December 2022

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U.S. Census Bureau History: The 1862–1863 Vicksburg Campaign

On December 29, 1862, Union Army Generals Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman
began the Civil War campaign to capture the Confederate-held city of Vicksburg, MS.
After a series of battles and a 47-day siege of the city, the Confederates surrendered the
strategic city overlooking the Mississippi River on July 4, 1863.

Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

On December 26, 1862, the Union and Confederate armies clashed in the first major battle of a campaign that would determine control of Vicksburg, MS. Strategically located overlooking the Mississippi River, Vicksburg was vital to the Confederacy's ability to protect its western territory and supply its army. Over the next 6 months, the Union Army and Navy forced the Confederate Army of Mississippi to retreat behind the city's defenses where they suffered through a devastating 47-day siege before surrendering to Union general Ulysses S. Grant on July 4, 1863.

The city of Vicksburg, MS, is located on a bend in the Mississippi River between Memphis, TN, and New Orleans, LA. During the American Civil War, it served as a critical supply route and linked Confederate territory in the war's eastern and western theaters. President Abraham Lincoln and Confederate president Jefferson Davis both agreed on the strategic importance of the city. Lincoln told his staff and military leaders that, "Vicksburg is the key! The war can never be brought to a close until that key is in our pocket." Davis stated that, "Vicksburg is the nail head that holds the South's two halves together." The Union Army and Navy "set their sights" on the last remaining southern stronghold on the Mississippi River—Vicksburg, MS—after defeating the Confederates at the battles of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson; a crushing Confederate naval defeat at the First Battle of Memphis; and the peaceful occupation of New Orleans, LA, earlier in 1862. Vicksburg was a formidable target, though. Situated on a steep bluff, Vicksburg's Confederate artillery could wreak havoc on an attack from the Mississippi River forcing the Union Army to plan capturing the fortified city by land.

Union general William T. Sherman launched the Vicksburg Campaign on December 26, 1862, through the swamps northeast of Vicksburg. Although Sherman's Army of Tennessee fielded more than 30,000 troops, Confederate general John C. Pemberton's 14,000-strong Army of Mississippi successfully repulsed Union assaults at the December 26–29 Battle of Chickasaw Bayou in Warren County, MS. General Ulysses S. Grant's simultaneous attack from the north of the city ground to a halt when raids led by Confederate generals Earl Van Dorn and Nathan Bedford Forrest destroyed Union supplies and lines of communication. Failing to take Vicksburg using brute force by land, Grant undertook a series of projects to flood swamps and construct canals hoping Union naval vessels and transports could bypass the Confederates' Mississippi River batteries. The ambitious January–April 1863 bayou operations failed as the water proved too shallow for Union vessels to navigate or the Confederates fouled the water with debris making them impassable.

Unable to capture Vicksburg from the north and west, Grant planned a much bolder strategy to take the city from behind enemy lines to the south and east. On April 16 , 1863, rear admiral David D. Porter led Union gunboats and supply ships south, past the Confederate batteries overlooking the Mississippi River. Porter's flotilla passed through the gauntlet of Confederate fire without losing any men. A second convoy loaded with men and supplies slipped past the city on April 22. From a point 30 miles south of Vicksburg, Grant led the Union Army across the Mississippi River into Confederate territory. As they turned northeast toward Vicksburg, Union and Confederate troops clashed at Raymond, MS. When Grant learned of Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston's anticipated arrival in Jackson, MS, he sent Union generals Sherman and James McPherson to capture the state capital on May 14, 1863.

With Jackson, MS, under Union control, Grant turned his attention to Pemberton's Confederates positioned to the east of Vicksburg. Following battles at Champion Hill on May 16, and Big Black River Bridge on May 17, 1863, in Hinds County, MS, Union troops chased the fleeing Confederates back to Vicksburg. Hoping to capture the city before Pemberton's men could regroup, Grant order unsuccessful assaults against the city's fortifications on May 19 and May 22. Unable to take Vicksburg by force, Grant lay siege to the city. As weeks passed, disease and hunger took their toll on Vickburg's defenders and civilians as Union gunboats bombarded the city day and night from the Mississippi River. Left with an army of exhausted, hungry, and sick men after a 47-day siege, Pemberton surrendered the city to Grant on July 4, 1863.

