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View Poll Results: Who was the better general between these two Great Warriors?
Gen. R. E. LEE--The Best of the South... 1 12.50%
Gen. U. S. Grant-- The Best of the North... 6 75.00%
Other, There always a Rogue opinion... 1 12.50%
Voters: 8. You may not vote on this poll

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  #71  
Old 10-17-2007, 03:19 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ole
Stopped short of the first down on this play, he did an end run and moved the ball downfield and scored.

ole
More like fumbled the ball back through his own end zone.

"The raids compelled Grant to abandon his operations and fall back on Memphis"
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New York Times, 27 September 1861
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  #72  
Old 10-17-2007, 03:52 PM
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Quote:
More like fumbled the ball back through his own end zone.

"The raids compelled Grant to abandon his operations and fall back on Memphis"
It remains that he won that game, nevermind the fumbled kickoff.

ole
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  #73  
Old 10-17-2007, 04:45 PM
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Originally Posted by Battalion
Grant's first campaign against Vicksburg (Nov-Dec 1862) involved 70,000 men-

"In late summer and early autumn of 1862, after the battles of Iuka (Sept. 19) and Corinth (Oct. 3-4) in north Mississippi, the initiative swung to Union forces under Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Grant's objective was the Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River - Vicksburg. To seize this important point he proposed splitting his force in two. One wing, consisting of 40,000 troops under Grant's personal command, was to march south along the line of the Mississippi Central Railroad from Grand Junction, Tennessee, and into north Mississippi. His wing was to draw Confederate troops into the northern portion of the state and keep them pinned along the Yalobusha River near Grenada. The other wing, consisting of 32,000 soldiers under Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman, was to make an amphibious thrust down the Mississippi River and capture Vicksburg.

Grant's column started the march on November 26 and slowly moved south through Holly Springs and Oxford toward Grenada. Although he had detached troops to guard his lengthening communications and supply lines, the lines remained exposed and vulnerable. On December 20, raiding Confederate cavalry commanded by Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn captured the Union supply base at Holly Springs and destroyed more than a million dollars worth of supplies. Another successful raid was conducted by Confederate Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest into West Tennessee in which 60 miles of railroad vital to Grant were broken up. The raids compelled Grant to abandon his operations and fall back on Memphis."
http://civilwarlandscapes.org/cwla/states/ms/cb/intro/pre.htm


Raid on Holly Springs, Mississippi
Main depot of supplies for Grant.
1500 prisoners. Over a million dollars worth of supplies captured and destroyed.

"Confederate General Earl Van Dorn thwarts Union General Ulysses S. Grant's first attempt to capture Vicksburg, Mississippi, when Van Dorn attacks Grant's supplies at Holly Springs, Mississippi.

Grant planned a two-pronged attack on the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River. He would take a force from western Tennessee to approach Vicksburg from the interior of Mississippi. Meanwhile, General William T. Sherman would lead an army down the Mississippi River for an attack from the north. Grant said, 'We can go as far as supplies can go.'

The plan started on a good note--Grant's army pushed aside Confederates in northern Mississippi. In response, Confederate cavalry colonel John Griffith suggested attacking Grant's supply line at Holly Springs, and he recommended Van Dorn for the mission. To that point, Van Dorn had done little to build his reputation. He lost the Battle of Pea Ridge and the Battle of Corinth earlier in 1862, and he was known for his drunkenness and tendency to cavort with prostitutes.

Van Dorn gathered three cavalry brigades and left Grenada, Mississippi, on December 17. On December 20, Van Dorn fell on the Union supply depot at Holly Springs, driving the Yankee defenders away and capturing materials. What could not be carried was destroyed. Van Dorn remained in the area a few more days, cutting rail and telegraph lines, before fleeing in the face of pursuing Union cavalry. The Confederates rode 500 miles in two weeks, returning on December 28 after successfully disrupting Grant's campaign. The raid was the highlight of Van Dorn's military career. He was murdered five months later by the husband of a woman with whom he was having an affair."
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-h...tegory&id=2424


Battle of Chickasaw Bluffs
Federal casualties.....1,776
Confederate.................207

"On December 26, 1862, three Union divisions, under Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman, disembarked at Johnson's Plantation on the Yazoo River to approach the Vicksburg defenses from the northeast while a fourth landed... upstream on the 27th. On the 27th, the Federals pushed their lines forward through the swamps toward Walnut Hills, which were strongly defended. On the 28th, several futile attempts were made to get around these defenses. On December 29, Sherman ordered a frontal assault which was repulsed with heavy casualties.

