Home

The Civil War at a Glance

The Western Theatre, 1863

First posted 1998
Last update Apr 29, 2009

42k 550x320 Click for Larger map
Ulysses Grant(44k) Grant's efforts to capture Vicksburg are finally rewarded on July 4 when, after one of the great campaigns of military history and a 47-day siege, the Confederacy's mighty bastion succumbs to Union arms. Five days later Port Hudson surrenders and President Abraham Linclon Lincoln proclaims "The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea." The South is cut in half along the Mississippi. Meanwhile, Rosecrans' brilliant Tullahoma Campaign forces Braxton Bragg Bragg to abandon most of Tennessee and concentrate around Chattanooga. In September Rosecrans occupies Chattanooga and pursues Bragg into Georgia, where, at Chickamauga Creek, the Confederates turn on the Northerners and drive them back.

To relieve the beleaguered Federal troops, the Union government rushes reinforcements to Chattanooga, names Grant to command in the West, and replaces Rosecrans with Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas. In several battles around Chattanooga between October and November, Grant's armies defeat Bragg's troops, forcing them to retreat to Dalton, Georgia, where Bragg is succeeded in command by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. The two-week siege of Union-occupied Knoxville by Lt. Gen. James Longstreet's Confederate troops ends December 3 with the approach of a relief column led by General William Sherman Sherman. Charleston, under attack much of the year, enters the third winter of the war battered but unconquered.

Jan 1 - 2Battle of Stones River, Tenn., continued
Jan 1Battle of Galveston, Tex.
Jan 9 - 11Battle of Arkansas Post, Ark.
Mar 29 - Jul 4 Grant's Second Vicksburg Campaign, Miss.
Apr 11 - May 3Streight's Raid, Tenn. - La.
Apr 16 - 22Union fleet passes Vicksburg river batteries
Apr 17 - May 2Grierson's Raid, Tenn. - Miss. - La.
Apr 29Battle of Grand Gulf
May 1Battle of Port Gibson
May 12Battle of Raymond
May 14Battle of jackson
May 16Battle of Champion Hill
May 17Battle of Big Black River Bridge
Jun 7Battle of Milliken's Bend, La.
Apr 7Federal Ironclads attack Charleston, S.C.
May 21 - Jul 9Siege and surrender of Port Hudson, La.
Jun 23 - Jul 4 Tullahoma Campaign, tenn.
Jul 2 - 26Morgan's Raid, Ky. - Ind. - Ohio
Jul 10 - 16Siege of Jackson, Miss.
Jul 11 & 18Assaults on fort Wagner, Charleston, S.C.
Jul 17Battle of Honey Springs (Elk Creek), Indian Territory
Aug - Sep Chickamauga Camping, ga.
Sep 18 - 20Battle of Chickamauga
Sep 8Battle of Sabine Pass, tex.
Oct - Nov Chattanooga Campaign, Tenn.
Oct 28 - 29Wauhatchie Night Attack
Nov 23 - 25Battle of Chattanooga
Nov - Dec Knoxville Campaign, Tenn.
Nov 17 - Dec - 4Siege of Knoxville


Click on a map to read about that year
1861
1861
1862
1862
1863
1863
1864
1864
1865
1865
The Eastern Theater     The Western Theater     War at a Glance