The Union victory at Vicksburg, followed by the capture of Port Hudson in East Baton Rouge Parish, LA, 5 days later, split the South in half and gave the Union unrestricted control of the Mississippi River. Grant's victory against the Confederate Army of Tennessee at Chattanooga, TN, 4 months later, opened the "Deep South" to Union invasion and signaled the "beginning of the end" for the Confederate States of America.

You can learn more about the Vicksburg Campaign and American Civil War using census data and records. For example:

French colonists settled in the area that became Vicksburg, MS, when they established Fort Saint Pierre in 1719. Following the American Revolution, the region became a territory of the United States. The town that grew along the Mississippi River was named Walnut Hills in 1798, and renamed "Vicksburg" in 1825 after Newitt Vick. Vick was a Methodist missionary who settled in the area in 1814, purchased land, and divided it into city lots before he died in 1819. The population of Vicksburg was first enumerated separately from Warren County, MS, in 1850. That year Vicksburg's population was 3,678. One year before the outbreak of the Civil War, the 1860 Census counted 4,591. In 1870, the city grew to 12,443. Today, Vicksburg is the seat of government and only city in Warren County, MS. In 2020, 21,573 people called this historic city that overlooks the Mississippi River home.
During the Civil War, the nation's 36 states and territories were divided among the Union, Confederate States of America, and border states. According to the 1860 Census, the 20 Union states had a population of approximately 19.2 million. The five border states (Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, and West Virginia) had a population of about 3.5 million; and the 11 Confederate States of America had 8.7 million. Seven of the nation's ten largest cities were in northern states, including New York City, NY (813,669), Philadelphia, PA (565,529), and Boston, MA (177,840). Two border state cities had populations of more than 100,000—Baltimore, MD (212,418), and St. Louis, MO (160,773). New Orleans, LA, was the only southern city that qualified as one of the nation's ten largest, with a population of 168,675. When New Orleans fell from the list of ten largest cities in 1890, a southern city did not return to the list until Houston, TX, qualified with a population of 938,219 in 1960. In 1970, Dallas, TX, with a population of 844,401, joined Houston. San Antonio, TX,with a population of 935,933 followed in 1990. In May 2022, the Census Bureau reported that states in the South Region were home to 11 of the nation's 15 fastest growing cities. Among southern cities showing the greatest numeric growth between July 2020 and July 2021 were San Antonio, TX, Fort Worth, TX, and Port St. Lucie, FL.
Even though the American Civil War ended nearly 160 years ago, the U.S. government paid pensions to veterans of the Union Army, their widows, and dependents into the 21st century! Albert Woolson was the last surviving Union veteran of the Civil War when he died on August 2, 1956. The 1st Minnesota Heavy Artillery drummer did not see action while stationed at Chattanooga, TN. James A. Hard was the war's last surviving combat veteran when he died March 12, 1953. Hard fought in the battles of Bull Run, Antietam, and Chancellorsville with the 32nd New York Volunteers. Irene Triplett was the last surviving Civil War pensioner. She received $73.14 monthly until her death on June 3, 2020. Her father, Mose Triplett, was a veteran of the Union Army's 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry and 83 years old when Irene was born. Helen Jackson was the last surviving Civil War widow when she died December 16, 2020, but she never applied for a pension. Jackson was 17 when she secretly married her 93-year-old husband James Bolin, a veteran of the 14th Missouri Cavalry. Widowed 3 years later, she feared revealing the marriage when filing a pension claim would hurt her family's reputation.
