MCCWRT Discussion Group Today: The Navy at Vicksburg, the Canal

Grant's campaign against Vicksburg, Mississippi, will be the topic today of the McHenry County (Illinois) Civil War Round Table's discussion group meeting at Panera Bread in Crystal Lake, Illinois, at 10 a.m..  I will write more about it in my Running the Blockade: Civil War Navy blog today.

But one aspect of the campaign involved some 3,000 troops and something they did with water in an attempt to bypass the Confederate batteries guarding the town.  That was the construction of a canal, which is now called Williams' Canal and Grant's Canal, as both Union generals were involved with its construction at different times.

This took place June 27 to July 24, 1962.

During the summer of 1862, Farragut's fleet bombarded Vicksburg's defenses with little success.  It was decided to build a canal to accomplish a bypass.  Three thousand Union troops under Brigadier General Thomas Williams were put to work on it.

They suffered hugely from disease and eventually called the effort off.

Then, in January 1863, Grant took another shot at building that canal, but that too failed.

--Old Secesh