AHC Vicksburg Campaign Fails

John Fredrick Parker

Donor
With preferably no PoDs prior to April of 1863,* how can Ulysses S Grant fail to take Vicksburg and divide the Mississippi in the summer or fall of that year? And how is the war thus affected?

*so early Confederate victories (or "victories") at Chickasaw Bayou, Yazoo Pass, Steele's Bayou, etc are unaffected
 

Alex Zetsu

How? The place ran out of food. It's easier to use a POD to change a battle (The South wins at Gettysburg... and loses the war since they are 100% doomed without British help) than a starvation (uhhh... stock more food? No that's an early POD. Eat the rats? What feeds the rats? Kill some slaves and resort to cannibalism? But eating primate meat causes liver problems for humans)
 

Alex Zetsu

Yeah, I don't see any way with less than a 35 days lead for a POD to stop his encirclement. Not even a salmonella outbreak in the northern camp that spares the defenders.
 
Arnold d.c

Arnold d.c

The only way that the Vicksburg Campaign fails by April is to just kill off Grant. Generals McPherson and Sherman were sceptical about the chances of success of crossing from the south of Vicksburg. Only McClernand agreed with Grant and would have been Grant’s successor if he went down (going by seniority). However, McClernand was detested by Grant’s staff, Sherman, McPherson and Admiral Porter. The generals are less likely to go with McClernand on what seemed to be a doomed task. Aside from that, I cannot see how Grant could fail the Vicksburg Campaign.
 

Raferty

If it was going to fail, it had to be before Champion Hill, and would be because Johnston and Pemberton are able to link up before the battle and bring about enough numerical advantage to win. If the Union Army loses at Champion Hill, they have nowhere to fall back to except a difficult trek back to the river (keep in mind that the road network was poor, and the roads led back towards Jackson for Grant, so he would have had to somehow get his beaten army over bad terrain south until he reaches the road he took towards Jackson to start with, probably losing many men during the retreat, not to mention Sherman being totally isolated and destroyed in detail as he had to arrive late to Champion Hill) , where they could either evacuate or take shelter somewhere under the guns of the river fleet.

Or perhaps, Porter's attempts to run the guns of Vicksburg could fail, and then Grant is not going to be able to do anything until Port Hudson falls.
 
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