The 1862–1863 Vicksburg Campaign was fought in the "Western Theater" of the American Civil War. In addition to Vicksburg, other notable Western Theater battles included the April 6–7, 1862, Battle of Shiloh in Hardin County, TN; September 19–20, 1863, Battle of Chickamauga in Catoosa and Walker Counties, GA; and the December 15–16 Battle of Nashville in Nashville, TN. Although the Western Theater was centered around the Mississippi River, a number of battles and skirmishes took place even further west. For example, the westernmost skirmish of the Civil War was the Battle of Stanwix Station on March 29, 1862. As the "California Column" of Union troops marched from California through Arizona to reinforce the Union Army in New Mexico, they engaged Confederate Arizona Volunteers burning supplies near Agua Caliente in Yuma County, AZ. Other battles involving Union and Confederate forces in the Arizona and New Mexico territories included one of the largest western Civil War skirmishes—the March 26–28, 1862, Battle of Glorieta Pass involving nearly 2,500 soldiers in Santa Fe and San Miguel counties, NM; the April 14, 1862, Battle of Peralta in Valencia County, NM; the Battle of Picacho Peak in Pinal County, AZ, on April 15, 1862; the May 5, 1862, Battle of Dragoon Springs in Cochise County, AZ; and the July 15–16, 1862, Battle of Apache Pass in which 200 Apache warriors of the Chiricahua Band defeated Union troops. Following the Battle of Apache Pass, the U.S. Army established Fort Bowie (near Willcox, AZ). Fort Bowie became the center of military operations against the Chiricahuas Apaches that led to the surrender of the band's leader and medicine man Geronimo in 1886.
The Confederacy suffered major defeats in the Civil War's eastern and western theaters on July 4, 1863. Not only did Confederate General John C. Pemberton surrender Vicksburg to Union General Ulysses S. Grant on that day, but General George G. Meade's Union Army of the Potomac forced General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia to retreat from Pennsylvania after the 3-day Battle of Gettysburg. Confederate losses at the Battles of Vicksburg and Gettysburg were estimated at 60,426, including approximately 4,708 killed, 20,673 wounded, and 35,045 captured or missing.
Three Census Bureau directors served in the Union Army during the Civil War. Francis Amasa Walker, superintendent of the 1870 and 1880 censuses, enlisted in the 15th Massachusetts Infantry in August 1861. He fought in the 1862 Peninsula Campaign, battles of Second Bull Run and Antietam, and was seriously wounded during the May 1863 Battle of Chancellorsville. He was captured near Petersburg, VA, in August 1864, and paroled in October 1864. For his gallant service, President Andrew Johnson approved that Walker be brevetted a brigadier general in the U.S. Volunteers after the war. Charles W. Seaton, inventor of the Seaton Device and Census Office director (1881–1885), was commissioned as a 1st Lieutenant in the 1st U.S. Sharpshooters in August 1861. He fought in the 1862 Peninsula Campaign where he was wounded at the Battle of Malvern Hill on July 1, 1862. Promoted to captain, Seaton participated in the battles of Antietam and Fredericksburg before resigning in May 1863. Before he was superintendent of the census from 1893 to 1897, Carroll D. Wright enlisted in the 14th New Hampshire Volunteer Regiment in 1862 and was stationed at Washington, DC. Promoted to colonel in the 14th New Hampshire Regiment, Wright served as General Philip Sheridan's adjutant general during the 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign's battles of Winchester and Cedar Creek. In 1900, Wright coauthored one of the most comprehensive histories of American censuses and census legislation, The History and Growth of the United States Census: 1790–1890.

