Some historians think that the defeat of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia at Gettysburg in July 1863 was of less importance to the ultimate fate of the Confederacy than the wide-ranging and hard fought conquest of the Mississippi valley. Let us head west and see the ground where Ulysses S. Grant made his name and sealed the fate of ‘the Rebellion’.

The tour will view some of the most decisive battles of the American Civil War fought in 1862 and 1863. At Shiloh, on the Tennessee River, an early-morning surprise attack by the Confederate army threatened Grant’s Union army with complete destruction. The dogged resistance of the ordinary Northern soldier, the untimely death of the Confederate commander, and the timely arrival of Union reinforcements turned the day.

We shall also see two lesser-known 1862 battles, at Iuka and Corinth, where a renewed Confederate offensive was frustrated by General Rosecrans. We will also explore the remarkable battle of Brice’s Crossroads (June 1864) where the cavalry genius, Nathan Bedford Forrest, defeated a Union force four times his army’s size. It is ironic, given Forrest’s reputation as founder of the Ku Klux Klan, that a Union enquiry into the defeat shows that a brigade of US Coloured Troops saved their army from complete destruction.

We shall then transfer to the Vicksburg area for a thorough study of the three Union attempts to take this important city dominating the Mississippi River. Sherman failed at Chickasaw Bluffs; Grant couldn’t manage it by manoeuvring west and south of the city. Finally he marched inland to Jackson and drove in from the east.

We shall see the siege lines, and the many and varied museums in the area, before looking at the fall of Vicksburg on 4th July, 1863. Your guide, John Lee, has conducted several Civil War tours, and specialises in bringing these battles to life through the eyes of the soldiers in the line of battle.

ITINERARY
Day 1 (Thursday): Fly from London Heathrow to Memphis – coach to the Shiloh area. Introductory lecture. Hotel in Shiloh – 3 nights.
Day 2: A detailed look at the two day Battle of Shiloh where, in early April 1862, the Confederates launched a surprise attack on Grant’s Union Army.
Day 3: The less well-known Battles of Iuka and Corinth, September 1862.
Day 4: Transfer by coach to Vicksburg. We move the story on to June 1864 where, at the Battle of Brice’s Crossroads, Forrest’s numerically weaker Confederate army routed a much larger Union force. Hotel in Vicksburg – 4 nights.
Day 5: The early, failed attempts on Vicksburg by Sherman and Grant – Chickasaw Bluffs; Port Gibson, Milliken’s Bend.
Day 6: Grant’s final campaign – Battles of Raymond, Champion’s Hill, Big Black River. Lunch in historic Jackson, Mississippi. Visit Old Capitol Museum.
Day 7: Vicksburg National Park for the Siege of Vicksburg, the final major military action in the Vicksburg Campaign, and a turning point in the war. We also visit Grant’s Canal, the River Defence Line, and Fort Hill.
Day 8: Museum visits. Coach to Memphis for return flight to London Heathrow.
Day 9: Arrival at London Heathrow.