Combat· American Civil War
Vicksburg Bombardment
The first Union attempt on the river fortress that would defy them for another year.
In the summer of 1862 Farragut brought his deep-water squadron up from New Orleans, with Marine detachments aboard the Hartford, Brooklyn, and Richmond, to attack Vicksburg, the bluff-top stronghold that commanded the Mississippi and barred the junction of the upper and lower river forces. The fleet bombarded the batteries and even ran past them to link up with the gunboat flotilla coming down from above, but the guns on the high bluffs could not be reached by the ships' fire, and the city could not be taken from the water. Farragut withdrew. No Marine casualties are recorded for the bombardment. The action settled nothing, but it showed that Vicksburg could not be reduced by naval power alone, and it foreshadowed the long combined campaign that would finally take the city in July 1863.
Podcast episodes on American Civil War
Record no. 445