On this site will you receive reliable casualty figures for each battle during the 47-day Siege of Vicksburg and also the casualty reports for both the Union and Confederate armies by battle, phase, and operation, and finally the total numbers for all dates specified. An easy to read casualty list is included for quick reference, which shows the killed, mortally wounded, wounded, missing, and captured for each army and action during the Battle of Vicksburg and for Grant's Operations Against Vicksburg. Lastly, the final casualty tallies and grand totals concur with all figures for the battle and operations against Fortress Vicksburg.

Grant's Operations Against Vicksburg, March 29--July 4, 1863: On the banks of this, the greatest river in the world, according to Confederate Brig. Gen. Stephen D. Lee, the most decisive and far-reaching battle of the war was fought. Here at Vicksburg over one hundred thousand gallant soldiers and a powerful fleet of gunboats and ironclads in terrible earnestness for forty days and nights fought to decide whether the new Confederate States should be cut in twain; whether the great river should flow free to the Gulf, or should have its commerce hindered. The Federal army, commanded by Gen. U.S. Grant, and the Union navy under Admiral Porter were victorious. The Confederate army was under the command of Gen. John Pemberton and numbered some thirty thousand men. Although Pemberton's army was captured by Grant, the soldiers were soon paroled and returned to operate in other killing fields of the war. The loss on July 4, 1863, was a staggering blow from which the Confederacy never rallied.

(Left) South Fort, overlooking the Mississippi, was located south and on the flank of the Confederate defenses below Vicksburg. Interior of South Fort, showing the heavy type of Columbiads and mortars which made up the battery here. The Columbiads, which were being retired by the Union army, were older smoothbore guns that were found in greater quantity in the Confederate arsenal, and the mortars could lob a 200-pound shell at a high trajectory making the interior of forts vulnerable. To protect themselves from the mortars, both sides would construct bombproofs as a defense. As with any weapon of war, both distance and shielding between the soldier and threat is the objective in the defense. (Right) Battery Sherman, on the Jackson Road, before Vicksburg. The heavy guns of this Union siege battery were borrowed from the Federal gunboats and used against the Confederate siege defenses. Settling down to a siege did not mean idleness for Grant’s army. Fortifications had to be opposed to the formidable one of the Confederates and a constant bombardment kept up to silence their guns, one by one. It was to be a drawn-out duel in which Pemberton, hoping for the long-delayed relief from Johnston, held out bravely against starvation and even mutiny. For twelve miles the Federal lines stretched around Vicksburg, investing it to the river bank, north and south. More than eighty-nine battery positions were constructed by the Federals. Battery Sherman was exceptionally well built—not merely revetted with rails or cotton-bales and floored with rough timber, as lack of proper material often made necessary. Gradually the lines were drawn closer and closer as the Federals moved up their guns to silence the works that they had failed to take in May. At the time of the surrender Grant had more than 220 guns in position, mostly of heavy caliber. By the 1st of July besieged and besiegers faced each other at a distance of half-pistol shot. Starving and ravaged by disease, the Confederates had repelled repeated attacks which depleted their forces, while Grant, reinforced to three times their number, was showered with supplies and ammunition that he might bring about the long-delayed victory which the North had been eagerly awaiting since Chancellorsville.

