Overview
The Battle of Champion Hill was the decisive land engagement of the Vicksburg Campaign. The May 16, 1863, fighting took place just 20 miles east of the river city, where the advance of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Federal army attacked Gen. John C. Pemberton's hastily gathered Confederates.The bloody fighting seesawed back and forth until superior Union leadership broke apart the Southern line, sending Pemberton's army into headlong retreat. The victory on Mississippi's wooded hills sealed the fate of both Vicksburg and her large field army, propelled Grant into the national spotlight, and earned him the command of the entire U.S. armed forces.
Timothy Smith, who holds a Ph.D. from Mississippi State and works as a historian for the National Park Service, has written the definitive account of this long overlooked battle. His vivid prose is grounded upon years of primary research and is rich in analysis, strategic and tactical action, and character development.
Champion Hill will become a classic Civil War battle study.
Synopsis
U.S. Grant's Vicksburg campaign was one of the most decisive of the American Civil War believe many military historians. This text is the first book-length analysis of its largest engagement, the May 1863 battle at Champion Hill. The author evaluated the primary sources based on his own walking of the battlefield and produced a "battle study molded out of the old school," primarily concerned with the maneuvers and tactics that led to Union victory. Distributed in the US by Casemate. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR