In November 1862, Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant opened his campaign against Vicksburg. Ultimately he would compel the surrender of the fortress city on the Mississippi River and present to President Abraham Lincoln the “key” to victory.

But 18 months of frustration, failure and bloodshed lay ahead. Through it all, Grant, in characteristic fashion and with grim determination, would persevere.

From his advance base at Grand Junction, Tenn., Grant would follow the conventional wisdom of the day by advancing south along the Mississippi Central Railroad, using the iron rails as his line of supply and communications. (A series of rail lines led north from Grand Junction to his main base at Paducah, Ky., on the Ohio River. These tracks also would figure prominently in this campaign.) Coupled with Grant’s movement, another column of Union troops under Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman was directed to march out of the Memphis enclave and head southeast in order to join Grant in Oxford. From there the combined forces would continue the movement south to Grenada and on to Jackson, then turn west toward Vicksburg.

As his troops took up the line of march, Grant’s column headed toward Holly Springs, Miss. This movement of 30,000 troops compelled Confederate forces to fall back from their position along the Coldwater River and assume a strong blocking position along the south bank of the Tallahatchie River, near Abbeville. By mid-November the Federals occupied Holly Springs, where Julia Grant joined her husband at his headquarters. The Union commander decided to establish an advance base of supply at Holly Springs and began to stockpile tremendous quantities of food, clothing, medicine, ammunition and other necessities to support his southward push.

In reconnoitering the Confederate position, Grant noted, “The Tallahatchie … was very high, the railroad bridge destroyed and Pemberton strongly fortified on the south side. A crossing would have been impossible in the presence of an enemy.” To aid Grant, a strong force of infantry and cavalry was thrown across the Mississippi River from Helena, Ark., with orders to strike rapidly inland and destroy the railroad bridges across the Yalobusha River near Grenada, in Pemberton’s rear. By severing the Confederate’s line of supply and communication, this movement would force Pemberton to fall back.

It was a brilliant move and the Federals came ashore 7,000-strong at Delta, Miss., on Nov. 27. Racing ahead of the infantry were 1,900 horsemen who reached the Mississippi and Tennessee Railroad at Garner where they burned 100 feet of the railroad bridge. The Union horsemen continued eastward and reached the tracks of the Mississippi Central on Nov. 30. They managed to cut the telegraph, tear up some track and burned one small bridge.

Although the damage was slight, Pemberton ordered his army to fall back to Grenada, where his troops once again took up a strong defensive position. Grant’s column followed by marching through Oxford to Coffeeville. Due in part to the strength of Pemberton’s position, the Union commander realized that it was impractical to continue his advance. He decided to hold Pemberton’s force in place in north Mississippi and ordered Sherman back to Memphis. By taking advantage of Union naval superiority on the inland waters, it was hoped that Sherman could move rapidly down river from Memphis and capture a lightly defended city of Vicksburg.

Pemberton, however, was not the only one with an extended line of supply and communications. Grant’s line was getting longer with every step his troops moved south in Mississippi, and it soon would become exposed. So while Sherman worked feverishly to gather river transport for his troops, Pemberton moved quickly to destroy the Union base at Holly Springs.

Next: Naval history is made north of Vicksburg

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Terrence J. Winschel is a former historian for the Vicksburg National Military Park.