Grant After Vicksburg

lebeR

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May 12, 2008
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Corpus Christi Tx
I was always curious about the aftermath of Vicksburg and why Lincoln/Stanton/Halleck didn't have Grant resupplied/reinforced and allowed to follow the rails East from Vicksburg. With Johnston's small force as a gnat, Grant could have taken all he needed off the land and force the South's hand sooner. Maybe, the Federals were content with Gettysburg and Vicksburg.

Any thoughts?

lebeR
 
In addition to timewalker's point, lebeR, the RR from Nashville went no further east then Jackson. Grant didn't entirely abandon his supply line during the Vicksburg Campaign; "living off the land" did not apply to ammunition, wagon parts, medical supplies, coffee, and the like.

Without a supply line past Jackson, pursuit of Johnston would have been more costly than it was worth. Besides, as timewalker pointed out, Grant had bigger fish to fry.

ole
 
Grant's army, or at least a large part of it, was needed at Chattanooga to get Rosencrantz out of a rather tight fix. That was the more pressing need.

Vicksburg fell July 4. Rosecrans was just finishing the victorious Tullahoma Campaign on July 4, having driven Bragg back 80 miles to Chattanooga. The battle of Chickamauga didn't come until September 18-20, with Rosecrans being shut up in Chattanooga as a result.

What Grant wanted was to launch an amphibious effort against Mobile. Politics got in the way. While his army rested, parts that had been borrowed from other commands were returned, and other parts were diverted to various tasks. Grant himself was laid up after a fall from a horse while visiting Banks. But although more than 2 months had gone by, there was no indication a new campaign was starting when Rosecrans got into trouble.

Tim
 
Correct, Trice. There was a delay between Vicksburg and Chattanooga. A large part of the delay after Vicksburg was, as you and Ole pointed out, that Grant had to return parts of the army he had "borrowed." McPherson was immediately dispatched south to help Banks at Port Hudson, Sherman headed East to do a more thorough job of wrecking Jackson, and Grant headed down to New Orleans to plan an overland attack on Mobile, but was thrown from a horse and was laid up for several weeks recovering and Mobile was delayed by Washington's command to do something about Texas in order to intimidate the French in Mexico.

So by the time Grant is healthy again and things are ready to go, he is needed to get Rosy's ox out of the ditch.
 
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