Sherman then withdrew. This Confederate victory frustrated Grant's attempts to take Vicksburg by direct approach."
http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp/battles/ms003.htm

An honest person will know that none of this supports more than one campaign. Grant's Vicksburg Campaign lasted from December 1862 through to 4 July 1863. The 20 Dec Holly Springs Raid is included, as is the 26 Dec battle at Chickasaw Bluffs. All one campaign, all the way through to Vicksburg's surrender.

Notice this from your own source:

"Campaign: Operations against Vicksburg (1862-1863)"

All one campaign, as any honest person would admit.

Regards,
Cash
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  #74  
Old 10-17-2007, 04:52 PM
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Default Lee/Grant - What Debate?

Grant was assigned the goal of opening the Mississippi River, by taking Vicksburg.
Grant executed a 'Series'of 'Planned' moves that resulted in his successfully completing his assignment. Which is why it is usually descri9bed as Grant's Vicksburg 'Campaign'.
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  #75  
Old 10-17-2007, 04:57 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Battalion
More like fumbled the ball back through his own end zone.

"The raids compelled Grant to abandon his operations and fall back on Memphis"
Nice flag.
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  #76  
Old 10-17-2007, 05:03 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cash
An honest person will know that none of this supports more than one campaign. Grant's Vicksburg Campaign lasted from December 1862 through to 4 July 1863. The 20 Dec Holly Springs Raid is included, as is the 26 Dec battle at Chickasaw Bluffs. All one campaign, all the way through to Vicksburg's surrender.

Notice this from your own source:

"Campaign: Operations against Vicksburg (1862-1863)"

All one campaign, as any honest person would admit.

Regards,
Cash
Nonsense.

Stop smoking dope.

"Civil War Battle Summaries by Campaign"
[listed separately:]

"Operations Against Vicksburg [December 1862-January 1863]"

"Grant's Operations Against Vicksburg [March-July 1863]"

http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp/...s/bycampgn.htm
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New York Times, 27 September 1861

Last edited by Battalion; 10-17-2007 at 05:26 PM.
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  #77  
Old 10-17-2007, 06:33 PM
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Default Lee/Grant - What Debate?

The individual actions (battles, maneuvers etc.) 'within' the campaign were 'operations'. As noted before, a 'series' of operations to attain a desired goal constitutes a campaign. Failure of any 'operations' does not negatemean the 'campaign' if other 'operations' continue to attain the desired goal.
Only if the attempt to attain the desired goal, is given up, does the campaign fail.
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  #78  
Old 10-17-2007, 06:45 PM
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Originally Posted by OpnDownfall
Only if the attempt to attain the desired goal, is given up, does the campaign fail.
Then all operations against Richmond (1862 thru 1865; Seven Days, etc) can be considered one campaign since the desired goal was never given up.
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"Your New-York bankers and merchants are shrewd people, but I never gave them credit for so much sagacity as when they took the Government Loan. It was not merely patriotism, it was a high stroke of policy. It has saved the Government, and what they will regard as equally important, saved them from a great financial disaster."

New York Times, 27 September 1861
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  #79  
Old 10-17-2007, 07:28 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Battalion
Then all operations against Richmond (1862 thru 1865; Seven Days, etc) can be considered one campaign since the desired goal was never given up.
Sure it was. The seven days for one was a full scale retreat. After which they went on the defensive waiting for the CS to make a move. That is an abandonment of the intentions of the campaign. The 2 phases of Vicksburg was not an abandonment of the plan, but a realization by Grant that other things needed to happen first, and that he would have to take a more circuitous route in order to get the job done. As the field commander, all movements made between Chickisaw bluffs and the actual capture of Vicksburg were a continuing effort to capture that army there.

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  #80  
Old 10-17-2007, 08:04 PM
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VERY well said, Dred. McClellan's Peninsula campaign failed. Grant's Vicksburg campaign, snags aside, succeeded. Sherman's campaign for Atlanta, snags aside, succeeded. Hood's Nashville Campaign, snags aside, failed. Grant's Overland Campaign, snags aside, succeeded. If we look at a battle or two, in a campaign, we get diverted.

Specifically, Chickasaw Bluffs was a failed attempt. I'm sure it sounded like a good idea at the time, but reality intervened. But it's not like the entire Vicksburg campaign hinged on what was, ultimately, a reconnaisance in force. Didn't work. Like a number of other tentative stabs--Yazoo Pass, the canal, and boat tours up the Yazoo--it didn't work. And, on the bottom line, Vicksburg was taken. In spite of tentative failed probes, Vicksburg was taken. The CAMPAIGN was successful.

ole
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