Tour Stop #3 - Third Louisiana Redan

An iron tablet describes the chaotic scenes on top of the Third Louisiana Redan during the battle.

NPS

Quick Facts

Location:

Vicksburg, Mississippi

The Third Louisiana Redan was one of the major Confederate fortifications guarding the Jackson Road approach to Vicksburg. Union troops gained access to the fort by “Logan's Approach,” a zigzag siege trench. Federal engineers dig a mine under the redan and on June 25 exploded 2,200 pounds of powder under it. The tremendous blast created a crater which Union infantry pushed into and only withdrew after sever fighting. Another mine was detonated a week later on July 1. Neither succeeded in breaking the Confederate line.

• Tour Stop #3 - The Third Louisiana Redan

  
  

  This track discusses the Confederate fortification, the Third Louisiana Redan, the beginning of the Union siege operations, and detonation of a mine on June 25, 1863.

  Date created:

  12/31/2021

  Audio Transcript

  Having failed to take this Confederate fort by storm on May 22, General Grant ordered his army to begin siege operations against the Confederate works.

  Subsequently, his engineers supervised the digging of approach trenches from the Union lines toward all the forts marked for destruction.

  The first of these was started just past the Shirley House and extended to the Third Louisiana Redan, one of two massive forts guarding the old Jackson road into Vicksburg.

  The Union soldiers made quick progress, reaching the point of the redan in a matter of weeks. Not content to stop there, they continued on with a tunnel forty feet long and directly underneath the men of the Third Louisiana Infantry regiment manning the fort.

  On June 25, at 3:30 in the afternoon, the front of the fort erupted in a geyser of dirt and smoke. The Federal infantrymen had packed 2,200 pounds of black powder in the tunnel and hoped that by blowing it up, they could open the way to Vicksburg.

  The earth rose up and swallowed confederate soldiers, leaving a crater forty feet wide and twelve feet deep. A blue column of Federals stood in the approach trench all the way to the Shirley House; preparing to pour through the smoking hole in the Confederate line and bring the siege to an end.

  But that was not to be the case, for when the men of the 45th Illinois rushed into the crater and they ran into a wall of Confederate iron and lead.

  Trapped in the crater and unable to advance, the Union troops persevered for 24 hours before finally withdrawing in failure. On July 1st, they detonated another 1800lbs of gunpowder under the redan, but made no attempt to launch an assault.