The Web of Victory: Grant at Vicksburg

by Earl S. Miers and Earl Schenck Miers

Book Overview

The Web of Victory tells of the Union siege of Vicksburg, a campaign that might very well have been the turning point of the Civil War and was without any doubt the turning point in the military career of General Ulysses S. Grant.If Grant began the campaign as a leader known more for his drinking and shabby appearance than for his strategy, he emerged from the siege with the respect of his president and the admiration -- in some cases grudging admiration...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807111996
• ISBN13: 9780807111994
• Release Date: September 1984
• Publisher: LSU Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Absorbing Study of Grant's Vicksburg Campaign

Folksy, well-written, level-headed study of US Grant's campaign in Vicksburg, MS teeming with poignant descriptions of the main personalities in this important theater of war. The author ably describes Grant's initial failed attempts at gettin his army into the best position to attack Vicksburg before Grant hit upon the plan he literally bet his miltary future on; as Miers describes it: "Within hours he must make decisions that could mean bright triumph or failure as utterly abject as his critics predicted". Talk about pressure!! Also fascinating is Miers spendid description of Union Admiral Porter's failed attempt to snake his navy through the flooded Mississippi bayous (getting his boats entangled in monstrous willows to where they couldn't move forward or backward, then being attacked by Confederate troops to boot and being rescued by Sherman!). There are a lot of fascinating details Miers provides that make the soldiers and sailors endeavors come alive. For example, regarding the afore-mentioned Porter's frustrating attempt to make it through the bayous, Miers quotes Porter: "when we would strike a tree, a multitude of vermin would be shaken out on deck - among them rats, mice, cockroaches, snakes and lizards, which would be swept overboard by the sailors standing ready with their brooms." Finally, realizing his true predicament, Porter sends an SOS to Sherman: "DEAR SHERMAN: Hurry up, for Heavan's sake. I never knew how helpless an ironclad could be steaming around through the woods without an army to back her." In sum, a wonderful read - Miers places you smack dab in Mississippi in 1863. I couldn't have asked for more. One side note, the three battlefield maps in the book are not up to snuff in that half the places mentioned in the text are not shown on the maps. You can supplement the text with better maps by going to the Vicksburg Military Park web site, http://www.nps.gov/vick/vcmpgn/vcmpgn.htm and clicking on the "Maps" link or individual battle description links.

Interesting and well-written

Earl Schenck Miers will never win any prizes for being a respected military historian, but this book on the Vicksburg campaign has definite merit. If you're seeking a purely military analysis of the campaign, this will not meet your needs. But if you're more interested in the human side of the conflict, then Miers delivers the goods, particularly when it comes to the person of Ulysses S. Grant, the most integral figure in the Vicksburg saga. Miers writes sympathetically and with grace about the Union's greatest general. He has an inherent understanding of Grant's simple, shy, pleasing nature. Miers writes with great accuracy and perception about the marriage between General and Mrs. Grant. This was an unusually happy arrangement and Grant was always uneasy when she was not around him.When this book was published in 1956, it created a furor amongst Grant's descendants and some historians. Why? Miers related an incident where Grant imbibes too much on a steamer and has to be put to bed to sleep it off. Fifty years ago such accusations made the fur fly, but no more. There are better books on the Vicksburg campaign and don't expect any military speculation or analysis here. But if your main focus is on Grant, then Miers does a commendable job.