Hi my name is Park Ranger Andrew Miller from Vicksburg National military Park and welcome
to Civil War 160th in 60. I'm standing at Louisiana Circle- a detatched unit of the
Vicksburg National Military Park looking over the modern bend of the Mississippi River.
It was this river that Major General Ulysses S. Grant commanded the U.S army of the Tennessee
crossed at the end of April and beginning of May 1863 to prosecute the Vicksburg campaign.
Arriving at Vicksburg in mid-May and settling into siege operations, Grant was keenly aware
that a large Confederate force was organizing in the Jackson area to relieve the beleaguered
city. Major General Ambrose Burnside detached 8000 men of his Ninth Corps stationed in Kentucky
and sent them down the Ohio Mississippi River to help Grant. Arriving on June 14th and 15th
1863 the Ninth Court, instead of fighting on the siege lines, was sent north of Vicksburg. Fighting
mosquitoes instead of Confederates the Ninth Corps still had an important part of this campaign
protecting Grant's backside. When Vicksburg fell on July 4th the Ninth Corps was sent East to
Jackson to neutralize that Confederate force and while they participated in heavy skirmishing the
Confederates evacuated that city on July 16th. The Ninth Corps was sent back to Kentucky having the
honor of fighting in both the eastern and western theaters of the American Civil War.