audiobook Studies in Eighteenth Century Islamic History (Papers on Islamic History; Vol. 4) by From Southern Illinois University Press in History

Description

On May 25; 1863; after driving the Confederate army into defensive lines surrounding Vicksburg; Mississippi; Union major general Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee laid siege to the fortress city. With no reinforcements and dwindling supplies; the Army of Vicksburg finally surrendered on July 4; yielding command of the Mississippi River to Union forces and effectively severing the Confederacy. In this illuminating volume; Justin S. Solonick offers the first detailed study of how Grant’s midwesterners serving in the Army of the Tennessee engineered the siege of Vicksburg; placing the event within the broader context of U.S. and European military history and nineteenth-century applied science in trench warfare and field fortifications. In doing so; he shatters the Lost Cause myth that Vicksburg’s Confederate garrison surrendered due to lack of provisions. Instead of being starved out; Solonick explains; the Confederates were dug out.After opening with a sophisticated examination of nineteenth-century military engineering and the history of siege craft; Solonick discusses the stages of the Vicksburg siege and the implements and tactics Grant’s soldiers used to achieve victory. As Solonick shows; though Grant lacked sufficient professional engineers to organize a traditional siege—an offensive tactic characterized by cutting the enemy’s communication lines and digging forward-moving approach trenches—the few engineers available; when possible; gave Union troops a crash course in military engineering. Ingenious midwestern soldiers; in turn; creatively applied engineering maxims to the situation at Vicksburg; demonstrating a remarkable ability to adapt in the face of adversity. When instruction and oversight were not possible; the common soldiers improvised. Solonick concludes with a description of the surrender of Vicksburg; an analysis of the siege’s effect on the outcome of the Civil War; and a discussion of its significance in western military history.Solonick’s study of the Vicksburg siege focuses on how the American Civil War was a transitional one with its own distinct nature; not the last Napoleonic war or the herald of modern warfare. At Vicksburg; he reveals; a melding of traditional siege craft with the soldiers’ own inventiveness resulted in Union victory during the largest; most successful siege in American history.