Product Description

A riveting history of the battle that permanently turned the tide of the Civil War.

While Gettysburg is better known, Winston Groom makes clear in this engrossing narrative that Vicksburg was the more important battle from a strategic point of view. Re-creating the epic campaign that culminated at Vicksburg, Groom details the arduous struggle by the Union to gain control of the Mississippi River valley and to divide the Confederacy in two. He takes us back to 1861, when Lincoln chooses Ulysses S. Grant—seen at the time as a mediocre general with a drinking problem—to lead the Union army south from Illinois.

We follow Grant and his troops as they fight one campaign after another, including the famous engagements at Forts Henry and Donelson and the bloodbath at Shiloh, until, after almost a year, they close in on Vicksburg. We witness Grant’s seven long months of battle against the determined Confederate army, and the many failed Union attempts to take Vicksburg, during which thousands of soldiers on both sides would be buried and, ultimately, the fate of the Confederacy would be sealed. As Groom recounts this landmark confrontation, he brings the participants to life. We see Grant in all his grim determination, the feistiness of William Tecumseh Sherman, and the pride and intransigence of Confederate leaders from Jefferson Davis and General Joseph E. Johnston to General John C. Pemberton, the Philadelphia-born Rebel who commanded at Vicksburg and took the blame for losing.

A first-rate work of military history and an essential contribution to our understanding of the Civil War.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17090 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-07
• Released on: 2009-04-07
• Format: Deckle Edge
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 496 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780307264251
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Among the most visited of Civil War battlefields, Vicksburg here receives a narrative equal to its significance and popular interest. Though Vicksburg was obviously the strategic key to control of the Mississippi River, it was anything but clear how to unlock the place or to keep it locked. The military difficulties its geography presented to both attacker and defender underlie a perceptiveness present throughout Groom’s account: he grasps commanders’ options, senses the sturdiness of their military character, and dramatizes their choices in a way that awakens the inner armchair general in Civil War readers. Nor does Groom neglect the chain connecting the decisions of strategists to the tumultuous experiences of those on the receiving end, from Union and Confederate soldiers to plantation owners and their slaves. The present-tense flow in Groom’s prose enhances vividness, just as it captures the fogginess of war that beset the minds of generals and admirals who conducted the Vicksburg campaigns, of which there were more than half a dozen before Grant’s victory. A superior example of general-interest Civil War history, this is skillful work by Groom, also the author of several military histories and the novel Forrest Gump (1986). --Gilbert Taylor

Review
“With Vicksburg, 1863, [Groom] has fully arrived as a narrative historian, who proves again that facts skillfully woven can be more moving than the products of the busiest imagination . . . Groom’s books is full of . . . authentically rendered excitement.”
–Ernest B. Furgurson, The Washington Post

“Groom’s lively account has a frighteningly contemporary sheen . . . His mastery of plot and storytelling leaves him inordinately well-disposed to piece together the tangled mass of major battles and peashooter skirmishes . . . that made up the Vicksburg campaign.”
–Eric Banks, Chicago Tribune

“Groom brings the novelist’s touch to history . . . Groom’s version of the long campaign to capture Vicksburg . . . offers fresh insights on the human costs of the war and what it mean to the nation.”
–Walter Putnam, Associated Press

“With the publication of Vicksburg, 1863 . . . Winston Groom attains the stratospheric narrative heights heretofore enjoyed by such popular-history masters as Bruce Catton, Shelby Foote and James M. McPherson. His pacing is so good, his attention to detail so riveting, and his flair for action writing so pitch-perfect that the reader is utterly absorbed and inexorably swept along . . . There have been many books about Vicksburg, but none better than this.”
--John Sledge, Mobile Press-Register

“A galvanizing and harrowing account . . . Relying on southern sensibilities, historical scrupulousness and a novelist’s feel for a good yarn, Winston Groom plunges into this cauldron with a presentation that gives full vent to the cost in human lives and the enormous stakes for both sides.”
–Jonathan E. Lazarus, The Star-Ledger

“Groom’s command of the military facts, and his extraordinary mixture of vignettes big and small, br...

Review
“With Vicksburg, 1863, [Groom] has fully arrived as a narrative historian, who proves again that facts skillfully woven can be more moving than the products of the busiest imagination . . . Groom’s books is full of . . . authentically rendered excitement.”
–Ernest B. Furgurson, The Washington Post

“Groom’s lively account has a frighteningly contemporary sheen . . . His mastery of plot and storytelling leaves him inordinately well-disposed to piece together the tangled mass of major battles and peashooter skirmishes . . . that made up the Vicksburg campaign.”
–Eric Banks, Chicago Tribune

“Groom brings the novelist’s touch to history . . . Groom’s version of the long campaign to capture Vicksburg . . . offers fresh insights on the human costs of the war and what it mean to the nation.”
–Walter Putnam, Associated Press