(About) Stockade Redan on May 19 and 22, 1863. Stockade Redan was the location of the two deadliest days of the 47-day Siege of Vicksburg. The fort, located on Graveyard Road, was a very thick, strong earthwork that acted as the gatekeeper and defender of Vicksburg, and, knowing that it was the most likely target of any Union attack on the city, the Confederates had constructed it well. On both flanks were innumerable natural and manmade obstructions that would force the Union army to attack from Graveyard Road. Nearby Confederate works would also place any Union assault in a fierce crossfire that resembled Shiloh's "hornets nest." While only few Confederate reinforcements could be expected, the small, 300-man garrison at Stockade Redan was to the Rebels at Vicksburg what the Hot Gates was to Leonidas and his 300 against the Persians at the Battle of Thermopylae. The two failed frontal assaults on the earthen redan (May 19 and 22) produced more than 4,100 Union men in killed, wounded, and missing, and Grant, with his army now hemorrhaging, reluctantly, but wisely, resigned his army to a siege while deadlocked before the gates of Vicksburg. Whereas the Siege of Vicksburg lasted from May 18 to July 4, 1863, the siege operations actually didn't begin until May 23, the day after Grant's second failed assault on the redan. Grant, who commanded an army of some 35,000 strong, arrived on the outskirts of Vicksburg on May 18, and on the following day he pressed and assaulted the Confederate works with the objective of sweeping the Rebels from the field and capturing Vicksburg immediately-- but it didn't materialize. On May 22, Grant, now agitated and more determined to break that redan, massed an even greater number of men for the imminent advance on the works. Preceding the attack, during the night of the 21st, many of the 220 Union artillery pieces had been adjusted to fire for effect on Stockade Redan. The cannonading would continue through the night followed by a short respite before being resumed on the following day. But similar to his initial, ill-fated attack on the 19th, Grant's units became entangled and delayed by the many obstructions and mines while en route to the 20-foot high earthwork. Union units were being badly beaten and pushed back. Reform your men, were the orders to the regimental commanders, and then press and take that redan. The fighting was furious and with some Federals arriving with scaling ladders now in the ditch below the redan, some progress was observed. A few ladders and planks were seen rising on the salient-- but they were too short to be of use. Only a few feet separated the enemies, but now, with the number of blue uniforms increasing in the ditch below, the gray-clad men began tossing grenades while rolling charges down the embankment and onto the Federals. The 8-foot wide ditch, which had served its purpose well, was now a welcoming grave to the once persistent Union men who had fought so bravely to reach it. Stockade Redan remained intact, and it would not be assaulted for the duration of the siege. Grant, who would later become the 18th U.S. President, received his after battle reports showing 502 killed, 2,550 wounded, and 147 missing, for a grand total of 3,199 Union casualties. Coupled with the nearly 1,000 casualties that the Union army had sustained on May 19, Grant made the obvious decision to besiege the city. Grant was a fighter, but in spite of the fact that he knew that he had been beaten badly at the redan, his only regret was that did not succeed. Although Grant was receiving reinforcements from Maj. Gen. Halleck almost daily, he knew very well that a Confederate force was gathering nearby in hopes of breaking the siege and relieving Pemberton's beleaguered Confederates. A Northern army deep in Dixie couldn't remain static, and Grant understood that. With the sunset on May 22, the Federals, having licked their wounds, waited for additional orders. The Rebels, however, held the advantage as long as Grant forwarded his army in piecemeal fashion down the long narrow Graveyard Road, which was lined with many obstructions on both sides, and headlong into the clutch of well-defended Confederates in and near the redan. As the redan was attacked several times on those two days of May, the course of the Rebs was merely to aim and then pull the trigger of their muskets, and then observe the heavily concentrated ranks of Union soldiers collapse and bottle up the approach. While the Siege of Vicksburg was a proving ground for Grant, unbeknownst to the general, he would also be engaged in the longest siege of the war during the following summer, against General Robert E. Lee before Richmond.

The Vicksburg Mine, June 25--26: Following the failure of the May 22 assault, Grant realized that Vicksburg could not be taken by storm and decided to lay siege to the city. Slowly his army established a line of works around the beleaguered city and cut Vicksburg off from supply and communications with the outside world. Commencing on May 26, Union forces constructed thirteen approaches along their front aimed at different points along the Confederate defense line. The object was to dig up to the Confederate works then tunnel underneath them, plant charges of black powder, and destroy the fortifications. Union troops would then surge through the breach and gain entrance to Vicksburg. The latter would not occur however, because the besieged Confederates would surrender prior to Grant ordering one more large mine detonated under the Confederate works.

The other attempt to pierce the defense line was by exploding a mine under the Third Louisiana Redan. Logan's approach trench had reached the fort walls and from here a shaft was sunk under the fort and a powder charge prepared for its demolition. The Confederate garrison, hearing the miners' picks at work beneath the fort, began countermines in a grim race for survival.

