MISSISSIPPI

MISSISSIPPI

On January 9, 1961, Mississippi became the second Southern state to secede from the Union, after South Carolina, and one of its sons, Jefferson Davis, would become President of the new Confederate States of America. Nearly 800,000 people populated Mississippi, with well over half, 436,000, being slaves. Mississippians formed over 50 infantry regiments and battalions for the Confederacy, as well as about 30 artillery batteries and battalion and over a dozen cavalry regiments. For the Union, 8 infantry regiments and one cavalry regiment were formed from former slaves in addition to 2 heavy artillery regiments.

October 3-4, 1862, saw the Battle of Corinth, but the largest and most important action in Mississippi was General U. S. Grant's Vicksburg Campaign, which included battles at Chickasaw Bayou, Grand Gulf, Port Gibson, Jackson, Big Black River Bridge, and the siege of Vicksburg itself. The capture of Vicksburg by the Union, in conjunction the capture of Port Hudson in Louisiana, gave complete control of the Mississippi River to Federal forces, cutting the Confederacy in half and isolating the Trans-Mississippi. Mississippi was readmitted to the Union in 1870.