Championship Nut-Cutting Day Open Thread

Monument Valley

Today is May 2nd, a big day in U.S. Civil war history. Two significant events happened, but one of them gets all the attention, then and now, even though the other one was more important.

First, May 2nd is during the Battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia (April 30 to May 4, 1863), where General Stonewall Jackson’s corps famously slipped around the Union Army of the Potomac’s right flank and slammed into it out of the dense woods known as “The Wilderness.” It was the culmination of Lee’s outmaneuvering of General Joseph Hooker, and led ultimately to Hooker’s withdrawal. Chancellorsville is called “Lee’s Perfect Battle” and led to the confidence that resulted in his invasion of Pennsylvania and his defeat at Gettysburg in July, which was really the beginning of the end of the Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and ultimately the rebellion.

At the exact same time, however, General Ulysses S Grant is conducting one of the most important elements of his Vicksburg Campaign, the Army of the Tennessee’s crossing of the Mississippi River (April 30 to May 2, 1863). While Chancellorsville may be Lee’s Perfect Battle, the Vicksburg campaign is considered the greatest campaign in U.S. Army history, and led to a major strategic victory. Lee was fighting battles; Grant was fighting a war.

Grant’s crossing was the largest amphibious operation in U.S. military history until D-Day in June 1944.

Between April 30 and May 2, 1863, Grant moved 45,000 troops plus their animals and artillery across the Mississippi River, crossing 25,000 on the first night alone. His army was strictly built for speed and light weight: each soldier carried 3 days rations (expected to last 5 days), only essential animals and artillery were carried, and what supplies were brought were concentrated with ammunition, sugar, and coffee. After crossing, Grant’s force would immediately move out and go looking for a fight. There was no supply train; the Army of the Tennessee had to survive off the land and what they carried for 5 days until a supply train could be established, and in those 5 days they had to knock the Confederates off their heels and keep knocking them, never letting them pause and catch their breath. It was move, attack, move, attack, etc. If they didn’t reach their objective in 5 days and establish a supply line, the assault would have failed. Grant rolled the bones big time and won.

This crossing led to several battles where grant defeated the larger Confederate force (under General John Pemberton) by isolating smaller element’s of Pemberton’s army and outnumbering them and defeating them in detail.

The Vicksburg campaign culminated in the Siege of Vicksburg followed by Pemberton’s surrender in the Fall of Vicksburg, which happened July 4 1863, at the same time as Lee’s defeat at Gettysburg. The Fall of Vicksburg seized full control of the Mississippi River by Union Forces and cut the Confederacy in half. It is considered one of the most important elements in the Union’s victory in the war.

Yet, because the Eastern Theater got all the press attention at the time (and still today, really), Grant’s massive accomplishment is generally overshadowed by Lee’s romantic yet losing efforts from Chancellorsville to Gettysburg to Appomattox.

tldr: Grant > Lee