Weve got a great speech for our second session this morning. Dr. Timothy smith is a veteran of the National Parks service and currently teaches history at the university of tennessee. In addition to numerous articles and essays, he is the coeditor of 18 books, including Champion Hill, decisive battle of vicksburg, which won the Nonfiction Book award from the mississippi arts and letters. You can buy a copy in our bookstore. I am pleased to introduce dr. Timothy smith. [applause] thank you. Appreciate that. Appreciate the opportunity to be here. This is my first time to be here. I am a believer now. You have got a great place here. We are going to talk about the western theater here. Vicksburg, Champion Hill. How many of you have been to vicksburg . I figured that. A good number of you. Champion hill is one of those great battlefields, if you have been watching the news, listening to the American Battlefield trust, they are doing a lot of work there. The state of mississippi has just turned over several Hundred Acres to the National Park service. A lot going on at Champion Hill. We are going to talk about that battle in particular. The larger Vicksburg Campaign just a little bit. I do not have powerpoint either. I am a little oldfashioned. We do have a map, which we will talk about a little bit. I tend to go overboard when i do powerpoint and completely confuse everybody, so i dont do powerpoints when i can help it. Although i am beginning to realize that powerpoint can be useful. You see some of them that are good and i can help you. I just had a good lesson in this. Ive got two daughters, 12yearold has been after us to give her a puppy. We already got a dog, she wanted a puppy. Its all we heard. We dont need another dog. Well she made her a Powerpoint Presentation [laughter] to convince us why we need a puppy. Now, we are the proud owners of bingo the border collie. Powerpoint presentations do work and i do use those on occasion. But not today. Lets talk about vicksburg. Little battles, big results. This depends on your your definition of little battle. Obviously compared to some other battles, it doesnt reach that realm. We are talking 25, 30, 000. Casualties in the thousands. It is on the highend of a little battle, if you want to call it a little battle but it does have tremendous, huge results. I am not going to stand here and argue to you some historians get into their topic so much and argue that this is where the battle was one and lost. Im not going to argue that Champion Hill is where the north won the war or the south lost the war. It will depend on that case of what you think of vicksburg. I am guessing here in the army of Northern Virginia land that we would get a lot of eastern centric ideals. The war was won and lost in the east and all that kind of stuff. I hail from the west and i am thoroughly convinced that the civil war was won and lost in the west. The confederacy was gutted while there was just a stalemate up here. That is arguable. [laughter] we are not here to argue where the war was won and lost. I am not going to argue to you that Champion Hill was the deciding battle of the war. I will simply leave it that wherever you place vicksburg in the full scheme of the civil war, how much emphasis you put on the importance of vicksburg, whether that was the turning point of the civil war or not, that will weigh in on how important you think Champion Hill is. I will argue that Champion Hill is the Decisive Point in the Vicksburg Campaign. If you think vicksburg is the turning point, where the confederacy is ripped open fatally, opening the Mississippi River, then you will probably hundred probably put Champion Hill in a higher category than some of the larger battles that we know more about. Champion hill is the decisive battle of vicksburg, the largest battle in the Vicksburg Campaign itself, and it had tremendous results, as our theme talks about. In terms of narrowing down to Champion Hill we will not go into major tactical action, because 30, 000 troops on each side, we could get lost in the weeds. There is a good book about it if you are interested in those things. We are going to keep it simple today and talk about Champion Hill and why it turned out the way it did but i want to start at the top and give some background and lead to Champion Hill. Just a quick overview, looking at the three levels of war in terms of the u. S. Army today. Any veterans of the u. S. Military . First of all, thank you for your service. We are a grateful nation. The army is made up of enlisted men. That is the backbone of the army. I mentioned in terms of officer education, and all that, one of my duties was to see to the military groups. 15 years ago, i would have all kinds of military groups going in. The hundred first parachuting in. I always think this was right in the heyday of the iraq war, 2004. Most of these guys coming in were on the way to iraq or just getting back. It was amazing to hear their stories. What officers are trained in are the Different Levels of war. In civil war, you had the strategic level and the tactical level. The modern military force is in the middle there, on the operational level, which grant and harrison doesnt know much about any level of war, but the civil war commanders dont know about that operational level. We start at the strategic level. Looking at the Vicksburg Campaign, moving down the Mississippi River toward vicksburg, the final bastion has to be taken to open the Mississippi River. The Vicksburg Campaign is essentially a twopronged campaign. I am becoming more and more convinced as i do more work on vicksburg, the