remaining in Mississippi were transferred to other states. General Nathan Bedford Forrest's outnumbered Confederate horsemen enjoyed a victory at Brice's Cross Roads in June of 1864, but the War was drawing to its inevitable close, and the triumph was a hollow one.

Contraband Camps were established throughout Mississippi after the Emancipation Proclamation, in areas that were under Federal military control. The most notable of these sites were near Corinth, Vicksburg, Natchez and the Gulf Coast.

On May 4, 1865, less than one month after Lee and Grant met at the Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia, the Mississippi forces surrendered. Four terrible years of battle and bloodshed had come to an end, and the soldiers and citizens of Mississippi looked toward peace. Of the 80,000 soldiers Mississippi contributed to the Confederate cause, fewer than 20,000 were accounted for at the War's end.

A reverence for valor and heroic deeds saw Mississippians through the difficult years of Reconstruction following the southern surrender. Glorification of the War was not limited to the South. The Civil War was elevated to an epic degree, with the virtue of defending heartfelt beliefs overshadowing the death and destruction wreaked by the conflict. Soldiers who fought under both flags came to view the Civil War as the baptism of fire that made America an indivisible whole - an inevitable clash that rendered the United States a nation in reality as well as in name.

"It is all the better that the War was fought, even though our cause went down in defeat," a Confederate veteran remarked years later. "The struggle left a heritage of brave deeds, of fidelity to country and home and fireside for the whole American nation, North and South, to cherish."

Veterans from both sides felt an obligation to preserve the memory of those turbulent years, and as a result of their joint efforts a number of important battle sites, including what is now the Vicksburg National Military Park, were purchased for preservation.

Today the fields are tranquil and the guns silent, but an aura of timelessness dominates the landscape. Moss-covered cannons stand eternally ready to fire, granite horses dash forever into combat, and carefully preserved battle sites testify to the tragedy of a nation torn apart. Glorious triumphs and heartbreaking defeats are captured in stone and bronze, withstanding the touch of time to share their stories with future generations. Monuments, honoring long-ago heroes, remind visitors that this ground is hallowed, populated, by restless spirits clad in blue and gray.

The haunting battlefields and epic landmarks of Mississippi commemorate the valor and heroism of soldiers from both the North and South, whose unwavering courage and loyalty to their beliefs touch the heart of the American Nation.