Alternate Paths: Vicksburg

[OldReliable1862]

This is my first attempt at a thread focus on points of divergence organized by campaign, and and I thought Vicksburg would be a good choice. This was the first idea that came to me, though I hope more will be brought up.

During the Steele's Bayou expedition, assuming Sherman doesn't reach Porter in time, forcing the latter to scuttle his fleet, what does Grant decide to do next? He can probably escape censure if he makes sure Porter gets most of the blame, though I'm not sure.

 

[Carronade]

Let's assume the worst case, that Porter has to scuttle all five ironclads on the expedition, Louisville, Cincinnati, Carondelet, Mound City, and Pittsburg. The last four of these were among the seven that Grant and Porter used for the next, ultimately successful, phase of the campaign, running past Vicksburg and covering the crossing of Grant's troops at Grand Gulf, along with Benton, Lafayette, and Tuscumbia. So the question becomes, would the latter plus whatever other ships might be available be insufficient to carry out those operations?

Grant was not one to be deterred by a setback, so I think his first thought would be just what it was historically when the Steele Bayou plan failed.

 

[Carronade]

Guess I didn't help your alternate paths thread much, sorry

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

I'm not sure Grant would have heaped too much blame on Porter. (Had the situation been reversed, though, Porter would have tried to shuck it all off on Grant...)

My take is that comparing a failure with a worse failure won't nudge the alternate-paths needle all that much. But what if the Yazoo Pass expedition and/or Steele's Bayou succeeded in gaining some sort of lodgement on the higher ground north of Walnut Hills?

(Related... one of the Confederate commanders influential in the failure of the Yazoo Pass expedition was William W. "Old Blizzards" Loring. I happened to spot a monument to him in St. Augustine when we were on the trolley tour there the other week. I wasn't expecting it, so it was kind of neat to suddenly see it...)

 

[OldReliable1862]

Porter was supposed to have been quite aggressive, so he probably will run the batteries, even if he only has three ships. What the rebels might do with one of Porter's hulks could be quite interesting, however.

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

Realistically, I don't think they would have had much of a chance to do anything with them at that time and place. They had had enough trouble getting Arkansas ready, and that was with a hard-driving naval commander and no Federals snooping around the bayous. Most likely they would have sat and then been salvaged by the Union after a time-- or maybe raised by Ed Bearss in the 1960s.

 

[Luke Freet]

I'm not sure Grant would have heaped too much blame on Porter. (Had the situation been reversed, though, Porter would have tried to shuck it all off on Grant...)

My take is that comparing a failure with a worse failure won't nudge the alternate-paths needle all that much. But what if the Yazoo Pass expedition and/or Steele's Bayou succeeded in gaining some sort of lodgement on the higher ground north of Walnut Hills?

(Related... one of the Confederate commanders influential in the failure of the Yazoo Pass expedition was William W. "Old Blizzards" Loring. I happened to spot a monument to him in St. Augustine when we were on the trolley tour there the other week. I wasn't expecting it, so it was kind of neat to suddenly see it...)

Oh yeah, i live down in Palm Beach with my folks, we've gone up to St. Augustine several times to the point of boredom. But yeah, that particular stretch of town, with all the monuments, is rather weird. We have monuments to Loring, juxtaposed with Civil Rights Monuments, itself Juxtaposed by a Confederate soldiers monument, juxtapose by more Civil Rights markers, etc.
I never understood why until my most recent visit, when I found out the outdoor Pagoda at the end of the block was the former Slave Market.
Really goes to show our conflicting past, I think. Sorry if that's too far off topic.