The Civil War Trust estimates that 1.5 million casualties were reported during the Civil War—620,000 killed, 476,000 wounded, and 400,000 captured or missing. In the war's aftermath, the number of artificial limb manufacturers rose from 5 in 1860 to 24 in 1870, and the number of establishments constructing coffins grew from 210 in 1860 to 642 in 1870. Establishment of military cemeteries likely helped increase the number of undertakers from 835 in 1860 to 1,996 in 1870.
President Abraham Lincoln nicknamed Vicksburg the "Key to the South" for its strategic location along the Mississippi River. Today, Vicksburg is home to the Army Corps of Engineers Vicksburg District overseeing hundreds of engineering projects across 68,000 square miles of Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Local, state, and federal government employees account for 15.6 percent of Vicksburg's workers. Also home to several river casinos, Vicksburg's Arts, entertainment, and recreation, and accommodation and food services sector employs 20.4 percent of the city's civilian residents 16 years and older.
Despite being rivals during the American Civil War, Union general William T. Sherman and Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston became close friends when the conflict ended. Born near Farmville, VA, in 1807, Johnston resigned as the U.S. Army's quartermaster general to fight for the Confederacy in 1861. He was the senior Confederate officer at the 1861 First Battle of Bull Run and was wounded at the 1862 Battle of Seven Pines. After recovering, Johnston took command of the Department of the West, including defense of Vicksburg, MS. After Vickburg's surrender, Johnston led a fighting retreat in the face of Sherman's 1864 Atlanta Campaign. Confederate president Jefferson Davis sacked Johnson in July 1864, only to recall him in February 1865 to command Confederate forces in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. After learning of Lee's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, Johnston surrendered to Sherman on April 26, 1865. After the war, the two men corresponded and dined together regularly. Grateful for Sherman's benevolence toward his men after surrendering, Johnston refused to allow criticism of the Union general in his presence. When Sherman died on February 14, 1891, Johnston was a pallbearer at the New York City, NY, funeral. Despite the cold and rain, Johnston refused to wear a hat out of respect for his friend. He fell ill soon after and died from pneumonia on March 21, 1891.
A number of famous and infamous Americans called Vicksburg and Warren County, MS, home, including: Confederate president Jefferson Davis; Civil Rights activist Myrlie Evers-Williams; early African American film actress Evelyn Preer; the first African American certified public accountant Mary T. Washington Wylie ; University of Southern Mississippi football coach Jay Hopson; author and suffragist Sarah Gibson Humphreys; Joseph A. Biedenharn, who became the nation's first Coca-Cola bottler in 1894; and National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award winner Hank Jones.
The Confederate earthworks defending Vicksburg are part of the Vicksburg National Military Park located in Vicksburg, MS, and Delta, LA. Included within the military park is Vicksburg National Cemetery. The cemetery is the largest national cemetery in the United States serving as the final resting place for more the 17,000 Union soldiers, including its highest-ranking officer, brevet brigadier general Embury D. Osband. Osband joined the Chicago Dragoons 7 days after the April 1861 surrender of Fort Sumter. He served as General Ulysses S. Grant's escort in the western theater of the war with the 4th Illinois Cavalry, and was promoted to colonel with the 3rd Regiment U.S. Colored Cavalry participating in campaigns at Vicksburg and Western Tennessee. He resigned from the U.S. Army in 1865, and moved to Yazoo County, MS, to farm cotton. He died of encephalitis in 1866.
Approximately 5,000 Confederate soldiers who died at Vicksburg and the surrounding area are buried in the "Soldiers' Rest" section of the Vicksburg City Cemetery. Notable Confederate interments include major general John S. Bowen and brigadier general Martin E. Green. An 1853 U.S. Military Academy graduate, Bowen was living in St. Louis, MO, when the war began. An officer with the Missouri Volunteer Rifles, he participated in the battles of Shiloh and Corinth before he found himself surrounded by the Union Army during the Siege of Vicksburg in 1863. A prewar friend of Ulysses S. Grant, Bowen attempted to negotiate a surrender with the Union general, but was rebuffed. Like many other Confederate soldiers trapped in Vicksburg, Bowen suffered from dysentery during the siege and died from the disease near Edwards, MS, days after the July 4, 1863, Confederate surrender of Vicksburg. Like Bowen, brigadier general Martin E. Green was living in Missouri when the war began. He was an aggressive leader of a Missouri State Guard cavalry regiment before being commissioned a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army in July 1862. Green commanded a brigade under major general John S. Bowen at Vicksburg where he was wounded during an inspection of Vicksburg's defenses on June 25, 1863. Two days later, Green's men warned him to keep his head below the trench wall. The general's last words were, "A bullet has not yet been molded that will kill me." Moments later, a Union sharpshooter's bullet found its mark as Green peeked his head above the earthwork's parapet. He died less than an hour later.
Did you know that before the government buildings in Jeffersonville, IN, housed the Census Bureau's National Processing Center (NPC), they were home to a U.S. Army quartermaster depot? The depot manufactured and warehoused military supplies from 1864 to 1958. During World War I, 8,000 civilians worked at the site and another 20,000 worked from home manufacturing shirts, trousers, canvas leggings, leather goods, and other items needed to outfit an army. When the depot closed, Census Bureau staff began processing census questionnaires at the site. Today, as many as 6,000 employees work at the NPC mailing questionnaires and processing demographic and economic census and survey data.
Interested in learning more about the American Civil War using census data and records? Visit our webpages dedicated to Fort Sumter, Antietam, Gettysburg, and the Surrender at Appomattox Court House in our Home Page Archive.

