The Mississippi River, the second longest in the US, played a decisive role in the American Civil War. The Confederate fortifications were put to the test in the lengthy Federal campaign of 1862-63, aimed at cutting off the Rebel states of Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas and creating a blockade of this trade route. Vicksburg was a fortress city, known as the "Gibraltar of the Confederacy"; the initial Federal attack on May 19, 1863 failed to take the city, and a state of siege ensued, which saw the creation of a complex system of trenches, tunnels, mines, and batteries to invest the place. This book examines these and other sites, and the role they played in the war.

Author Biography

Ron Field is Head of History at the Cotswold School in Burton-on-the-Water. He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 1982 and taught history at Piedmont High School in California from 1982 to 1983. He was associate editor of the Confederate Historical Society of Great Britain from 1983 to 1992. He is an internationally acknowledged expert on US military history, and was elected a Fellow of the Company of Military Historians, based in Washington, DC, in 2005.