by Gray M. Gildner (Author)
The Chickasaw Bayou Campaign from December 1862 to January 1863 was the first major effort by Union forces to seize the city of Vicksburg. Major General Ulysses S. Grant sent an amphibious force under Major General William T. Sherman from Memphis, Tennessee, while the remainder of Grant's forces pinned the Confederate army under Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton in north central Mississippi. The complete failure of the campaign and the magnitude of the subsequent Union triumphs have so overshadowed the event that military and Civil War historians have taken little notice of it. However, the clearly defined strategic, operational, and tactical characteristics of the campaign mark it as an excellent source for military study by all those interested in civil war history.