Jackson expedition

Not to be confused with Battle of Jackson, Mississippi or Jackson's Valley campaign.

Jackson expedition
Part of the American Civil War

Siege of Jackson, Mississippi, July 10–16, 1863
DateJuly 5–25, 1863
(2 weeks and 6 days)
Location
Near Jackson, Mississippi
Result Union victory
Belligerents
 United States (Union)  Confederate States
Commanders and leaders
United States William Tecumseh Sherman Confederate States of America Joseph E. Johnston
Strength
40,000[1] 30,000[1]
Casualties and losses
129 killed
762 wounded
231 missing[2][3][4]		 71 killed
504 wounded
25 missing[2][3][4]

The Jackson expedition, preceding and related to the siege of Jackson[5] immediately followed the Confederate surrender of Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 4, 1863 to Union Army Major General Ulysses S. Grant commanding the Union Army of the Tennessee. The Confederate Army of Mississippi at Vicksburg, under the command of Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton, had been isolated in the Vicksburg defenses by Grant's forces since May 18, 1863. The Confederates were under constant artillery bombardment, had to fight off a series of Union Army attacks and could not receive supplies of food and ammunition during the siege.[6]

On May 14, in line with Grant's plan to eliminate other Confederate forces in the area before marching on Vicksburg, a Union force of two corps under Major General William T. Sherman and Major General James B. McPherson drove the Confederates out of Jackson, Mississippi northward toward Canton, Mississippi,[7] about 25 miles away. After this brief Battle of Jackson, Mississippi, McPherson's corps left immediately to rejoin Grant's force while Sherman's corps remained for another day to damage or destroy fortifications, railroad facilities and buildings and supplies of military value.

Johnston returned to Jackson on May 20. Although reinforcements were already arriving, he thought he needed time to receive more reinforcements before attempting to relieve Vicksburg. He tried unsuccessfully to convince Pemberton to abandon Vicksburg and to combine with his force to confront the Union Army while they had similar numbers of men. Johnston's delayed and cautious effort to relieve Pemberton's forces at Vicksburg in the final days of the siege was too late to attempt to lift the siege. Johnston already had concluded that his force was too small to try to relieve Pemberton's army without also being trapped by the Union Army.

When the siege of Vicksburg ended, Johnston's relief force, called by him the “Army of Relief”,[8] was at the Big Black River near Vicksburg. Grant was concerned about a possible attack by Johnston's force against his army and a Confederate attempt to retake Vicksburg. Before Johnston brought his army close to Vicksburg, at Grant's order, Sherman had already deployed the recently arrived IX Corps under Major General John G. Parke and other assigned divisions in an exterior line to defend against attack from outside Vicksburg by another Confederate force. On July 4, the date of the Vicksburg surrender, Grant ordered Sherman to lead an expedition to clear Johnston's forces from the Vicksburg area and to recapture the state capital and railroad center at Jackson. Sherman's corps combined with all or part of three other corps pushed Johnston's force back to Jackson by July 10 under grueling summer conditions. After a few engagements during a brief siege of Jackson, on July 16, Johnston's concern about being trapped and having to surrender his army, caused him to abandoned the city. Jackson's military and commercial facilities then were further destroyed by the Union forces. This Union victory helped ensure that Vicksburg, the Mississippi River and Jackson, would remain in the Union's possession for the rest of the war.

  1. ^ a b Korn, Jerry, and the Editors of Time-Life Books. War on the Mississippi: Grant's Vicksburg Campaign. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1985. ISBN 0-8094-4744-4. p. 156.
  2. ^ a b Dyer, Frederick H. A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion Des Moines, IA: The Dyer Publishing Company, 1908. p. 782.
  3. ^ a b Woodrick, Jim. The Civil War Siege of Jackson, Mississippi. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2016. ISBN 978-1-62619-729-9. p. 103.
  4. ^ a b Ballard, Michael B. The Civil War in Mississippi: Major Campaigns and Battles. Jackson, MS: University of Mississippi Press, 2011. ISBN 978-1-62846-170-1. p. 171.
  5. ^ The engagement is occasionally also referred to as the Second Battle of Jackson, Mississippi. Ballard, 2004, p. 396.
  6. ^ Symonds, Craig L. Joseph E. Johnston: A Civil War Biography. New York: W. W. Norton, 1992. ISBN 978-0-393-31130-3. p. 211.
  7. ^ Symonds, 1992, p. 208.
  8. ^ Shea, William L. and Terrence J. Winschel. Vicksburg is the Key: The Struggle for the Mississippi River. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2003. ISBN 978-0-8032-9344-1. p. 167.