Military historian Earl Hess reveals how a combination of rugged terrain, poor coordination, and low battlefield morale among Union troops influenced the result of the largest attack mounted by Grant's Army of the Tennessee.

"Here Earl J. Hess offers an in-depth military history of a critical phase of the long federal campaign to capture Vicksburg, Mississippi during the Civil War. Hess focuses on the period from May 18-23, 1863, comprising the end of Ulysses S. Grant's overland march to the rear of the city and the beginning of his siege. These five days were a watershed in the development of Grant's eight months-long campaign to capture the Gibraltar of the Confederacy. His hope of ending the campaign quickly by assaulting the city's fortifications on May 19 and 22 were crushed by the failure of those attacks. The only recourse was a siege that extended federal operations against Vicksburg another six weeks"--