During the American Civil War (1861-65) Vicksburg, MS, was a key strategic location in the western theatre of operations.

Control of the Mississippi River enabled the rebels to maintain the territorial integrity of the western part of the Confederacy, and it was a vital supply route for them. Although Union forces succeeded in capturing New Orleans at the mouth of the Mississippi in April 1862, twelve months into the war, they were unable to drive north, owing primarily to the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg, nicknamed “The Gibraltar of the Confederacy”. This nickname derived from the topography of the area, with the town sitting atop natural bluffs overlooking a meandering bend in the river, which meant no Union vessels could pass in either direction.

The Union made numerous attempts to capture Vicksburg, all of which failed, until finally Lincoln appointed Ulysses S. Grant to take command. Grant also made multiple attempts to take Vicksburg, and initially he too met with failure. His great virtue, however, was persistence. Whereas each of his predecessors had retreated to base following a single defeat, declaring the objective of capturing Vicksburg unachievable, Grant never gave up, trying multiple different stratagems, some of them highly inventive. Eventually, in late April and early May 1863, Grant succeeded in breaking through the Confederate forces, winning five battles in just 17 days in a campaign that is one of the most celebrated in military history, ending with the Vicksburg garrison surrounded and cut off from all support. Finally, on 4th July, the day after the celebrated Union victory at Gettysburg in the east, Vicksburg surrendered.

These two victories for the Union on consecutive days are regarded as the turning point of the war. Victory at Gettysburg ensured the Confederates would never again threaten Washington D.C., the capital of the Union. Victory at Vicksburg gave the Union control of the entire Mississippi River, and ensured the western Confederate states of Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana were totally cut off from the rest of the Confederacy.

Vicksburg National Cemetery, opened in 1866, contains the graves of approximately 17,000 Union soldiers, around half of them coloured. It is the largest single concentration of Civil War graves in the USA. The small white stones mark the graves of those whose names are unknown, which make up around three-quarters of all the burials. Those with gravestones are marked with both name and regiment.