first essential effort in the Vicksburg Campaign is to actually get to vicksburg. The second major strategic effort in this larger plan, we talked about the Strategic Plan that was the anaconda plan and all that, the second major effort is to take vicksburg. First, youve got to get to vicksburg, which is extremely difficult due to the mississippi delta, due to the 300 foot bluffs on the river to the west. Due to the logistical challenges to the south. The only good way to approach vicksburg is from the east, and that is better held territory. That is what grant took as we moved to the operational level of the war. It takes grant six or seven months to get to vicksburg, then you have to take vicksburg. There are two assaults involved in that, then the famous siege that we all know about. Just getting to vicksburg is one major component of the strategic level of the campaign. This is why if you look at the rhetoric in some of the writings of the Vicksburg Campaign, you will see they divide this into two different operations. When grant and sherman finally reach the high ground east of vicksburg and sherman looks across the river valley there where he had attacked in december, sherman tells them, this has been a successful campaign. Almost to say this part of the campaign is over. You are entitled to all the glory. I wanted to do it a different way, but you are entitled to the glory for this and you should make a report to washington because even if we dont take vicksburg, this has been a successful campaign. The first part is getting vicksburg, then you have got to take vicksburg. Im going to check my time here. I fully realize im the only thing standing between you and lunch. [laughter] Champion Hill will be the larger process of getting to vicksburg, adding to a place where you can take the city. As we move down the operational level of the war, within the process of the first effort, getting to vicksburg, thats when we get into these major efforts in this Operational Campaign level. Grant starts southward from tennessee down to mississippi, oxford, down close to the river. Water valley mississippi. He has turned back by those confederate cavalry raids. One famous raid that tears up grants forward supply base, probably the more important raid is by forest in tennessee, where he breaks the railroad. That shuts down grants ability to bring new supplies in. You tear up his forward supply base and any possibility of getting new supplies in, and grant gets stalled and he turned back. He later says i should have learned that i can live off the land and i will file that and use it later on. He will withdrawal at that point. That doesnt work. Then grant will send sherman as part of a twopronged movement in november and december, down to chickasaw where sherman says i landed, i was defeated and i got back on the boat and took off. Those first two efforts to even get to vicksburg did not work. By that time, around 1863, everything is wet and muddy. All of the creeks have risen. They are full of water. Grant doesnt have much of a choice of what to do next, so he starts waterborne operations. He tries to dig a canal, a third attempt to get away get around vicksburg. That doesnt work. He tries to go around Lake Providence. The yazoo pass expedition, moving through moon lake and the coldwater river, into the river that forms that river. That operation doesnt work. Six major attempts over the course of the First Six Months of the Vicksburg Campaign all fail. The operational level of war. What does succeed is grants seventh attempt, but this time he is out of options. It is late march, april, into may. You cant turn around and go back. Sherman is saying lets go back to memphis, go down the railroad like we should have to begin with, like we tried to in mississippi. Lets try that again and move forward. That is the way you should do it by the book. That is the way that Henry Halleck is saying do it. Of course, hallock wrote the book. The elements of military art and science. Halleck is saying do it by the book. You have got a secure line of operations supplies. The theory that all these guys are immersed in. The two major napoleonic theories, it has been translated into english and these guys are studying that at west point. That is supply lines, maneuver, pure halleck, sherman. Grant doesnt know anything about it, but as i like to say, you know barbara mandrel, she was country when country wasnt cool. Grant is going to go after the enemy, fight the battles. We are going to move forward, fight the enemy and get there. Of course, we will see evidence of that moving forward. He is on pretty thin ice in terms of newspaper editors talking about how drunk he is. Politicians calling on lincoln to get rid of grant. We know the statement i cant spare this man. They are calling for his removal. He said i think i will try a little while longer, but the leash is getting short. He cant go back, as far forward toward vicksburg as he can get and none of these approaches are working. To the west, to the north, to any other direction. This operational level attempt, he will move down the west side of the Mississippi River, cross south of vicksburg and come up in the rear on the east. There are plenty of problems with that, obviously. Lengthening supply lines, confederates who come out of the fortress and fight you without supplies. That can be very problematic. There are a lot of problems. Certainly not doing it by the book. This is breaking every rule in the book and i love what grant said later on, talking to newspaper editors. He knows that this will not be received very