“With the publication of Vicksburg, 1863 . . . Winston Groom attains the stratospheric narrative heights heretofore enjoyed by such popular-history masters as Bruce Catton, Shelby Foote and James M. McPherson. His pacing is so good, his attention to detail so riveting, and his flair for action writing so pitch-perfect that the reader is utterly absorbed and inexorably swept along . . . There have been many books about Vicksburg, but none better than this.”
--John Sledge, Mobile Press-Register

“A galvanizing and harrowing account . . . Relying on southern sensibilities, historical scrupulousness and a novelist’s feel for a good yarn, Winston Groom plunges into this cauldron with a presentation that gives full vent to the cost in human lives and the enormous stakes for both sides.”
–Jonathan E. Lazarus, The Star-Ledger

“Groom’s command of the military facts, and his extraordinary mixture of vignettes big and small, brings this distant, chaotic, and shockingly violent episode to life.”
–Philip Terzian, The Weekly Standard

“[A] masterful telling of the pivotal Civil War siege and battle.”
–Billy Heller, New York Post

“Vicksburg here receives a narrative equal to its significance and popular interest . . . [Groom] grasps commanders’ options, senses the sturdiness of their military characters, and dramatizes their choices in a way that awakens the inner armchair general in Civil War readers.”
–Booklist (starred review)

“Vivid Civil War storytelling in the tradition of Shelby Foote.”
–Kirkus

“Groom presents grand events from a human perspective, introducing a spectrum of colorful characters.”
–Publishers Weekly

"An exciting, balanced account of what may have been the most decisive campaign of the Civil War. Vicksburg demanded the most sustained efforts of the conflict from both land and naval forces. Though the denouement is now well known, the story unfolds here with a sense of drama and unpredictability, and no inevitable outcome. It is all there--bravery and cowardice, competence and folly, fear and endurance, all with the constant, imponderable undertow of dumb luck, good and bad."
--Stephen Fox, author of Wolf of the Deep: Raphael Semmes and the Notorious Confederate Raider CSS Alabama

“The author of the classic Forrest Gump has delivered another tour de force with his Vicksburg 1863. Beautifully written, Winston Groom places us in the minds and hearts of the citizens and soldiers who lived the battles and endured the hardships of war in the besieged city. This is a must read!”
--Frank J. Williams, Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court and founding Chair of The Lincoln Forum

"In Vicksburg, 1863 Winston Groom bids fair to assume the mantle of the late Shelby Foote as a most eloquent and moving storyteller of the Civil War. His prose is unbeatable, with a fine flair for drawing the drama out of isolated and seemingly minor episodes, while his pen portraits of individuals are crisp and incisive. The feel and smell and hardship of soldiers and civilians alike in a siege are all here in Vicksburg, 1863."
–William C. Davis, author of Look Away! A History of the Confederate States of America

Customer Reviews

The Key
A talented Southern storyteller gives his version of the Vicksburg campaign. This book should serve to inform, or remind, readers of the importance of the six-month effort by the North to take the city that controlled shipping on the Mississippi River.


Winston Groom provides his take on almost everything that occurred from the present day vantage point of one who at heart wishes the South might have somehow acted in a way that did not lead to its ultimate abject defeat. He seems to think the North provoked the war (I know the South fired the first shots); he does not see why the hard war of General Sherman was necessary (I do); or why North and South could not simply come to a political compromise when the war turned bad for the South (I think because of the evil of slavery combined with a refusal by Southern leadership to accept the primacy of the federal union).

To me a most interesting and telling fact is contained in a minor foot note on page 155: After the Civil War, the city of Vicksburg did not officially celebrate The Fourth of July until 1945.

While I do not agree with all of Mr. Groom's political and social observations, I do think his book is entertaining and well written. The vivid descriptions of the numerous land battles and naval engagements make for compelling reading, while the many generals and admirals are brought to life.

Mr. Groom's book should help serve to refocus attention to the major and hard fought Union victory of July 4, 1863 at Vicksburg from the still headline battle of the same time, Gettysburg. While the few bloody days at Gettysburg remain the subject of enormous public attention, Vicksburg is the campaign (and Grant the general) that determined the Civil War's military outcome.

Vicksburg Historiography is Like a Box of Choco-Lits
The Vicksburg Campain has been begging for an accurate telling since the day it ended in 1863. Many have answered the call, including well-respected historians (Catton), novelists (Foote), and battlefield guides (Bearss), yet all have failed. Winston Groom, author of Forrest Gump, is the latest heavyweight to throw his hat into the ring with an entertaining spinning of the tried-and-true yarn.

Groom does not pretend to be a scholar, so his deference to those who have written before him is completely forgivable. The man is a masterful storyteller, and his weaving of first-hand accounts from average people with the reports and memoirs of the principal actors makes his story lively and engaging.

