U.S. Operations Against Vicksburg

From May 18 to July 24, 1862, U.S. operations against Vicksburg in the Department of the Gulf involved Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler and the 2d Brigade under Brig. Gen. Thomas Williams, including the 9th Connecticut Infantry under Col. Thomas W. Cahill, 30th Massachusetts Infantry under Col. Nathan A.M. Dudley, 6th Michigan Infantry under Capt. Charles E. Clarke, 7th Vermont Infantry under Col. George T. Roberts, 4th Wisconsin Infantry under Col. Halbert E. Paine, the 2d Battery, Massachusetts Light Artillery under Capt. Ormand F. Nims, and the 6th Battery, Massachusetts Light Artillery under Capt. Charles Everett. This brigade accompanied Flag Officer David G. Farragut’s flotilla up the Mississippi River to Vicksburg and disembarked opposite the city in Madison Parish, Louisiana. There the troops excavated a canal across the base of DeSoto Point to create a secure navigation channel that would bypass the powerful Confederate batteries at Vicksburg, but the effort failed as Union soldiers succumbed to heat, humidity, and disease. In late July, with the fleet threatened by rapidly falling water, the Federal forces withdrew downriver to Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

Delta, Louisiana · United States