Federal fleets and land forces made their way along the Tennessee
border, and then the Arkansas border; but in the middle, between the
twenty-second and thirty-third parallels, the Confederates got a
strong grip on the Father of Waters, and would not relinquish their
hold. Jackson, the capital of the State, was in their power also, and
from Jackson eastward the great thoroughfare extended into Alabama,
and thence expanded in its connections into all the Confederacy. From
Jackson to Vicksburg reached the same line of communications, so that
here, at Vicksburg, the Confederate power, having its seat in Richmond
and its energy in the field, reached directly to the Mississippi
river, and laid upon that stream a band of iron which the Union must
break in order to pass.

Such was the situation at the beginning of 1863. General Grant, who
had been under a cloud since Shiloh, had gradually regained his
command, and to him fell the task of breaking the Confederate hold on
the great river. He has himself in his _Memoirs_ told the story of the
Vicksburg campaign. He managed, by herculean exertions, to get his
forces below Vicksburg, and then began his campaign from Grand Gulf
inland toward the line of communication between Jackson and Vicksburg.
It was some time before the Confederates took the alarm. When they did
become alarmed about Grant's movements, General J.E. Johnston, who
commanded at Jackson, and General J.C. Pemberton, who was in command
at Vicksburg; made the most unwearied efforts to keep open the line of
communications upon which the safety of Jackson and the success of
Pemberton depended.

But Grant pressed on in a northwesterly direction until he came upon
Pemberton in a position which he had chosen at Champion's Hill. Here,
without doubt, was fought one of the critical battles of the Union