The failed frontal assaults of Stockade Redan resulted in high casualties and low morale, so as the siege continued, and Union troops now tunneled under the Third Louisiana Redan and packed a massive mine with 2,200 pounds of gunpowder. As the explosion blew apart the Confederate lines on June 25, it was followed by an infantry attack by troops from Logan's XVII Corps division. The 45th Illinois Regiment (known as the "Lead Mine Regiment"), under Col. Jasper A. Maltby, charged into the 40-foot diameter, 12-foot deep crater with ease, but were halted by recovering Confederate infantry. The Union soldiers became pinned down while the defenders also rolled artillery shells with short fuses into the pit with deadly results. Union engineers worked to set up a casemate in the crater in order to extricate the infantry, and soon the soldiers fell back to a new defensive line. From the crater caused by the explosion on June 25, Union miners were constructing a new mine to the south. On July 1, this mine was detonated but no infantry attack followed. Pioneers worked throughout July 2 and 3 to widen the initial crater large enough for an infantry column of four to pass through for future anticipated assaults. The starving, diseased, and greatly reduced Confederate ranks, however, had no more to give, it was over, and Pemberton would soon surrender the great fortress on the bluffs, and nearly 30,000 Rebels would be paroled. But the war would rage for nearly two more years, and Grant, who would eventually command all Union forces, would be involved in another siege, but on this occasion it would be a nearly ten month contest with none other than his nemesis Robert E. Lee. The many lessons that Grant had learned while here in Vicksburg, he would employ and perfect during the Richmond-Petersburg Siege.

Sources: Vicksburg National Military Park; Library of Congress; National Archives and Records Administration; National Park Service; Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies; Civil War Trust, civilwar.org; United States Army, history.army.mil; Ballard, Michael B. Vicksburg, The Campaign that Opened the Mississippi. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004. ISBN 0-8078-2893-9; Ballard, Michael B. Grant at Vicksburg: The General and the Siege. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2013. ISBN 978-0-8093-3240-3; Bearss, Edwin C. Receding Tide: Vicksburg and Gettysburg: The Campaigns That Changed the Civil War. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, 2010. ISBN 978-1-4262-0510-1; Bearss, Edwin C. The Campaign for Vicksburg. 3 vols. Dayton, OH: Morningside House, 1985. ISBN 978-0-89029-312-6; Bonekemper, Edward H. A Victor, Not a Butcher: Ulysses S. Grant's Overlooked Military Genius. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, 2004. ISBN 0-89526-062-X; Catton, Bruce. The Centennial History of the Civil War. Vol. 3, Never Call Retreat. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1965. ISBN 0-671-46990-8; Eicher, David J. The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. ISBN 0-684-84944-5; Esposito, Vincent J. West Point Atlas of American Wars. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1959. OCLC 5890637; Foote, Shelby. The Civil War: A Narrative. Vol. 2, Fredericksburg to Meridian. New York: Random House, 1958. ISBN 0-394-49517-9; Grabau, Warren E. Ninety-Eighty Days: A Geographer's View of the Vicksburg Campaign. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2000. ISBN 1-57233-068-6; Grant, Ulysses S. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant. 2 vols. Charles L. Webster & Company, 1885–86. ISBN 0-914427-67-9; Kennedy, Frances H., ed. The Civil War Battlefield Guide. 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1998. ISBN 0-395-74012-6; Groom, Winston. Vicksburg, 1863. New York: Knopf, 2009. ISBN 978-0-307-26425-1; Korn, Jerry, and the Editors of Time-Life Books. War on the Mississippi: Grant's Vicksburg Campaign. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1985. ISBN 0-8094-4744-4; McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. Oxford History of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-19-503863-0; Shea, William L. and Terrence J. Winschel. Vicksburg is the Key: The Struggle for the Mississippi River. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2003. ISBN 978-0-8032-9344-1; Smith, Jean Edward. Grant. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. ISBN 0-684-84927-5; Simon, John Y., ed. The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant. Vol. 8, April 1 – July 6, 1863. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1979. ISBN 0-8093-0884-3; Winschel, Terrence J. Triumph & Defeat: The Vicksburg Campaign. Campbell, CA: Savas Publishing Company, 1999. ISBN 1-882810-31-7; Winschel, Terrence J. Triumph & Defeat: The Vicksburg Campaign, Vol. 2. New York: Savas Beatie, 2006. ISBN 1-932714-21-9; Winschel, Terrence J. Vicksburg: Fall of the Confederate Gibraltar. Abilene, TX: McWhiney Foundation Press, 1999. ISBN 978-1-893114-00-5; Woodworth, Steven E., ed. Grant's Lieutenants: From Cairo to Vicksburg. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2001. ISBN 0-7006-1127-4; Woodworth, Steven E. Jefferson Davis and His Generals: The Failure of Confederate Command in the West. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1990. ISBN 0-7006-0461-8; Woodworth, Steven E. Nothing but Victory: The Army of the Tennessee, 1861–1865. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. ISBN 0-375-41218-2; Harper's Weekly.