Control Of The River

Control Of The River. Stop 1 Van Dorn Raid:. On October 14, 1862, Confederate Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton became commander of the Department of the Mississippi and East Louisiana, and two days later Union Major General Ulysses S. Grant assumed command of the Department of the Tennessee. Union forces had already seized control of the Mississippi River south from Cairo, Illinois, to the Confederate fortifications at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and north from the Gulf of Mexico to the Confederate fortress at Port Hudson, Louisiana, just above Baton Rouge. Only a 250-mile stretch of water between Vicksburg and Port Hudson prevented total Union control of the Mississippi River. Therefore, Grant set his sights on Vicksburg., In early November Grant decided to outflank Vicksburg by moving his army down the Mississippi Central Railroad toward the state capital at Jackson. He established his headquarters in Holly Springs on November 29. By December 4, Grant was 30 miles south in Oxford, while his forward supply depot remained at Holly Springs. Grant and Major General William T. Sherman met in Oxford on December 8, and, in a change of plans, initiated a two-pronged approach to capture Vicksburg. Sherman went back to Memphis to conduct a waterborne thrust down the Mississippi River, while Grant continued to march south down the railroad to keep Pemberton's Confederates in place. Pemberton, meanwhile, dug in along the Yalobusha River just north of Grenada to oppose Grant's advance down the railroad., Donated to the people of the United States by Mr. James W. Davis of Flushing, New York., (captions) , Area of Operations , Downtown Holly Springs