The capture of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in half and was a major turning point of the Civil War

After the capture of Vicksburg happened in the Vicksburg Campaign, General Ulysses S. Grant tried to send a message to current President Abraham Lincoln. However, In the few days it took for Grant’s message announcing the capture of Vicksburg to reach Abraham Lincoln, the President had also received word about Port Hudson. The siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana, (May 22 – July 9, 1863) was the final engagement to recapture the Mississippi River in the American Civil War of the Union. After knowing that Port Hudson, the only other Confederate stronghold left on the Mississippi, had also fallen. “The Father of Waters once again goes unvexed to the sea,” he proclaimed.

With no length of the Mississippi River now safe from Union power, the Confederacy was unable to send supplies or communications across its breadth. Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas were cut off from the rest of the rebellious nation. This was doubly damaging, as the Texas-Mexico border was a favorite route of secessionist suppliers and the possibility of French intervention across the border was precluded by the nigh-impassable boundary of a Union-held Mississippi River. The fall of Vicksburg came just one day after the Confederate defeat at the Battle of Gettysburg, prompting many to point to early July 1863 as the turning point of the Civil War.