In the mold of Shelby Foote, Groom eschews the use of notes, leaving us guessing at his sources. He does refer to these sources in passing from time to time, for example quoting Brooks Simpson's groundbreaking biography of Grant, "Triumph Over Adversity." However, he proves later on that if the information gets in the way of a good story, he ignores his own sources. The funniest example of this is when he repeats the debunked story that Julia Grant was captured at Holly Springs by Van Dorn, but then includes an asterisk:

* other sources say she was in Oxford with Grant at the time

Yeah, ya think? Like the much-acclaimed biography of Grant that you yourself used as a source????

I found myself enjoying parts of this book immensely, and dying a little bit inside when I read other parts. Exactly like a box of choco-lits: to find the pralines and nougats, sometimes you have to eat half of that one with the non-descript and vaguely medicinal pink goo inside.

Perhaps the greatest aspect of this book is that it will be guaranteed to draw attention to Vicksburg, which is inarguably the greatest campaign ever fought on American soil yet somehow seems to have taken a back-seat to that skirmish fought in the east around the same time (help me out here ... think it starts with a G). Here's hoping "1863" goes to the top of the NYT bestseller list and is turned into a blockbuster film starring Brad Pitt, generating enough attention that serious scholars will finally get around to giving this campaign the attention and the telling that it deserves.

Vicksburg: Powerful, More Facets Than a Gemstone
If you prefer a fine photograph to an excellent painting, Winston Groom's Vicksburg 1863 might not be your book. Groom, born in Washington, D.C. and raised in Mobile, Alabama, writes a nuanced, rich, and many layered account of the fall of Vicksburg to Union forces. In proposing his theory that the fall of Vicksburg was a deeper blow to the South than the same day (July 4th, 1863) defeat of Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg, Groom verbally paints this almost unknown epic with all the richness that a well-wielded brush and a lushly daubed pallet can bring, and none of the rigidity that a pixel or silver-iodide based photo demands. Groom does much more than simply portray famous/infamous personalities, provide dates of combat, report casualty numbers, and detail geographic migrations of troops. How? Let me count a few of the ways.

Providing well chosen biographical nuggets and quotes, Groom brings to vibrant life the major players of the Vicksburg drama. William T. Sherman,U.S. Grant, Admiral (Damn the torpedoes!)Farragut, Jefferson Davis, General Joseph Johnston, General Pemberton (defender of Vicksburg)and a host of lesser known, but nonetheless fascinating, participants in this struggle leap into holographic focus in Groom's proof that the pen can be mightier than the camera. While it may be true that a picture is worth a thousand words, it is also true that Vicksburg 1863 is worth more than thousands of photos (of note is that Groom does include several pages of stunning Civil War photography). The ability to paint historical figures fully fleshed is a treasured, but not unique, gift. To move from good to fascinating, Vicksburg 1863 must offer more. And it does.

Feminists, and others who prefer to think of history as more than a collection of dates of famous battles and wars, frequently lambaste the term "history" as being synonymous with "His story" as in history is almost invariably described from a man's point of view. With Vicksburg 1863, Groom did not accomplish anything that will cause Gloria Steinem to sing him hosannas, but he might well get a respectful nod from her. By liberally quoting women, particularly from the diaries of Kate Stone and Emma Balfour, one gains fascinating access to the conditions that people lived through during times of battle. One sees the attempts to conquer Vicksburg, and its eventual fall, through the eyes of women, men, soldiers and civilians, young boys and girls, and even from the point of view of pets and livestock. Groom's approach moves the reader well beyond concerns about victory and defeat, slavery versus abolition, states rights versus federalism, and well into the contemplation of war as folly and needless destruction. Groom does this all without a detectable tinge of moralism or preachiness. He reports the story, you get to make your own conclusions.

Any five star book of the historical genre has a responsibility to the reader to provide some "Holy Cow! Who woulda' thunk??" facts that delight the mind and tickle the fancy. Stanley Karnow did this in his book about Vietnam, identifying, for example the first American president to send armed forces to Vietnam: Abraham Lincoln. Vicksburg 1863 is filled with more than adequate fascinalia to keep the history buff entertained, e.g. Grant's General Orders No. 11, which expelled Jews as a class from the territory that Grant was in charge of.

Does Groom have the chops to do a sweeping synthesis of the Civil War in general, and Vicksburg in particular? Briefly, yes. Raised a Southern boy, an alumni of a southern military school, a Vietnam War vet (1965-1969), and an accomplished journalist and author, he speaks with brain, heart, and quiet (but undeniable) authority. The history enthusiast that prefers a crisp static photo to represent truth may squirm a bit with the way Groom approaches Vicksburg. The aficionado of, for example, Monet's depiction of a garden, will thrive on the deeper layers of reality about Vicksburg in 1863 that may only be reached by permitting a bit of blurriness around the edges.