fondly in washington but once he crosses the river, gets into mississippi and starts toward vicksburg, he is counting the days. You can see him counting on his fingers. He goes back across the river, up to memphis and by telegraph to washington. It will take how many days to get it then come back, he says i have got about a week. He says you can do a lot in eight days. He takes off for vicksburg, in the seventh attempt will succeed. Grant reaches vicksburg. Still got to take it, he reaches vicksburg and thats where we get to the tactical level. Talk about the strategic and operational, this is where you get into the battles themselves. First creating a bridgehead, or a landing point. We mentioned normandy earlier. The battle of fort gibson on may 1 will be where he secures a holding inland. Then he will move northward, fighting with raymond on the 12th. Jackson, mississippi on the 14th, then he will turn westward and fight the battle of Champion Hill, the climactic battle, on may 16 and a followup battle the next day. Moving to the tactical level, we Start Talking about Champion Hill. What has the confederate commander been doing all this time . John pemberton has moved out of vicksburg and made some big blunders already. It is like baseball, youve got a nationals fan here. I was in washington in september and wore my brave shirts and i have never been harassed like i was in washington in Early September by the nats fans. It was interesting. I loudly proclaimed how it is tough being in first place in the division and all that. But they are getting the last laugh now. I am not loudly proclaiming anything anymore. At any rate, where was i going . Why are we talking about baseball . I had the thought, it just zoomed right out of there. There was a good point to this. [laughter] pemberton. Timothy yeah, pemberton. Pemberton makes some pretty big blunders here. Thats what it is. You never want to give the opponent in extra strike or whatever. Pemberton gives grant several extra outs. Arrows and all that kind of stuff. He comes out of vicksburg and gets out, then he crosses the black river moving east toward grant, toward jackson. He should have used Big Black River as the shield. Then he moves across the creek, bakers creek. That is Champion Hill battlefield. Either one of those he could have used to defend on the western side, moving across creeks and rivers, but each time, grant will meet pemberton on the east side of these rivers and creeks, which is completely opposite pemberton. It is not working out for pemberton. We talk about Champion Hill and the tactical action and so on. I am becoming more convinced, i just finished a book on the vicksburg assault and now i am working on the siege, but working on those letters and diaries, they brought into the thousands of letters and diaries. I am becoming more convinced that even more than the tactical action, in the days of may the 16th, 17th, 18th, grants army is reaching a critical stage here in terms of supplies. We all know about grants supply line. He writes in his memoirs two times that i cut my supply line, how do you cut your supply line . He gets mixed up there. Supplies landing there moving forward by wagon trips. He has got wagon trains moving forward basically by brigade or division elements of his army. His reinforcements are coming and crossing the river. He will move forward with a division, send a wagon train. These are reaching the army, they are living off the land as much as they can. They are getting the geese and chicken and hogs off these farms. What is one critical component to an army that does not grow on a plantation . Many balls. You cant pick those off the line. You have to have ammunition going forward. What i have found in these letters and diaries is that by the time the army moves northward, fight these battles, by the time you start to move westward toward vicksburg from jackson on the 14th, 15th and into the 16th, 17th and 18th, you are slowing down when an army that large is in one area and start consuming everything. These guys are starting to run out of food. What happens i am the last thing between now and lunch. If i get to 1205, youre going to say, where is our lunch . These guys are going to were three days without much to eat. That starts affecting your body and it could start affecting their fighting ability and potentially, if pemberton could have failed on the west side, maybe even bakers creek, forced grant to slow down, take a day or two to fight a battle, could have been a game changer . We dont know, obviously, but pemberton will meet grant on the east side. We get into that critical moment. Here we are getting into the battle of Champion Hill on the 16th, 17th and 18th. Champion hill occurs on the 16th. Moving from jackson westward toward vicksburg. When i first wrote the book 20 years ago a came out i guess 15 years ago. When i did the book, i thought i will start getting invitations to talk so i have got to come up with a good talk for Champion Hill. I do know of powerpoint even existed. Who knows. I certainly didnt do a Powerpoint Presentation, but i didnt want to do a bunch of maps, get into the nittygritty of brigades and divisions and all that. I thought, i will organize the talk i will come up with three reasons the battle of Champion Hill turned out the way it did. My dad is a minister. We talked about Southern Baptist ministers last night. The joke about Southern Baptist ministers in mississippi as you can always tell a baptist sermon because it has got three points and a point. You ever heard about that . Three points to the sermon and a point at the end