The Father of Waters

While Meade and Lee clashed at Gettysburg, Grant was tightening his noose around Vicksburg, the Mississippi River fortress city.  Confederate General Pemberton and 30,000 rebels had been under siege for months.  To escape Union artillery, residents had moved out of the city and into burrows and caves dug into hillsides.  Visitors said some looked not much different than your living room, except in a big gopher hole.

Situated high above a bend in the Mississippi, and protected by marshes, Vicksburg was the last major Confederate stronghold on the river.  By holding it, and the threat of its huge guns aimed at Union ships, the Confederacy prevented the Union from controlling the river.  New Orleans had been in Union hands since early in the war, and upriver the forts had been subdued by Grant in early 1862.  Just above New Orleans, Port Hudson continued to harass and damage Union gunboats.

But as June ended, Vicksburg's fate looked inevitable.  There was no way to break out, ammunition was low, food was scarce, and Union troops kept moving closer with each passing week.  On July 4, one day after Lee's defeat at Gettysburg, the Vicksburg garrison and city surrendered to Grant.  A fine Independence Day gift to President Lincoln.

Five days later, hearing that Vicksburg had surrendered, Port Hudson's commander Gen. Gardner surrendered too.  From this date to the end of the war, the Union controlled the Mississippi for its entire course.  The Confederacy was split, isolating Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana from the other 8 rebel states. 

Lincoln's announcement of Union success was characteristically biblical in tone: "The father of waters once again flows unvexed to the sea."  (compare that eloquence to our politico crowd of today)
Grant would next move northeast to help the Union recover from the terrible loss at Chickamauga, and lead a Union victory at Chattanooga in the fall.  As 1863 ended, the war in the west was over, and Lincoln could concentrate his efforts on destroying the Army of Northern Virginia and Robert E. Lee.