On the night of April 16, 1863, rear admiral David D. Porter successfully ran supply ships and gunboats past Confederate batteries positioned along the banks of the
Mississippi River guarding Vicksburg, MS. The Union vessels carried supplies and troops for an assault in Claiborne County, MS. The operation was the largest
amphibious assault in American military history until the June 6, 1944, D-Day Invasion during World War II.

Photo courtesy of the U.S. Army.

Did you know?

The 2,350-mile Mississippi River plays such a vital role as a transportation route and physical boundary that it featured prominently in the first map published by the Census Bureau in 1854.

Census superintendent J.D.B. DeBow included the map dividing the United States into regions based on their major river systems in the Statistical View of the United States.

The map shows the "Mighty Mississippi" and its tributaries draining 31 states and 2 Canadian provinces. It terminates at the Gulf of Mexico where it discharges at a rate of more than 593,000 cubic feet of water per second!

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Veterans Census

A 1921 fire destroyed nearly all of the 1890 Census records—a key decade in which many aging Civil War veterans participated in their last census. Although the population schedules were lost, nearly 75,000 1890 Veterans Census schedules are available from the National Archives and Records Administration.

The U.S. Pension Office proposed conducting a veterans census in 1890 to help Union veterans locate comrades who could corroborate on pension claims and determine the number of survivors and widows for pension legislation. Researchers believed the data could help with studies on how military service effects veterans' health and longevity.

Enumerators collected veterans' data at the same time as the 1890 population census. Question 2 on the 1890 population schedule asked "Whether a soldier, sailor, or marine during the civil war (U.S. or Conf), or widow of such person." People identified as Union veterans or their widows completed the 1890 Veterans Census schedule.

Joshua Chamberlain's schedule (above) is an example of an 1890 Veterans Census schedule. Awarded the Medal of Honor for his defense of Little Round Top during the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg, Chamberlain reported he was an officer with the 20th Maine Volunteers from July 1, 1861, to August 1, 1866. Remarks state he was "Wounded in Hips"—referring to his near-fatal wounding at the June 18, 1864, Second Battle of Petersburg.

Chamberlain returned to the battlefield in November 1864 and was wounded again on March 29, 1865. Two weeks later, he presided over the military parade that was part of Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House.

After the war, Chamberlain was governor of Maine and president of Bowdoin College. Despite multiple surgeries, he suffered chronic pain for the rest of his life. He died at his home in Portland, ME, on February 24, 1914, from an infection related to his 50-year old battle injuries.

Portrait of U.S. Grant from the National Archives and Records Administration

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For the Record

Ulysses S. Grant delivered some of the Union Army's greatest—and most desperately needed—victories of the Civil War. His post-war popularity in the north and south helped him win electoral college landslides in the 1868 and 1872 presidential elections.

Ulysses S. Grant was born in Clement County, OH, in 1822. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy and was a Mexican-American War veteran and resigned from the U.S. Army in 1854.

Grant rejoined the U.S. Army after the Confederate capture of Fort Sumter and became a brigadier general on August 5, 1861. The next day, the new general captured Paducah, KY, without a fight. Victories at Forts Henry and Donelson, Corinth, MS, and Shiloh, TN, followed. The Confederate surrender at Vicksburg and their defeat at the Battle of Chattanooga earned Grant a promotion to commander of all Union armies in March 1864. On April 9, 1865, he accepted Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House.

After the war, the Republicans Party chose Grant as their candidate in the 1868 presidential election. He defeated Democrat Horatio Seymour in 1868 and won a second term against Horace Greeley in 1872.

Scandals dogged his administration, but Grant's achievements included ratification of the 15th Amendment protecting citizens' right to vote regardless of "race, color, or previous servitude"; construction of the Trans-Continental Railroad; and passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1875.

Diagnosed with throat cancer in 1884, Grant co-wrote his memoirs with author Mark Twain to secure his wife's financial security.

Days after completing the book, Grant died on July 23, 1885. More than 1.5 million people attended his funeral in New York City, NY, including thousands of Union and Confederate veterans.

Photo courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.

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